Romantic Danube: Vienna, Austria

Romantic Danube: Overview
Romantic Danube: Flying United from Chicago to Brussels
Romantic Danube: Brussels and continuing to Prague
Romantic Danube: Marriott Courtyard Prague
Romantic Danube: Exploring Prague
Romantic Danube: Boscolo, Autograph Collection
Romantic Danube: Prague to Erlangen
Romantic Danube: Viking Longships
Romantic Danube: Nuremberg, Germany
Romantic Danube: Weltenberg Abbey and the Danube Narrows
Romantic Danube: Regensburg, Germany
Romantic Danube: Passau, Germany
Romantic Danube: Wachau Valley and Göttweig Abbey
Romantic Danube: Vienna, Austria

This was my fifth cruise of one sort or another and on each one there has been one stop where I wish we could have spent more time.  For this cruise that place was our next-to-last stop, Vienna.

Our trip included a city tour in the morning with optional tours in the afternoon and evening.  In the afternoon the tours included visiting the Schönbrunn Palace, the Fine Arts Museum or accompanying the chef, Marcus, to the Farmer’s Market.

Encircling Vienna is the Ringstraße (the ß is an abbreviation for a double-s in a word, unless it's at the end of the word), a wide boulevard that encompasses much of the older parts of the city.  We boarded motorcoaches that drove us along much of this avenue and soon fell in love with Viennese architecture.  Our route took us past the Opera House, the Parliament building as well as the Hotel Imperial, where foreign dignitaries typically stay when they visit.  Our own US presidents typically occupy the presidential suite though when George W. Bush came to town, the Rolling Stones were settled in the suite and would not leave, so he had to stay elsewhere!

The Parliament Building

A lovely old church

Gorgeous architecture everywhere

We disembarked at Maria-Theresien-Plaz, a plaza named in honor of Maria Theresa, the last of the Austrian Hapsburg line.  Until this point in time I'd never heard of Maria Theresa but this day would be a crash course in learning about her, much as we'd learned a great deal about Charles VI in Prague.

Here at her namesake plaza was a statue of Maria Theresa.  She reigned for 40 years and was ruler of 10 regions through her own family and was Holy Roman Empress by marriage.  Nearly 250 years after she died, her influence is still widely felt here in Vienna.

Maria-Theresa

On either side of the plaza are look-alike buildings.  On one side the Art History Museum has statues of European artists while the statues around the Natural History Museum are of people from Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas.

Art Museum

Natural History Museum

Across the street from the plaza was this free-standing gate.  It is located where the outer walls of the Hofburg Palace once stood.  Known as the Äußeres Burgtor, it commemorates the defeat of Napoleon by Austrians during Battle of Leipsig in 1813.

Äußeres Burgtor

After walking through its arches we arrived in Heidenplatz, or Heroes' Square, which is just in front of the Neue Burg (New Wing) of the Hofburg Palace.  In 1938, in this very plaza, Hitler announced that Austria had been annexed to Nazi Germany.

Neue Burg

In front of the palace is a statue of a foreigner, Price Eugene of Savoy (France).  He was one of the most successful military commanders in modern European history.  King Louis XIV rejected him for military service due to his poor physique and a scandal involving his mother, so he offered his services to the Hapsburgs.  For six decades he served in the Viennese military, under three different Holy Roman Emperors. His heart is interred with his family in Turin, Italy but the rest of his remains are here in Vienna in St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Prince Eugene of Savoy

Massive doesn't begin to describe the Hofburg Palace.  It's the official residence and workplace of the President of Austria but none of the sections we passed through had evidence of security like you'd expect to see near a head of state so we probably didn't come anywhere close to the active administration wings.  In 1279 this palace became the official seat of government as it was the royal winter residence while Schönbrunn Palace was the summer residence.

There are at least seven wings, the imperial mews, the court theater and the imperial chapel.

Just one wing of the Hofburg Palace

We stopped outside this interesting-looking archway while our guide was telling us about the palace.  (Just what she was saying, I have no idea at this point.) We had to wait for this other tour group to come through.

The writing lists the regions where Ferdinand was ruler,
including Germany, Hungary, Bohemia and Hispania. It's
dated 1552.

Just through that archway was this innocuous set of stairs.  As it turns out, they lead to the chapel.  A chapel...in Vienna...where choirs sing...specifically the Vienna Boys Choir.  Of course on a Thursday morning there was nothing going on so we didn't take a look inside but I suspect it would be amazing to come here on a Sunday to hear them.

