Summer 2022 - The Danube Caper - Old Vienna

Old Vienna

In the 1850s, Emperor Franz Joseph noticed that Vienna had grown substantially, with many houses having gone up outside the city walls. He then ordered the medieval walls be torn down and a tree-lined avenue be built where the walls had been. Today, the world renowned Ringstrasse (ring road) sits where the walls used to be. When the construction of this very wide and well-treed boulevard was completed Franz Joseph and his family initiated the construction of many impressive parks and public buildings that were built adjacent to this world renowned boulevard. Gym and his dear companion, spent a day hiking around the Ringstrasse's 5.2 kilometres of wide, tree-lined extent. They also ventured into Old Vienna on several occasions during their stay.

Two of the most notable green spaces in the city are adjacent to the the Ringstrasse. Stadtpark is home to statues dedicated to composers, Johann Strauss junior and Franz Schubert. Both of the aforementioned gentlemen were native sons of Vienna. On the other side of the ring road, is Rathauspark. Emperor Franz Joseph wanted this park designed over top of a former military parade ground near the Hofburg. When Gym and Mrs. Gym were there, the annual Summer Film Festival was in full swing. After sunset from July 1 to the end of August, one can watch a film on the big outdoor screen erected in front of City hall.

Many stately buildings lie on the Ringstrasse. We have already spoken about the Holfburg complex and the Vienna Opera House but there is also the Rathaus, the Parliament Buildings and the Votivkirche. All three of these impressive buildings were in various states of renovation when our travellers were in town. 

If you wanted to go shopping in Vienna, where would you go? Gym recommends Kaertner Street. Right between the Bristol Hotel and the Vienna Opera House is where Kaertner emerges from the Ringstrasse. It is the best outdoor shopping mall in the whole of the capital. All the high end shops are represented on this street, punctuated by chi chi restaurants, fast food joints and wiener kiosks. If you want to be seen in Vienna, this is the place. Gym bought a t-shirt at one of the high end department stores midway down this pedestrian-only mall because his alert companion noticed it was a screaming hot deal. 

In the middle of Old Vienna, at the end of Kaertner Street, is the majestic St. Stephen's Cathedral. It has been adopted as the symbol of the city. From its tallest tower one can see all of Vienna. Tourist volume was very high the day Gym and his dear wife visited and as such, they did not scale the the stairs to the viewpoint. Notwithstanding, they did explore the front of church which is open to the public for free. You can access part of the Nave and one or two of the chapels in the public area which are partially lit by the glow of thousands of prayer candles. Gym and his dear sidekick bought a candle and dedicated it to Audrey, their first grandchild.

On two consecutive evenings our travellers bought tickets to live classical performances at two different palace ballrooms near the hotel. The first one was a performance by the Vienna Supreme Orchestra and its soloists at the Palais Eschenbach. The next night, they were entertained in Palais Schonborn-Batthyany by the Baroque and Classical ensemble. Both these concerts were excellent and really gave our duo an appreciation for the incredible arts scene in Vienna where Mozart, Strauss, Schubert and many others worked and lived.

Vienna Supreme Orchestra in the Palais Eschenbach

Not far from Kaertner Street is the Holy Trinity Column
dedicated to those lost during The Plague

The Parliament Building on Ringstrasse 

under renovation at time of visit

The Rathaus (city hall) with the Summer Festival screen
set up in front. Visible is scaffolding indicating renovations
ongoing at the time of the visit.

Votivkirche, a Neo Gothic church built by 
Franz Joseph's brother in thanks to God after
the Emperor survived an assassination attemp.t

Scaffolding is also visible here.

St. Stephen's Cathedral is just north on
Kaertner Street. It is massive.

Banks of candles help to light up the front of the Cathedral.

It is awe inspiring in St. Stephen's Cathedral.

Kaertner Street Wiener cart

Summer 2022: The Danube Caper - The Hapsburgs

Vienna has palaces everywhere but you have to see the imperial residences of the Hapsburgs. The Hofburg, known as the winter palace, is situated inside Old Vienna not far from the Bristol Hotel. The Schonbrunn Palace, known as the summer palace, is about 5 kilometres away in what used to be the countryside. The two palaces are connected by Mariahilfer Street, a great pedestrian mall, with a large assortment of shops, cafes and bars. Gym and his dear wife would explore both properties on this trip over about three days. Each site has a main palace and multiple associated green spaces, museums and attractions that one can visit. 

