Wunderbar Osterreich.
Saltzburg
Vienna, part 2
Vienna, the latest part of my journey
So here it finally is - a half of my austrian notes. I wrote them while I was in Vienna almost every day so I left the story mostly as it was written.
One day in train to Moscow, two hours and ten minutes on the plane above the Poland, Ukraine and Byelorussia and we'r in Austria! During all the flight the only thing that is seen from the plane is thick fog- It rains in all Austria. I felt so happy when I finally saw that pretty and clean austrian fields and lakes from the air. While we were heading to Vienna on the bus, staring out of its windows and looking at beautiful nature and pretty accurate houses, I felt that it is such a close place to my heart , and I felt it more as we were approaching Vienna.
When we arrived at our hotel, which was situated on the one of the biggest shopping street Mariahilfestrasse, we immediately left our bags and went to walk down the Mariahilfest to Museumquartier and Square of Maria Teresia with museums on it and down to Hoffburg- a royal palace in the centre of Vienna.
Museum of natural history :
and Maria- Teresia Platz, where both twin Museums are situted. They look like reflections of each other, and that gives a certain impression! The twin of Natural history museum - Art History museum is very temtpting for those who adore visual arts in all appereances. But we haven't enought time to look all the giant collection of the museum, and we choose Belveder museum which is smaller but not worse. But I'll tell about it a bit later)
Unfortunately , Vienna met us with the unpleasant rain and cold gloomy weather, so we were a bit disapointed by the weather-we haven't much warm clothes with us, but it wasn’t a reason to be upset because this city is really amasing!
Becouse of the cold rain, we quickly gave up and take a short tram ride along Ringstrasse-a round street , like ring road in Moscow, where many sights are situated. We saw medieval Rathhaus with red flowers on the windows, very roman like Parlament, amusing StatsOpera, Burgtheatre und Volksgarten.
Parliament (and me):
Rathaus:
Opera:
After that we ate a pizza (yes,kinda strange food to eat in Austria but we were too hungry to search for national food),and continue our walk to Stefansdum which is actually the heart and soul of Vienna, where is such a beautiful square but with the crowds of people here.
And what I wanted to add, is about russian tourists. Sometimes they are rather different from others on the street. If you see splendid dressed woman on big thin heels in the noon walking on pavement, blowing cigarette smoke to your face- in most of cases you 'll certainly hear russian language. Of course it's not always like that, but more often, unfortunately.
On the next day we went to see the city. First stop was at Shionbrunn palace where we planed to go later on that week.
We walked for an hour and saw beautiful Shonen brunen and some pretty fountains.
The ruins on that photo aren't actually really an antiquity, they only seem to be so. They are from 18 century.
SHONBRUNN 'S park is one of the most gorgeous in the world. Shadowy alleys and colourfull flowerbeds and a perfect view to wonderfull palace and arch.
And also an amasing rose garden in front of the main palace. The smell was splitting!
Next sight to see was HUNDERTWASER HOUSE and his house of arts. It is really amazing, because this architector and artist claimed for all architecture and human creations to be really close for the nature.
As in wild life forests there are no straight lines and only boring similar colours, there shouldn’t be so in human architecture. So when you see the house that he has built, you understand what he mean, because that is odd but very comfortable to see. And, what is more - people live there, there are social apartments here, and a small shopping moll. And there is also quite a funny place to visit here - the so-called Toiled of Modern art. In fact that's funny how much attention it is paid to that places and its conditions (as well as they are geek on death and cemeteries)- aesthetic first of all. You'll see later what I'm talking about.
Then we walked to Hoffburg, a royal palace in the heart of Vienna with the royal apartments and stables and national library, where we saw beautiful squares with carriages and with beautifull fontans and ancient roman ruines.
We walked on the most lucurious streets to Stefanplatz, where we decided to take a break and ate something sweet that is Vienna famous for. So we ate cakes at famous Demel.
Theree was too crowded but there was a place where you can glance at the work of confectories who were making famous apfelstrudel.
What an amasing cake there was in the showcase of that confectionery. I feel like I need to say some words now about what this cake is dedicated to. It pictures a famous vienner stallion - lippizaner horse, a breed of horses speccially for the dynasty of Hapsburgs as they were fond of dressages and found that tradition - a Vienner spanish Riding school. Ok, there is nothing spanish about it only the fact that horses have a bit of spanish blood. I'll tell more about them later but now you know what is it)
We continue our walk to see many beautiful churches with adorable indoors, then we strolled into Folksgarten where was the huge amount of roses of all colours and sorts.
We soon appeared on stefanplatz again and have very tasty pies in the conditerej. What I liked about that city - there were so many small yards, it is so pretty. Like a court where vasilisk was found and killed due to the legend with the small pretty cafe on that street and small church.
And a lot of beautiful churches, with amasing interiors.
Some streets are small and cosy, some are wide and impressive...
Also one of the most amasing buildings was the beautiful Carlskirhe, Carl’s church and a park situated near it is gorgeous too.
As we get out of the underground at the station Carlsplatz ,we saw pretty modern metro pavilions built by Otto Wagner. Near that station was a monument dedicated to soviet soldiers. It was kinda pleasant to see russian language on the monument and also we saw a roller skating guy here. That was funny, because he was doing spinning tricks and we tried to take a picture of him and all we got was an empty square because he moved too fast.
Then we went down to BELVEDER and on our first visit we hardly got on time to the residence as it was closing soon. We quickly walked throught the park and it was beautiful, as my Mum said, it remained very much Peterhof.
And That panoramic view from that gardens to the Vienna was amazing! On the evening as usual we were just strolling on the streets and then we found ourselves near the State Opera (that is funny couse on our walks we often came out to the Opera and we have seen it for a consider about 20 times). Unfortunately It is closed on july, so we couldn’t enjoy any of the concerts.
The museums quartier was also very interesting piece of modern art in the city centre. As it was royal stables earlier, there were such horses on the archs of its paths.
We were glad to visit the famous historical cafe Sacher and had a delicious sacher torte and as usual some tea as I don't drink coffee. I liked the tarte thought It is said to bee too sweet, too tough, too popular. There a special words about Vienna’s sweets should be said - I fairly consider Vienna to be the capital of all delicious sweets and cakes. There is a huge variety of sweets and they are all so tasty. I ate sweets for breakfast and for dinner, and I hardly could stop.)))
It is rather big post, I thought it would be shorter. ANd it isn't even a half of all my travelling! But I hope yu are interested in and weren't bored while reading it becouse the other part will be soon)
And just for the end: (OK not ending but...a half:)
Me in an odd hat and with crazy eyes:
