Saturday, October 12, 2013

Oct 12 -- Exploring Vienna

The sun shone today. It was a total contrast to dreary and wet yesterday. And the other aspects of the day were a total contrast to the regimented and closely scheduled last 3 weeks. That part was fun, true, and easier, but boy did it feel good to sleep in on a comfortable bed (the last 3 weeks have been dominated by single beds or doubles with board-like mattresses), make our own breakfast including only things we really enjoy, and then just putter around, deciding what to do on the spur of the moment.

We made another grocery stop and headed off to figure out how to take a train to Munich on Tuesday. We also saved a lot compared to prices on the internet. Then we walked back to the center of the city in the glorious sunshine. We stumbled across another grocery store and explored it: located in a more prosperous district, it was larger and had things (like mustard and cheddar) we hadn't been able to find before.


We returned to St Stephen's Cathedral, to take photos. I was starving so we tried to find lunch. Walking around in Stephen's Square area was a disaster -- the weekend and good weather had brought out every tourist in the city -- big tour groups were everywhere -- so we headed back to the quieter area near the second grocery shop and found a cafe that made room for us. The food was good, the bad part was they didn't take credit and our Euro supply was very limited. We ended up giving them every Euro/cent we had and stiffed them some on the tip. OOPS! I was just glad we could cover the bill! We had talked about what we would do if they didn't take credit and we were short of Euros. I was going to find an ATM, which as you will see, would have been a bad plan!

Our next stop was an ATM for more Euros since the banks have been closed since 3pm Friday and don't reopen til Monday. I popped in my debit card, which I had used successfully at both grocery shops, and was rejected! Fortunately, Jim had alerted them to HIS travel plans, so his card still worked. Now I have to try to convince the bank from here that it is really me using the card in Europe.

On our way to find the Hofburg, where there are lots of museums and gardens, we located a shop with a sale that we had looked at the day before when I resisted buying a red leather purse -- since it was still there, I broke down and got it.
Interior Courtyard at the Hofburg
The Hofburg is the site of the Imperial Palace dating to the Holy Roman Empire and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. My goal was to find the Spanish Riding School, where Lipizzaner stallions are trained in a kind of equine dance. Tickets to a performance are ridiculously expensive ($64 each), but the cost of a guided tour of the school and stables is much more reasonable, so we signed up for a tour on Sunday. Next, we located the Schatzkammer, the Royal Treasury, which has recently reopened after several years of renovation. But it was too nice outside to spend much time inside, so that will be a Sunday or Monday event.  

Lethal weapons!
Long line of marching Tyrolean groups
Jim was interested in visiting the Volksgarden, a large park next to the imperial buildings, so we headed there and stumbled right onto the start of a parade celebrating 150 years of Tyrolean Federations in Vienna! There were marching bands and military groups, mostly with old style guns, but one group of women had spiky stuff that would have made me obey instantly if threatened with one!

Fountain in the park

Youngster enjoying the park










Older horse
After a walk around the park, we located the stables and I actually saw a couple of the horses in their stalls. I won't be able to photograph them on the tour, so I took advantage of my good luck. These horses are born dark brown and whiten as they age, so one is a youngster and the other is probably fully trained.

Horse in training
We decided to head home and found a coffee/pastry shop on the way that wasn't overrun with other tourists. I got a coffee ('large black coffee' here translates to double espresso which needs LOTS more water than it starts with) and a hot cocoa with whipped cream (I ordered THAT in German, remembering my language clues from college and the professor who warned if I didn't use the right term for whipped cream in Vienna, my hot chocolate would be dumped on me instead -- did a bit a research before we left to verify the proper term to keep Jim safe) and a sinful berry tart: a perfect end to a glorious day.

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