We left bright and early to catch the 3 hour train to Vienna from Budapest.
MAV is the train operator. We had purchased our tickets the first day in Budapest at their office.
So sleepy on the train to Vienna, but so excited!
After a quick cat-nap for me, Mike and I went out to explore Vienna. Our first stop was on the Kohlmarkt, a swanky, upscale shopping street. We stopped in to Demel, a very fancy Viennese coffee house, where you can watch the pastry chefs at work.
I had a kleiner brauner, an espresso with milk, and Mike got one of the fancy deserts from the cabinet.
Vienna coffee culture is very important. People can sit in a coffee house and lounge around, reading a newspaper and sipping away the hours. In these lavish relics of an era gone by, "time and space are consumed, but only the coffee is found on the bill."
The Michaelerplatz, with the gateway into the Hofburg Palace.
Horse carriages in the Michaelerplatz.
We walked by the Albertina Museum, which we will be visiting tomorrow.
There was a Cafe Mozart across from the Albertina Museu, so of course I got a bunch of pictures!
A neat necktie display.
A little doggie poster to remind you to pick up the poo!
On our walk Mike and I passed through the Weihburggasse, where the statue to the King of Waltz, Strauss, glitters with charm. Strauss liked to conduct his orchestra with his violin in hand, so that's how he's depicted in this statue.
There were these weird booths that you could slip a coin in to and get some information.
We then visited Mozarthaus, a museum in the only surviving Mozart residence in Vienna, where he lived from 1784 to 1787, when he had lots of money and wrote The Marriage of Figaro and Don Giovanni. Needless to say, I ran all over the museum like a giggly child, squealing with delight when I heard strands of music playing in adjoining rooms, standing in
his bedroom, looking out
his windows, and all around feeling as close to Mozart as possible. It was a dream. The gift shop didn't know what they were in for!
Continuing on with our late-night music motif, Mike and I visited the Haus der Musik, a high-tech experience that investigates sounds and music. On the first floor, they had a room that replicated the experience of listening to the Vienna Philharmonic play their summer concert live. It was surround-sound heaven! The second floor was far more experimental. There was a room that allowed you re-experience the sounds of being in the womb. In different rooms, you could alter sounds, bend sounds, create ghost and nonexistent sounds that can't be recorded, and listen to, among other things, the sound of a Tokyo street. The third floor is a different landscape, with exhibitions for each of Vienna's heavy hitters: Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Mahler.
At the end, you pick up a baton and conduct the Vienna Philharmonic! My conducting of Eine Kleine Nachtmusik wasn't too bad!
Outside is a Salieri cafe....had to get a picture of that!
On our way back to the hotel it was getting quite late, so we stopped at a Würstlestand. I got a "hot dog" (really a roll with a hollow cavity) mit käsekrainer und mustard! My limited German ended up being pretty good, which sometimes backfired when the person I was speaking to fired off a response in German.
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