Bernie in Vienna 2006

Travel Diary Vienna ’06 – 4th entry – 12th August 2006

Today I stayed in bed a bit longer, until eight perhaps, and after having breakfast I checked out at the hostel. Although the weather forecast had predicted rain in the morning the weather was still quite lovely and since my brother was busy with looking for furniture for the new flat and didn’t have any time to meet me anyway I decided to take the tube and bus to the nearby Kahlenberg, a hill of some 500 metres to the north-west of Vienna about which I’d read that it offers a good view down on the city. The bus ride was some 30 minutes and as I arrived on top at about ten it still wasn’t raining. The visibility wasn’t optimal but it was enough to see how big the city actually is. I was also able to spot some familiar landmarks – those that weren’t hidden by the distant haze – and after some landscape-viewing I went to have a drink and write some postcards at the terrace restaurant but as the weather was taking a turn to the worse I found that it was time to return to Vienna West train station and take the train home. I absolutely want to go to Vienna a few more times this summer, it’s such a great city and I really like it! I could even imagine living there.

Tube of Vienna

You can even spot Hackney carriages sometimes

Winding road up to the Kahlenberg - reminded me of Nikko in Japan somehow...

View down on Vienna

Church on the Kahlenberg

Taking the train home

Travel Diary Vienna ’06 – 3rd entry – 11th August 2006

Today getting up was a bit easier, probably because I’m getting used to the wine. At around half eight, I hit the streets and walked along the – now quite empty – Mariahilferstrasse to the Museum of Art History. Due to the fact that under the reign of the Habsburg monarchs Vienna had been the factual ‘capital of the world’ for quite some time, the art collection is huge and can easily compete with other leading museums in France, Italy and Spain. And so it isn’t very surprising that I spent five hours in there and still found that the time didn’t reach by far. From relics of the ancient Egyptian civilisation over Greek and Roman sculptures to Renaissance paintings – they’ve got it all. In my opinion it’s a highly interesting place for anyone with an interest in art, from amateur to art historian. However, I knew that I had to get out because there were still other places I wanted to see and so I went to the Austrian House of Parliament at four and got a guided tour. One of the main things you hear in that tour is a brief explanation of how Austrian democracy works and although as an Austrian citizen I know the basics well enough I still found it interesting. The tour took about an hour and after some more walking around at half six I met up with my brother, his girlfriend and her parents who are really lovely people. We took their car and drove out to Perchtoldsdorf, a village on the outskirts of Vienna, and there my brother’s girlfriend’s older sister and her boyfriend joined us too, so in the end we were seven people, a quite lively round. At the moment there’s a wine fair going on in the courtyard of Perchtoldsdorf Castle and there we went, trying different wine sorts, chatting and having a good time. Time went by quickly and before long it was eleven, time to drive back into Vienna and as we arrived at my hostel I said goodbye to my ‘second family in Austria’. Maybe I can meet them again this summer though.

Museum of Art History

From ancient sculptures...

...over an opulent interior...

...to Renaissance paintings - it all can be found here.

