We traveled to Vienna, Austria by train after leaving Prague, which took us about four hours. During the train trip I felt like I was in the “Hills Are A Live” sequence in The Sound of Music because we traveled through Austria’s beautiful countryside. During our stay in Vienna we stayed in a hostel, which was actually a convent the nuns refurbished. We planned to stay in Vienna for about three days.
On our first day we decided to visit St. Stephen’s Cathedral. The cathedral is the number one attraction in Vienna, because of its unique multicolored roof. The roof is crafted out of glazed tiles with a mosaic double headed Eagle, which is a symbol for the Habsburg dynasty. The church was created from limestone but unfortunately pollution has affected the color and has now turned the church black. There has been ongoing construction to bring the church back to its original color. After our visit to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, we stopped by for a snack at a café called Demel. Demel is the oldest and most famous café in Vienna. It is known for serving customers recipes that are centuries old but is perhaps the most memorable food in the city. After our snack we made our way to the Austrian Parliament building, which possesses many Greek influences. Another highlight at the Austrian Parliament is the Pallas Athene Fountain, which sits in front of the Parliament building and is four-meter statues of Athena adorned with gilded helmet and lance and below her are statues that symbolize the most important rivers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.
On our second day we had spent most of the morning looking for “Mozart’s Piano,” which we had read in our traveling book was located in Vienna. However, that was not the case because every person we went up to had never heard of it and kept sending us to a candy shop that had sold chocolate that was called “Mozart’s Balls.” Later, after we failed to locate Mozart’s Piano we went to Schonbrunn Palace, which was my favorite place because it had been where Marie Antoinette had lived before she was married off and moved to France. It was easy to spend the rest of the day walking through the palace its gardens. There are audio guides given to each visitor and the only downside was that it was very busy so I would suggest buying tickets online to avoid the line to the entrance.
On our last day we visited the Hofburg, which translates to “The Royal Castle.” The Hofburg was the winter palace to the Habsburg rulers who had ruled Austria for centuries. The Royal Castle is now the official residence of the President of Austria. After we visited the Hofburg we went to the Monument Art History museum. Shortly after we visited the museum we found the statue of Empress Maria Theresa, which depicts her on her throne surrounded by major personages of her day such as generals, politicians and artists like Haydyn and Gluck and the child prodigy Mozart.
Though it was a great experience to travel to another country and experience their culture, Vienna was not my favorite place to visit. I would recommend just visiting for the weekend and anything longer would become a bit boring, although the food was very good and I loved the Wienerschnitzel dish!
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