Our Trip to Europe – Sept. 2004 – Vienna, Austria

Thursday, September 23
Travel via train to Vienna
Check into Pension Pertschy
Directions: From Westbahnhof, take the underground line U3 5 stops to Stephansplatz (direction Simmering) and exit Graben. Habsburgergasse is the fifth street on the left side.

Friday, September 24
Explore Vienna
Notes from the day: Schonbrunn Palace – massive estate “summer home” of Franz Joseph and Maria Theresia (Maria Antoinette’s Mom).

We opted for the Classic Pass at the Palace, which includes the Palace tour, the Gloriette (tall monument from where we took some pics), the maze, and the bakery. The hike up to the Gloriette was a tiring one (for me, not my hubby), but it was worth it! The view is amazing. The bakery was extremely hard to find, but the Apple Strudel presentation was amazing! And, it was in German and English! Even better.

Internet Connection at the hotel was built into a piano.

We ate at the Grechen Biesel, a tiny old restaurant. Pumpkin is in season, and the pumpkin soup was incredible.

Saturday, September 25
Check out of Pension Pertschy

The above excerpt is from the next portion of our Itinerary. (You can read about the previous legs of the trip to Munich, here and Salzburg, here, and about the overall trip, here.) As you can see, the directions the hotel gave us make no sense until you see them in context. When you do exactly what they say, the right signs appear in front of you, and it’s quite simple. I’m not sure we would have been able to find the hotel without them.

Vienna is a beautiful city. It is the farthest east we went on the trip. Originally, we had wanted to go to Prague as well, but we couldn’t figure out how to get it into the trip without having to rush. We opted to see Prague another time.

Vienna is also one of the most expensive cities on our list. Beauty comes with a price, I guess. Our hotel was actually in a renovated palace, and our room was about the same size as one of the apartments my hubby and I have shared in the past. It was amazing.

The lobby of the hotel housed a piano that had been converted into an Internet station!

We weren’t sure if we’d be able to have email access on our trip, and we did! Here is some email correspondence with family back home. As with email threads, you start at the bottom and read up:

————– Original message ————–
on 9/24/04 9:05 AM, [we] wrote:
Guten tag! It’s 16:19 here (that’s 4:19 p.m.). It is a bit chilly in Vienna today. We toured a HUGE palace grounds today and had lots of adventures.

Tomorrow it is on to Rothenburg, the walled city. We will probably not be able to check email again until we are stateside.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Fraü und Herr [and with our last name, it sounds very formal.]

————– Original message ————–
From: Us
Date: Thu, 23 Sep 2004 19:27:35 +0000
To: My Mom
Subject: Re: Willkomen der Munich!
Mom, can zou please forward this to [my sister], [my other sister], and [my brother]? I am using a German kezboard again, and the y’s and z’s are switched! And, the @ szmbol is verz hard to tzpe!! Zou have to stand on zour head and tzpe it with zour toes, practicallz.

People are waiting, so please excuse these tzpos!!

We are in Vienna, and it is just amaying. Munich and Salyburg are incredible. We just arrived in Vienna tonight, so tomorrow we will explore more.

Not sure if I’ll be able to email again from Europe.

Thanks for passing along the email!

[me] & [my hubby]

21:42 – Donnerstag, 23 SEPT 2004

Vienna, Austria

————– Original message ————–
on 9/19/04 2:47 PM, [we] wrote:
HI! We made it to Munich! We haven’t slept yet, and the keyboard is in GERMAN! : )

We need to get to bed…but wanted to let you know we made it!

Auf Wiedersehen!
[me] & [my hubby]
22:47 Munich

We explored some of the city the night we arrived, and the next day was devoted to more adventure. We traveled by bus out to Schonbrunn, and it was amazing. As you can see from the notes on our Itinerary above, it is a massive palace and estate. You could spend days at that one location alone.

[As you can see, the back of Schonbrunn was undergoing renovations. We took these pictures from the top of monument. It was quite a hike to the top, but the view was amazing! And, yes, we have a panoramic picture of this...]

One of the things I’ll never forget about Vienna is how there seems to be a palace and beautiful courtyard everywhere you look. When we first arrived, we were mesmerized. “Look! A palace! A courtyard and fountain! Look at the gorgeous flowers!” By the end of our stay in Vienna, we were saying, “Oh, look. Another palace and a courtyard and a fountain…oh, and flowers.” The scenery hadn’t changed, but being subjected to such continuous beauty was nearly overwhelming. I wonder if the people who live there realize just how magnificent their city really is?

Vienna was also the city where we ventured into the equivalent of a “drugstore.” (Not an “apothecary,” but more like a “Walgreen’s.”) We were in need of razors, fingernail clippers, and various sundry items that were not plane-worthy, so we asked the front desk clerk at the palace, I mean, our hotel, and she told us how to get to the nearby Bipa.

We’d never heard of Bipa, and it was quite an experience. I remember the sign and the lights outside the store being very neon pink. Inside, it reminded us of a Walgreen’s. Of course, everything was in German. We had fun looking at all the different items and trying to figure out their English equivalent. I had wanted to buy some cheap shaving cream, and that was a little harder to find than razors and nail clippers. I mean, you can see that the razors and nail clippers are what they are, regardless of what they’re called. Trying to make sure you’re buying shaving cream and not some weird potion was a little more challenging.

Overall, we loved Vienna. We would definitely like to return. We loved the mixture of the hustle and bustle of the modern world and old elegance of the palaces.

Next stop, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany!