Vienna

When you fly into Vienna at night the landscape is prodominated by the electricity power stations lights just south of the airport - like a Christmas tree with too many fairy lights. A thick layer of snow covered everything and it was still snowing. From the airport you can catch the airport CAT train for 16Euro each or taxi straight to the Hilton for 35Euro(paid at the airport). How easy is that!

Day 1.
Bought a Vienna Pass for 16,90 Euros/adult, an accompanying child free with every ticket. The Vienna Pass entitled us to free metro, tram, bus for 3 days, plus concessions into sites.
After completing our reason for going to Vienna by 10:30 we walked, then trammed it to the Kavalier hotel. From there we walked to the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer residence the Habsburgs inhabited for 600 years. The imperialistic palace is surrounded by extensive manicured gardens, with maze garden, long tree lined paths/roads and zoo. But as you can see in the winter is covered with snow and bare, but still beautiful.


To walk around 40 rooms of the Schonbrunn cost us 25Euros which included an English audio guide that explained what each room was used for, talked a little about the decorations (most of the rooms were decorated in a rococco style from the time when Marie Therese was the matriarch). The majestic rooms gave you a feel for life as it was for Empress Maria Therese and her 16 children, and also Elizabeth(Sisi) and Emperor Franz Joseph I. Hanging on the walls were portraits of the royal family or fashionable art of the time, like decorative ebony panels from the east and collages created by the royal children. There were Rubenesque frescoes on the ceiling, crystal candeliers and extensive use of gilding. The crowning jewel of the original furniture on display was Maria Theresa's king size wedding bed, complete with canopy and curtains in an elaborate gold and silver embroided red velvet. Mozart played his first concert at the age of 6 in one of the rooms in front of Maria Theresa. Tour the bedrooms .



A short stroll from the palace was Tiergarten Schonbrunn(the zoo)- 10 euros all up, with its prized exhibit....a koala! For Austrians maybe but for us the first animals to catch our eyes were the playing Pandas, romping and tackling each other in the five inches of snow in their outside enclosures. It was extroadinary to see how a zoo copes with snow. Most of the animals had heated inside enclosures and access to the outside if they desired to brave the minus zero conditions.
Even the elephants.

Day 2.

St Stephans Cathedral.

As the Germans say "supa". Intricate stone statues adorn cathedral walls and pulpits. The stainglass windows at the front and behind the huge church organ at the back were beautiful. We ventured up the north tower, C13th gothic spire, to capture the city view over the roof tops.


From St Stephan's we walked throught the grounds of the Hofburg Imperial Palace to Kunsthistorische Museum (Museum of Art History) to marvel at its classical collection - Rubens, Breugal, Vemeer .... Eygptian.

Then across the gardens to the Naturhistorisches, with its collections of minerals, stuffed animals/birds, dinosaur bones and artifacts, including (I was very excited!) the Venus of Willendorf.

Day 3.

By now we were all pretty tired ...but... we soldiered on to the Belvedere.

The Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere holds a famous collection of Gustav Klimt, in particular, "The Kiss".
Just as beautiful was their Monets, Manets and Renoirs pieces. Exhausted we made our way back to the centre of town to wander the streets, have a coffee and window shop, making a quick detour to Mozarts home(near St Stephans Cathedral) which is scaffolded at the front for renovation until Dec 2005.