The Hapsburg dynasty reigned over Austria and at times, a good chunk of central and southern Europe. The length and breadth of the Hapsburg dynasty brought tremendous wealth to the family and Vienna benefitted from that wealth. The zenith of the dynasty probably occurred during the reign of Franz Josef I, who served as Emperor of Austria, King of Hungary and boss of much of Italy and Germany for various portions of his long reign. He was the longest serving ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, sitting on the throne from 1848 to 1916. He married his 16-year old first cousin (Hapsburgs did this a lot), a Bavarian Duchess named Elisabeth. Today much of what you see when you tour these two imperial properties is just as it was when Franz Joseph and Elisabeth lived there. 

The first part of the Hofburg Palace complex visited by our intrepid travellers, was the Spanish Riding School. Mrs. Gym wanted to see the famous Lipizzaners and so, Gym dutifully agreed to check that out first. The Vienna Pass allowed entrance to a training session of the younger stallions. Unfortunately, they wouldn't allow pictures or videos but it was fun to see the trainers working out with these younger horses. One could see how horse and rider worked together to develop the trademark skills required to join the more mature horses in the formal performances. Mrs. Gym did get some pics of the horses in their stables across the street from the arena.

A subsequent whole day was spent exploring several exhibits in the Hofburg Palace complex. Gym and his dear wife did not see everything but in one day they checked out the Palace, the Silver Collection, the Sisi Museum and the Butterfly House. It was another hot day and there is no air conditioning in any of these places, so it wasn't ideal conditions to visit but as Mrs. Gym always says, you've got to "suck it up", so, Gym did.

The Silver Collection was over the top. Gym could just imagine what is must have been like to be served several courses out of silver and gold plates, using gold utensils and staring down the table set with large, ornate candelabras and terrines. The exit from the Silver Collection leads you to the Entrance to the Palace Tour which includes the Sisi Museum. Sisi was Empress Elisabeth's nickname and you get a good feel for what she was like by viewing her private chambers. The Butterfly House is connected to the complex but it is on the other side of the building facing the Palace Garden. It is a huge greenhouse where the perfect environment for butterflies is maintained.  

Yet another very sticky day was spent visiting the Schonbrunn estate. Our undaunted duo set off up Mariahilfer Street on the day of their visit and did a little window shopping on the way. When they arrived at the park, they acquired a ticket for a set time to tour the palace, but it was a couple hours until their entry was allowed, so they decided to go to the Schonbrunn Zoo. The zoo is situated all the way across the estate in a wooded, hilly area that used to be part of the royal hunting reserve. It is a world class zoo and maybe somewhat better than Calgary's zoo because they still had a Giant Panda Exhibit. Gym never saw the Pandas when they were in Calgary, so this was a first for him. All the African animals were happy that hot day but Gym thought that he and the polar bear looked and felt the same way, a little disheveled.

Notwithstanding the heat, about half an hour before the palace ticket became effective, our travellers hiked back across the estate and through the beautiful palace gardens to main floor of the palace. Then they climbed the stairs to start the tour. As it was in the Hofburg Palace, the Schonbrunn was just as Franz Joseph and Elisabeth left it. The apartments of Emperor Joseph and his wife Sisi were similar to those in the winter palace, but the tour also allowed access into the many other interesting rooms decorated by Franz Joseph's predecessors and their wives. The most impressive room was the Great Gallery a 40x10 meter room where receptions and balls were held. It is famous as it was the venue John F. Kennedy and Nikita Khrushchev used for the Vienna Summit in 1961, after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion. Other opulent rooms included the Blue Chinese Salon, the Porcelain Room and the Rich Room. This tour is highly recommended by Gym.

