Wien (12-14 May 2006)

Ah... Wien (pronounced "Vien"), one of the most important cultural cities in the world. Well, this would have been good if not for the countless Mozart-fakes who tried to sell us concert tickets! Never heard of this place before? Maybe the English name will help: V-I-E-N-N-A.

But nonetheless, it was an interesting experience to delve into the capital of Austria (no kangaroos here, as they'll tell you), the seat of the Holy Roman Empire, Mozart (although he was born in Salzburg) and Wiener Schnitzel.

Vienna is an old city, founded in 500BC by the Celts. It then became a frontier city of the Roman Empire (not the Holy Roman Empire) and then the seat of the Habsburg dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. The historical city centre is another UNESCO World Heritage Site (yes, AGAIN) along with the palace of Schönbrunn, which you will see later. Vienna is also home to 1 of the 4 United Nations Headquarters (the other 3 in New York, Geneva and Nairobi) and is situated at the UNO City across the River Danube. Lastly, when people talk about Austrian or Viennese food, you will never escape from Wiener Schnitzel.

Of course, the most exciting aspect of this trip is not the cultural immersion or the historical buildings or the schnitzel, it's because my Dad and Sis are here!


Family pic minus Mum in front of the waterfall at Schönbrunn.

We left München on Friday afternoon, around 3pm, reaching Wien sometime close to 8pm. It would have been an hour shorter if not for the jam at the entrance to the city. Tired after a long journey (with no breaks in between, mind you), we got out for some dinner: Wiener Schnitzel!


This was from the restaurant next to our hotel. The food wasn't too bad, so the receptionist got off the hook. Only downside was the size... Obviously, 1 plate each was sufficient to kill us!

So back to the hotel (which was next to a railway line, like Prague) and next morning, off to Schönbrunn Palace.

Schönbrunn Palace was built in 1696 by Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The name "Schönbrunn" itself means "beautiful well" and has its roots in a well that was used by the royal court in Wien. It is presently one of the largest tourist attractions in Wien and many functions are held there, including the historical meeting between US President John F. Kennedy and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in the year 1961.


The view of the palace from the front


Now without the people


View of the palace courtyard from the palace


The 3 of us with Ms Koo (extreme right, beside my sis)


View of the beautiful waterfall in the palace gardens


Climbing all the way to the top of the garden


The palace from the top


The Gloriette at the top of the hill behind the palace...


That has nice exteriors for an outdoor building


Taking a break


A standpipe that joggers use to drink some water. Not sure if this is the "beautiful well" of the name. We spent a while getting water out of it, only to realise all we had to do was press a lever... yea, we looked like fools indeed! Haha!


There was also an apfel studel demonstration included in the ticket...


With free samples...


And a chance to see a humongous full-sized strudel.


If I use my 8-Megapixel camera to take this, do I still need to buy that poster?

So after Schönbrunn, we moved downtown to get some lunch then walk around a little. Just like München, an enourmous Gothic building at the city centre being the Rathaus (Town Hall).


The Rathaus from the side...


And the front.

But of course, lunch first. We found an Asian place that had decent food (decent as in Asian-taste-like food), but I thought their logo was even more interesting...


Glad their staff didn't use more eyepower than their arm power. Service was not bad.

So with lunch done, we moved on. First up along the stretch was the Austrian Parliament Building, built from 1874 to 1883. In front of it is a large statue of the Greek Goddess of Wisdom, Athena.


The Austrian Parliament Building


The building with the statue of Athena in front

Further down, just across the road, is the Imperial Palace of Hofburg. While Schönbrunn was the Habsburgs' preferred summer residence, the Hofburg is their choice of stay for the winter. The Hofburg Complex contains the Amalienburg, the National Bibliothek (National Library) with over 90,000 volumes, a Spanish Riding School and the Neue Burg. It is currently the seat of the Austrian President.


The Neue Burg

Just as we reached, by pure coincidence, there was a protest going on!


Don't ask me what they're protesting against. My guess is some tree-chopping activity.


Protestors waving the Cuban flag and pictures of Che Guevara


It goes on...


Until they're gone

The most interesting part was yet to come. There were actually some Falun Gong protestors as well, with a fully-staged protest!


OK, signs and boards are SOP


A guy dressing up as a surgeon holding a plaster-molded heart, maybe not...


Guy in cage... uhh..............


Oh cool! They even got ang-mohs to dress up as fake practitioners to psycho their own kind!

Then we walked through the gate and found out why there's a protest:


Some Cuban guy's in town! No wonder!

So anyway, we're not interested in joining those kukus in their play-acting. Moving on, we walked down the main stretch which looks similar to Marienplatz, till we reached Stephansdom, the most recognisable structure in Wien.


Umm... yeah, did I mention it was another tall Gothic cathedral in Europe? :p


Closer to the Dom


Even the insides are similar

OK, so that was enough (or so we thought). Moving on, we headed back to the car and drove to Donauturm (English: Danube Tower), a 252m-tall tower on the other side of the River Danube. It was built in 1964 and has an observation deck which offers a splendid view of Wien.


The Donauturm from the bottom


Beautiful views from the top


Even the highways look impressive


And a clear view of the UNO City

There's also a bungee-jumping platform there, but we're not interested... yea

So that's it. Not very much to do or see at the tower. Stomach's growling, so we had to eat... again!

Dad proposed that we go to the best Wiener Schnitzel place in Wien. Not a bad idea, we thought... So after some hassle with parking and finding our way around, we were back to Stephansdom and into a back alley.


The Figlmüller, since 1905, that's alot of schnitzels they've made!

Standard what... Go there order signature dish (or "signboard veggie").


Umm... in the picture, you only see ONE of THREE that we ordered...


For comparison's sake

So try as we could, even with big guns like myself, and everyone else filling to their brim until the "petrol" is almost spilling out, we were left with this:


"I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." 2 Timothy 4:7

So that was it. It was like the restaurant expected us NOT to finish, so when the waiter automatically appeared with a bag to ta-pau, we declind. His response: "Oh, no dog?"

So that's it for Day 1 (technically Day 2) in Wien. Next day was more or less driving around, which was good for the legs, not good for taking photos.


Managed to catch this shot of the Soviet Memorial from the car though

Went to the last place in Wien that was kind of interesting, the Belvedere Palace.


The facade of the Upper Belvedere

The Belvedere is a baroque palace built in 1714 to 1723 by Prince Eugene of Savoy and it was then sold to Maria Theresa, the only female head of the Holy Roman Empire, in 1752, where it received the name "Belvedere".


Giant palace gardens


Somehow, it wasn't as well-visited, but that's early in the morning


Even the gate looks imposing

So with that, we left Wien for Linz, another town in Austria. Nothing really much there though, so we headed on, past the Austrian-German border, to Bad Reichenhall.

Photobucket: Wien