This is where Austrian laws are made

Me in front of the House of Parliament

Wine fair in the courtyard of Castle Perchtoldsdorf

Travel Diary Vienna ’06 – 2nd entry – 10th August 2006

My head a bit heavy from the wine I’d had the evening before I rose at seven this morning, had breakfast and headed out for the city again. My parents had come to Vienna this morning as well and so they phoned me to agree on a place to meet. Since my brother and his girlfriend had just gotten the key to their new flat in Vienna and my parents and I were curious, of course, we went to have a look at it. I really liked the flat. It’s just the right size for a young couple, it’s part of a newly built and very neat housing complex, the area’s pretty quiet and it isn’t far away from the next tube station. If I were to look for a flat in Vienna I’d want just the same thing. After my parents and I had walked around in the vicinity for a while we left the young couple with their new home, returned to our car and drove out to Burgenland, Austria’s youngest county. First we went to its capital, Eisenstadt, which is a really small city that’s best known for its castle and the fact that the composer Joseph Haydn was born there. We sauntered round the castle, I bought a bottle of wine there – since Burgenland produces some of the best wines in Austria – and then we went for a walk through the city centre where we also came past Haydn’s birthplace. Too bad that we didn’t have more time to stay. Well, we returned to our car then, left Eisenstadt and went on to Lake Neusiedlersee in the early afternoon. My family and I had been at Lake Neusiedlersee on holiday before, only then I was a small kid of two or so years and so I can’t remember anything of that time of course, and that’s why it felt as if I’d be going there for the first time. As we drove along the street I was totally surprised at how very different the landscape in Burgenland looks: while in much of the rest of Austria cornfields and steep hills dominate the landscape, in Burgenland the slopes are much gentler and the fields are full of vines instead of corn. I lived it at the first glance. Before long we reached Illmitz, the small lakeside village where we’d stayed some 20 years ago and as we got to the lakeside my dad and I changed into our swimming shorts and went into the refreshing water. It was absolutely great! By the way, Lake Neusiedlersee is one of the few lakes that are also suitable for non-swimmers because it’s so shallow that you can even cross it walking if you follow certain routes. We then strolled along the marina for some time and as it started growing dark we went back to the village to find ourselves a nice little tavern which didn’t take us too long. I had some white wine and a huge platter full with sausages and cheese and delicious dark bread. That taste! Yummy!! With full stomachs we went out again an hour or so later, got to our car and returned to Vienna where my parents dropped me off and continued their journey back home; I walked to my hostel and went to bed.

View from my brother's new flat

Church that contains the Haydn mausoleum - quite an interesting roof

The Haydn mausoleum

Esterhazy Castle in Eisenstadt

Me in the castle gardens

Vines on the Burgenlandian plains

Storks on the roofs

The lovely Lake Neusiedlersee

Horse-drawn carriages on the streets

Yummy sausages on the plate

Even windmills can be found there...

Travel Diary Vienna ’06 – 1st entry – 9th August 2006

As I hadn’t been to Vienna, the capital of Austria, for more than a year I decided that this weekend would be a good time to go and so my brother and I hopped on a train this morning at 11 and some two hours later we arrived at our destination, Vienna West. I had been to Vienna a few times before and already knew a good hostel to stay and so we walked straight there. Although it’s a really nice place they always seem to have vacant beds and this time it wasn’t any different, so staying in Vienna for a few days wouldn’t be a problem at all and after I’d paid for my bed we walked on. When you move from Vienna West train station towards the touristic city centre you walk along the Mariahilfer Strasse, a shopping street that’s actually the longest of its kind in central Europe and I find its length impressive every time I walk along it. Even London’s Oxford Street looks small in comparison. So, we walked the whole length to its end where we reached the Museumsquartier, an old, historical building in the courtyard of which there are two modern cubes that had been built a few years ago and which house museums of modern art. We didn’t have time to go into these museums but even the courtyard itself is a sight worth visiting: it’s a quite wide space with artistically designed benches on which people relax, there’s a fountain and a number of cafes so it’s just the right place to chill out on a summer afternoon. After taking in this sight we walked on to the nearby Hofburg, the old castle of Vienna that houses amongst others the office rooms of the President of Austria. There we wanted to get a guided tour through the representative rooms but unfortunately it was already too late in the evening and so we walked on to the nearby tourist information to get some pamphlets with the most important sights and their opening hours. Now that we’d settled this we returned to the Hofburg to sit down on the lawn and relax a bit and to study the pamphlets we’d taken from the tourist info. It always feels kind of strange, almost unreal, how many historical places there are in Vienna: on the lawn we were sitting on, ten thousands of people were standing cheering on Adolph Hitler when he proclaimed the annexation of Austria to the German Reich in front of the Hofburg on Heldenplatz Square some 70 years ago. Somehow eerie when you think about it… After we’d had a look at the pamphlets we continued our walk through the city centre and soon my brother’s girlfriend met up with us and we took a tube train out to the Grinzing area which is famous for its numerous wine taverns. We chose one of them and at around nine in the evening we were sitting in a lovely little wine garden, enjoying the ‘G’spritzter’ (that’s wine mixed with carbonated mineral water to equal parts) and delicacies of the Viennese cuisine. After some time an accordion man started to play old melodies and chatting about all kinds of things we had a great evening until I returned to the hostel and went to bed.