Vienna is a very beautiful city, especially the palaces and gardens of the old royal families that lived there. One of the first stops on our journey was to Belvedere Palace. It is a beautiful royal estate, built as a summer house for the Prince Eugene of Savoy (Hapsburg line). We walked around the outer grounds first. Here is what we saw...
Behind the Palace
The Entrance to Lower Belvedere (back side of the palace).
Lower Belvedere again.
A close-up of the back entrance to the palace.
This is the left side of the palace.
The view of the gardens which over look Vienna. In the distance to the left is Stephansdom, one of the major sites in Vienna. Of course this is something that we made sure to visit.
Another view of the front gardens. This time from inside the galleries of the palace.
Statues in the fountain in the front garden.
Hayley and I in front of Belvedere.
After walking around the outer grounds of the palace we went inside to see how the other half lives. Belvedere Palace is decorated on the inside with fantastic art works adorning the walls, as well as ornately constructed rooms, and painted frescoes on the ceilings. Photography was not allowed inside, but I was able to sneak a picture of Napoleon crossing the Alps...
Following Belvedere Palace, we began our tour around the rest of Vienna. We walked down through the gardens behind the palace into the downtown area of Vienna. Vienna is not a huge city, so it is walkable, but it will wear you out after a full day of sightseeing. Our goal was to head down towards the Stephansdom, but we passed two beautiful fountains, one of which was dedicated to WWII.
After snapping a few pictures of the fountains (the WWII memorial is on the left), we finally reached the Stephansdom. It is a beautiful building as you can tell, and that is enough to make it stand out, but its sheer height completely dominates the surrounding skyline. It is 137 meters tall (453ft for those of you back in the states) to the top of the steeple. The cathedral is incredibly ornate, and obviously is a major landmark in Vienna, and all of Austria. In fact, it is depicted on the Austrian 10 cent euro coin.
Unfortunately we did not get a chance to go inside the cathedral, but from what I've heard, there are some pretty spectacular altars inside. One of the other major locations that we visited in Vienna was the Naschmarkt, Vienna's most popular market. They sold every type of food item here, from raw fish and meets, to octopus (see right), ravioli and pastas, more sauces than you can imagine, falafel, dried fruits, and candy.It was a blast to walk through the market, and we decided to buy some ravioli for dinner. Unfortunately, it is incredibly difficult to commincate with native Austrians who speak little to no English, when we speak little to no German. Thankfully an English speaking couple kindly offered to translate for us, so were were able to successfully buy dinner. Here is what we were able to cook up...
And here are a few of the Falafel's we bought as well:
Our last visit of note was the Hundertwasserhaus. Hundertwasserhaus is a set of apartments designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, an artist and architect who attempted to avoid using straight lines in his designs because he believed that avoiding straight lines would create an environment more like the one that we all see in nature. He was also known for his colorful designes, and for those of you who are aware of the vast color array of my shorts collections, this was something that I appreciated greatly. Hundertwasser also designed other buildings in Austria, Germany, and a few other countries as well.
Here is a picture of the exterior design of one of Hundertwasser's designs:
And here is an example of his avoidance of using straight lines. Although this staircase appears to be constructed normally, but each stair is really uneven.
Overall, I had a great time in Vienna. It was a blast to visit another city other than just London, and to see how another culture lives. There were some major differences that I noticed in my time in Vienna. Obviously, it was self-evident that a different language was spoken there, but there are social customs that are completely different. For example, if you are eating dinner out, it is perfectly acceptable for street vendors to walk into the restaurant with flowers and attempt to stir up business, mid-dinner. Children are also thrust into positions, due to poverty to attempt to solicit money from dinner-goers, and will curse you if you ignore or refuse them money. Things like that just are not common place in the United States, and even London for that matter. Street names are also the most frustrating things in Vienna, especially trying to read them on maps. The names are so long, and have incredibly identical-seeming endings. This may not seem like such an issue, but with names that are so long, most street names are abbreviated, which creates a situation where getting lost is very probable. Despite these two culture differences, Vienna was a great time, and I loved every minute being there. There will be more posts to come albeit, they may be out of order.