Full days of touring like this were usually followed by dinner in Old Vienna. There were dozens of restaurants within a three-block radius of the Bristol and no, you didn't have to eat Weiner Schnitzel every night. Our travellers had fish and chips at Flanagan's Irish Pub, pasta at San Carlos, good steaks at Steak Point and south asian cuisine at Asiam. The hands down surprise of the trip though, was the tacos at a little hole-in-the-wall place called Chrugerno10. The owner and sole employee at the time of the visit, made the best taco and burrito that Gym and his dear companion had ever eaten.

Summer 2022: The Danube Caper. - Prince Eugene and Belvedere

Upper Belvedere Palace

On August 19, 2022, our hero and his lovely bride were comfortably quartered in Suite 569 of the Bristol Hotel. The bed was comfortable and it served as an ample platform to sleep off the wiener schnitzel they had consumed the previous evening. The room had a large sitting area furnished in the style of an upscale cigar lounge and although most of the furniture wasn't very functional, there were two very comfortable leather armchairs that Gym used to plan a number of forays into the various Viennese points of interest. The hotel deal included breakfast, so every morning Gym and Mrs. Gym would have a good breakfast and then go back to the room to put the finishing touches on the day's plan. 

Their first foray was to the Belvedere Palaces which were just 2 kilometres away. It was a pleasant hike from the Bristol and a chance to test out whether Vienna was pedestrian friendly. The route itself took them away from the old town and the Ringstrasse, to a very nice park in front of Karlskirche (St. Charles Church). The park itself is aptly named Karlsplatz and it has a large reflecting pool there that you can stand behind and see a mirror image of the church on a calm day. Hike around  the church and past the ornate French Embassy and and then you can cross the street to a massive fountain erected in 1945 to honour the Soviet soldiers that fell in the Vienna Offensive. From the fountain you are about 200 meters to the entrance to Lower Belvedere Palace.

Belvedere was built for Prince Eugene of Savoy. Eugene was an extremely successful military leader for the Austrian Empire. His win-loss ratio was on the scale of Lord Marlborough of Britain and U.S. Grant of the United States. He routed all the enemies of the empire including Louis XIV of France. Beating King Louis was very gratifying for Eugene because he originally wanted to join the French army but Louis told him to get lost. Eugene served Austria for three Emperors and won so many battles that the rewards started to make him very wealthy. And just like rich people do today, he built fancy palaces and collected artwork to decorate them. Belvedere was just one of his many estates. The property includes an Upper Palace and a Lower Palace both full of art exhibits. A massive rococo garden separates the upper and lower palaces. Gym and Mrs Gym did a thorough exploration of this estate over 2 full days.

You can walk around the gardens for free but need to pay to get into the palaces. Our undaunted adventurers checked out the gardens on the first day they went to Belvedere and by the second day they had purchased a Vienna Pass which gained them access to both of Eugene's cribs. 

In between the two trips to Belvedere, the Vienna Pass was good for a guided tour of the Vienna Opera House. Situated right across the street from the Bristol hotel the opera house was very handy to our travellers. The opera house was also a good landmark that was used when Gym needed to find his way home to the Bristol. 

After traipsing about all day our exhausted wanderers would seek refuge in the hotel bar. It's a comfortable hole-in-the-wall place, off the hotel lobby, called The American Bar. The walls are adorned with pictures of celebrities and you can listen to Frank Sinatra crooning in the background, between sips of Aperol Spritzes and very good gin martinis. 

Karlskirche

Monument to the fallen Red Army soldiers
that liberated Vienna from the Nazis

Standing with your back to Upper Belvedere, looking down
over the sprawling rococco gardens 

Water features decorate the centre-line
of the gardens laid out between the two palaces

As you come down the hill towards the lower palace,
the pathway is flanked by high hedges and numerous statues

Lower Belvedere

You are not supposed to take pictures of the interiors but Gym
snapped a quick one for his readers

A great shot from the balcony of the upper palace

One of the many paintings exhibited at Belvedere

The Vienna Opera House at night. Gym's hotel is 
on the far right.

Inside the Opera looking down at the main stage 
from the royal boxes

One of three areas where you would go for a drink and
some food at intermission

Looking back at the royal boxes from near the stage

Looking up at the dome

A nod to Mozart

A nod to the chef at the Bristol