The Burgkappelle (Palace Church)

We wandered through some more archways and then I realized I had totally forgotten that Vienna was the home to the Spanish Riding School, home of the Lipizzaner Stallions.  I think the last (only) time I ever saw them was as a child at the Municipal Auditorium in Nashville.  The horses and their people were heading into the arena to practice so our group had to make room to let the cross the walkway.  They are just so gorgeous!

Beautiful horses

After leaving the palace we strolled through the Kohlmarkt, one of the world's most expensive shopping districts.  We saw lots of familiar names like Tiffany & Co., Salvatore Ferragamo and Gucci.  But stores and shopping (and expensive clothes) are not really my thing.

On the other hand I found this memorial quite interesting.  It's called Pestsäule (The Plague Column) and was built to honor the victims of the 1679 plague.  It's so intricate and I'm always just amazed at how sculptors were able to include such detail using the crude tools of the day.

The Plague Column

St. Stephan's Cathedral

Our tour officially ended in Stephansplatz, home of St. Stephan's Cathedral.  A church has been on this site for so long (since 1137) that the current building has both Romanesque and Gothic features.  The South Tower is 446 feet high and in Gothic style.  The North Tower was to be its equivalent but its design was too ambitious and it was eventually capped at about half the height of the South Tower in 1578.

I thought the roof was very eye-catching with the design of the tiles.  There are over 230,000 of them and the other side of the roof (which I didn't notice in person) actually has a mosaic of the double-headed eagle that was the symbol of the Hapsburg empire.

At least 72 members of the Hapsburg Dynasty are buried inside as well as Price Eugene of Savoy and Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor.  The funerals of several former presidents of Austria were held here as well as the funeral of Antonio Vivaldi and both the wedding and funeral of Mozart.

Interior of St. Stephan's
(shot through clear glass so it's a little fuzzy)

The churches we visit in Europe are typically hundreds of years old and obviously were not built with an HVAC system.  As I've not yet visited any of these churches in the winter it never occurred to me to wonder how they were kept warm these days.  In St. Stephan's case the building was heated by positioning braziers around the sanctuary to help keep parishioners warm - a practice that lasted into the 21st century at which point the building did receive central heat.  But even now it can only warm the sanctuary up to about 50F degrees.  Brrr!

Our morning tour complete, we had about an hour of free time to wander around the area.  Since neither C nor I drink coffee we bypassed the coffee houses and instead settled for some hot chocolate and a few bite-sized pieces of chocolate.  American chocolate is decent but European chocolate sure does have it beat!

We also ran across these t-shirts in a souvenir shop.  Do people really get these countries confused?!

Schönbrunn Palace

Some folks spent the afternoon on their own while others of us had booked the optional tour to Schönbrunn Palace.  Received as a wedding gift from her father, this was the summer home of Maria-Theresa and her family.  I don't know how large it was when she received it but over time she continually added wings and it now it has 1441 rooms. (No, that's not a typo.)  In 1996 it was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  While I'm sure they want to avoid the damage that can be done by flash photography, I suspect the real reason no photos are allowed inside is that it would double the length of the tour while waiting for everyone to capture everything they wanted on film, er, pixels, er, whatever.

Front of Schönbrunn Palace

A model of the palace from the front gates to the palace itself

While there's a fee to enter the castle itself, the grounds are a public park and in the back there are gardens and we saw quite a few people jogging along the pathways.  Behind the castle is a large fountain featuring Neptune and on a small hill behind that is the Gloriette, a building Maria-Theresa had built to glorify Hapsburg power.

The Neptune Fountain with the Gloriette up on the hill

The back of Schönbrunn Palace

Concert

We couldn't pass up the opportunity to hear the music of Mozart and Strauss played in the city where some of it was actually composed.  I was a little disappointed when I realized our concert was not to be in one of the famous local venues but I hadn't realized that this concert was set up by Viking.  The only guests were people from our longship and one other that had signed up for this optional excursion.  The private ballroom was a lovely setting and the master of ceremonies for the evening was the baritone, whose name was Seth.  He was from either the US or Canada and the other three singers (soprano, alto, tenor) were all from Russia.  At intermission they came and mingled with us. The alto's husband was Viennese and her English was quite good.  There were also a pair of ballet dancers from Russia and a number of excellent classical musicians.  Naturally the show ended with the Blue Danube Waltz and the audience was encourage to get out of their seats and dance, while the singers came down and danced too.

It was a lovely evening and I would highly recommend doing something like this if you ever find yourself in Vienna.  It seems like a bit of a magical place.