My last full day in Vienna was relaxing since it was a Sunday and like Paris most places were closed. I spent the day just wandering around the city, taking in everything I could and enjoying the fact that I was going home the next day. I really liked Vienna but the language barrier made me wish for Paris where at least I spoke the language. However it turned out to be a very pleasant day.
Yes this business was called 's landhaus. Still no idea who it belongs to or if it belongs to the neighbors.
Me! For the first half of the day the polish guy who was in my hostel and I wandered around again. So I had a photographer!
The national library is behind me which I did get to go into!
Entrance to the library
National Library! Well more like the tourist part of the library called the State Hall. It was commissioned by Emperor Charles VI in 1723 and was finished in 1726. It was 77.7 meters long, 14.2 meters wide and 19.6 meters tall or in US terms 255 ft long, 46 ft wide, and 64 ft tall aka gigantic. It houses over 200,000 books from 1501 to 1850.
They had some of the collection on display like this book which was made in the year 500 in Constantinople.
A piece of a road map from the 12th century.
ooooo a hidden staircase!! I love those!
They had all these globes around the room and each one showed something different. This one was the globe of astronomy made by Vincenzo Coronelli in 1693.
Terrestrial globe made by the same man as the first one. The two globes created a set.
Terrestrial globe however with a representations of humans, animals, plants and ships
Michigan is just under that pesky bar but I can see Florida!
Celesital globe
Someone left the door open to the back work space lol but I am glad they did!
Look at how the whole shelf comes out when you go into this back room. It would be so cool to have a house one day that had enough space no only for a library but also for one with a hidden door!
This was the door to the hall and the lock/handle were just so expertly crafted I couldn't not take a picture.
The old wall that used to surround Vienna from the Roman period until the 19th century. They weren't discovered until 1990/19901.
After time spent with the books, I finally got me some Viennese chocolate cake and I was not disappointed. Grandpa Reinke would've loved it!! It was so delicious and it had a hint of raspberry jam. I would go back to Vienna just for that cake!
mmmmm……cake……. :D
Now this I found hilarious!! The Eastview High School choir was going to be in Vienna from Minnesota!!
Some random shots just so that I could remember how charming the city was. It really did look just like what I thought it was going to, like an old eastern European city.
Inside the Vienna Opera house
Outside view of the opera house
One: this intersection is huge. 2: the telephone lines and cable lines just running across the intersection really did give it that old look to the city.
Another royal residence. This time it was for a Lord and not for the King/Emperor.
As you can see from the map, this place has a lot of space.
These little statues were in the middle of the lower and upper house (because why on earth would you have only one house that was connected, lets have two with a garden in the middle). So I took pictures of them, each statue represented a month and they were pretty accurate. Above: May
June
July
Upper house
You can't exactly see it very well but in the middle of the picture down at the bottom is the lower house.
On the other side of the upper house was a reflecting pool.
November
October
September
On the walk back from seeing the other royal residence was a protest going on in the street about how the people of Vienna needed to save Romanian dogs. Apparently the Romanians are killing the stray dogs because no one wants them and they are a nuisance. Well the protesters were angry, even shouted in English every once and a while.
As exciting as a protest in one country about another countries actions is, right under my feet, while I was being a normal person and walking on the side walk, were these stars. They were in front of the Vienna Philharmonic house created in 1842.
Yes, save Romanian dogs.
I like the end sign though, it says "Shame on you Romania" like the whole of Romania was there to see this protestation in Austria. It really doesn't matter where you are in the world, every country has to try to 'help' another country. But having a protest that isn't even in the country just seems to be a little bit of a stretch. Like lets have a protest in Auburn Hills because there are Argentinians who are not recycling. I know I'm going on about this but it just seems a little mind boggling for me still and its been a month since I've been there.
Front view of the Opera House
Later that night I went out for food and I found this really cool pizza place. However while trying to find it, I saw this on the ground. Its a monument to the Jewish families that were taken from there homes and sent to Nazi concentration camps. I had heard in documentaries and news articles about families going back to the cities where they were from and setting up mini memorials to their loved ones killed in WW2 but I had never seen any in Paris. It was a shock but very humbling and a nice gesture. These countries forgave the Germans but they never forget and maybe with that history will never repeat just a tragedy.
My pizza!! oh was it good! A very thin crust but the mushrooms were fresh and so was the basil so it made for a very good non traditional Austrian meal.
The next morning, which was a Monday, I caught the 730am flight back to Paris to try to make it to my class by 10am. I was very optimistic about the whole thing when I bought my tickets, after this story you will see why I am not going to do it again. The airport I was flying out of was about 30 minutes by train away from the inner city where I was at. So I figured I'd catch the 530 train, get there at 6 and be on my way home. Well… where do I start… the train. The train that goes directly to the airport started at 645am so that was not an option. I found out there was a local metro that went out to the airport and that ran all night so the night before I was like I have plenty of time. When I got up and ready to go I was early, thankfully, so I took my time getting to the metro stop which was only a 10 minute walk from my hostel. Thank goodness I was up early because when I got to the metro the time table said it wasn't going to arrive for 45 minutes. Well it was already 545 and if it came at 630 I wouldn't get to the airport until 700 and that was cutting it close for me. So I figured I would catch a cab. HA! Everything was dead. Worse than dead, I could hear crickets it was so quite. A major European city and I could hear crickets. Since I couldn't wait and there were no cabs in sight I was like well I have no choice I have to walk. Thankfully there were street lights on and through all my wandering I knew where the metro stop was that would take me directly to the airport in 30 minutes. Although the city was quite and peaceful, I didn't really get to enjoy it since I was literally running and then walking and then running to get to the metro. I had to get there by 630 and the metro stops aren't close like in Paris. They are a good distance away from each other so I was thankful no one was up to see me try to run/fast walk with my bag like a crazy person. I made it with 5 minutes to spare and got to the airport with time that was then subsequently wasted because like all things in France nothing in Austria is explained, it must be a European thing. I bought my ticket through AirFrance so I figured I had to go to the AirFrance counter to get my ticket like we do in the states. You have to use that companies gate and kiosks not just anyones. The kiosk was in terminal 3 and I was dropped off in terminal 1 and of course 3 was on the opposite end of from where I was at. So I had to run like a crazy person again. When I got to the AirFrance kiosk I tried to look up my name to print my ticket but it kept saying I wasn't in the system so I was like great now I have to wait to talk to someone and the line was not too long but it wasn't moving. By the time I got up to the counter it was 715 and I was freaking out. So the lady tells me that I had to use the Austrian airline kiosks since it was an inter European flight which was back in terminal 1. Once again I was running. Thankfully there was no line for the kiosks and no line for security and I got on the plane in time. But those two hours of my life were ridiculous! I was just glad when I was on the plane ready to go back to Paris where things maybe crazy but I'm used to it now and I know how to figure things out. Overall though I really enjoyed my first European trip alone. It was lonely sometimes but I had a very very good time!
No comments:
Post a Comment