Andrew Patton - Trip to Austria

After visiting two new member states of the European Union (See Trip to the Czech Republic and Trip to Slovakia) in May 2004, I continued my trip to Vienna, Austria. I had visited Vienna on two other occasions and it was one of my favorite places to be in. This trip would be different as I now was in Vienna as an adult rather than as a 13 year old. I arrived in Vienna on a Sunday after a 1 hour train ride from Bratislava. I dropped my bags off at the Pension Shermin, a nice hotel near Karlsplatz and headed off to Stephansdom. As I got near the Ring Road, I notice the lack of traffic of any type. This surprised me but I quickly found out that the Ring Road was closed for the Vienna City Marathon which was being held that day.

Eventually I crossed the race course and made my way to Stephansdom (St. Steven's Cathedral) when I realized that I could not see the Cathedral as it was Sunday and they were holding a service there at the time. I then went to Figarohaus, the building that Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart lived in when he wrote The Marriage of Figaro. It is an interesting building - the apartment where Mozart lived is a Museum and the rest of the building is just another apartment building in Vienna with other tenets. After seeing Figarohaus I headed off to get dinner and as I was in Austria I got a Wiener schnitzel. It was very good and put me in the right frame of mind to see The Third Man which was playing near by. After the movie, I went to the Hotel Sacher and had a slice of their most excellent Sacher-Torte.

The next morning was dedicated to seeing Imperial Vienna, the Vienna of the Hapsburg. The Hapsburg ruled parts of Austria, then all of Austria, and later the Austro-Hungarian Empire from 1278 to 1918 with the breakup of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the aftermath of World War I. My first stop was at the Hofburg to see the Imperial Apartments. I arrived to find that I could get a combo-ticket and see the Imperial Apartment, the Silver Collection, and the Sisi Museum (Sisi is the short name of the Empresses Elisabeth). All the sites were interesting and worth visiting. After the visiting the Hofburg, I took the U-Bahn to the Stadtpark exit where I began a walking tour of Vienna based on The Third Man. (See my The Third Man page).

I decided to see the Karlskirche (St. Charles Church) which was near my hotel. This is a beautiful church that has an Asian motif with spires that look like minarets and gate houses that look Chinese. The church was under renovations which allowed me to take a temporary elevator to the some where painters where restoring the murals. This was quite amazing as I could look at the paining 5 feet away rather than the 100 feet away at ground level. Next door to the church is the Vienna City History Museum which provides a view of the rich history of the city. I then went and saw Stephansdom, which was the first time I saw this landmark in the three visits I have made to Vienna. For whatever reason, I had just never visited it until this trip. In the afternoon, I went to the Prater, and amusement park, to ride the Giant Ferris Wheel.

I decide that on my last day in Vienna, that I was not going to visit another church or museum and wanted to do something different. I remembered that as a kid we took a boat down the Danube which I enjoyed and wanted to do that again. So 20 years after my first visit, I took a train to Krems at the top of the Wachau Valley where caught a boat for the 3 hour trip down the Danube to Melks. The Wachau Valley is a beautiful area and the boat trip was relaxing the thing I most wanted. I took a train back to Vienna and had a nice dinner in a restaurant near my hotel. The next day took a train to the airport and flew home.