Vienna

We had a last breakfast in Budapest, French cheese and croissants with a cappuccino.  I know it's not France but I can't say no to the French breakfasts I guess.  We got back to the hotel at 9:58 for our 10 am check out time.  I kept saying, no one notices if you are a few minutes late.  Well, as we stepped out of the door at 10:08, the cleaning crew were standing there looking quite impatient.  I guess sometimes they do notice.

We had a train for noon to Vienna.  We took a Bolt to the station.  The driver vaguely waved at a tunnel and said, go in there to find the trains.  Ok.  That tunnel was hella sketchy!  It as definitely a 'buy drugs' tunnel if not an actual 'get murdered' tunnel.  We made it half way through the tunnel and half way up a deserted staircase before I said, this doesn't seem right.  

Murder Tunnel

We backtracked to the safety of the square with the bus terminal up top.  Again, mom planted herself on a bench with her book while I did some recon.  There is a SECOND, way less 'danger danger' tunnel just to the left of the first tunnel.  This other tunnel had lights and people and escalators/elevators, arrival boards etc. You know, a train station.  No Mad Max Underground vibes in this tunnel.

Stay Alive and take a train tunnel

We found our platform, and then our car and then our seats.  We were not together but close enough to talk if needed.  I love a train.  I love the view and watching a foreign country roll by.  But Vienna countryside looks a lot like lower mainland country side.  Except through a dirtier  window.  Free cappuccino though! 

We arrived without incident.  Except when we got off the train, my new SIM card was not working.  I managed to scrape together enough wifi to order a Bolt but it was not easy. I didn't know where to wait and as soon as I left the building the wifi cut out.  Eventually, we managed to get our car and to the hotel.  The SIM kicked in later that evening.  

We have a one bedroom apartment.  It is so big that I  only just discovered a second bathroom the next day!

While nothing went wrong, I was just so tired by the time we got to Vienna.  I am still not on local time.  I keep waking up around 3 am.  When we got to the hotel, we ate our train snacks that we didn't eat on the train since we weren't sitting together.  I did not sleep well the night before so I lay down for a nap around 6.  I woke up around 2 am. Well, that's not going to help with the jet lag.  I am not following any of my 'how to overcome jet lag' rules.  I am also realizing I don't know if it is jet lag or jet leg. I'll just mix both in and annoy someone/everyone at least half of the time.  

The next morning, after I had read, Wordled, and snoozed until a decent hour to get up, we headed out early to breakfast.  Yogurt, fruit and a croissant, mom had a sandwich of some sort.  Then we wandered.  We had a free walking tour for 11 am.  We walked through some garden that was attached to some important building.  A cluster of Lipizzaner horses with riders were just standing around, as they do, I suppose, in Vienna anyway.  We were slowly making out way to the meeting place, by the Abertina Gallery and the tourist office. 

Important Building?  Every building here looks important

Mozart

Goethe

We have had perfect weather so far, Budapest was cool in the mornings and sunny in the afternoons, never getting above the low 20s.  But today, as we were wandering it started to sprinkle.  We had lots of time so we went back to the hotel to get our rain jacket (me) and umbrella (mom).  Good thing we did.  By the time we got back to the meeting spot, it was a bit of a downpour!

The tour was for the old city centre.  I'm not going to even try to remember all of the important buildings and statues but here are some pictures. 

Archaeological dig in the middle of the city.   Down to Roman times.  The first vineyard in the country *2000 years old

This tower is from medieval times during the plague

The lowest section is the riff raff,  you know, dying of the plague

The next section is the king, with an impressive Habsburg jaw,  asking the gods to spare the riff raff (or maybe just the Hapsburgs)

And the top two tiers are the heavens, lousy with cherubs, and the gods in gold on top.

There was a lot of Habsburg palace. It was everywhere.  Honestly, I stopped taking pictures of all of the wings and baroque/renaissance era additions.  It was impressive, just not very photogenic in its massive and sprawling nature.

St. Stephen's with a George Clooney coffee pod ad on the side.

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Hmm, it's the next day and I have to remember yesterday!  

Vienna is beautiful and FULL of gorgeous, grand buildings.  There are so many of them, one gets a bit blase about them.  We learned on our walking tour that the city centre used to have a wall.  The Empress Maria Theresa (don't fact check this...) decided the wall was no longer of any use so it was taken down and a 'ring road' was built around the city.  This happened around mid-late 19th century. So there was tons of new space and I'm guessing tons of money.  So, the buildings on Ring Road are all from the same era and are GRAND!  Plus the Habsburgs, the royal family, had more palace to build.  Every building is big and ornate and impossible to get a good photo of.  I have no idea what any of them are except for the Opera house.  

Anyway, back to wherever I was... let me check the photos. 

Church built by sailors bring salt from Salzberg.  At the end of Salz St.

And that was the end of the walking tour.  Mom and I took our guide's recommendation for a coffee house for a late lunch.  Not photo worthy.  

Back to the hotel for a short rest before we headed off to the Opera.  Not in the Vienna Opera House unfortunately.  We were at the Volksoper, the People's Opera House.  Great Opera but fairly basic venue. 

I have seen Carmen twice in my life but with the German dialog, I really had no idea what was going on.  Plus, they made some interesting artistic choices with the stage settings.  As they Opera progressed, it became smaller and smaller.  And the chorus transformed into 'audience members' sitting in an elaborate set of box seats which took up more and more of the stage.  The lead, Carmen became more and more aware of her 'role' in a play and started interacting with the fake audience as well as the occasional knowing look at the real audience.  And, she was wearing a black jump suit while everyone else was in period costume.  All very bizarre, but interesting visually.  Carmen's voice was superb however so that was the real point, of course. 

No pictures of the event but here is the stage pre-show.  And the real box seats which they recreated on stage in Acts 3 & 4.  

Bolt ride home and to bed by 11.  Since I stayed up so late, I actually slept until after 5 am today.  Is the jet leg tide turning?  Let's hope so.  Although it is 7 pm right now and I could totally go to bed. 

On that note, I will end this post because today was jam packed!  

A selection of used beer steins in a shop window.