(no subject)
This morning I was able to sleep in a little longer than usual. The bus left at 10 AM to go into the city. I woke up with a scratchy throat that just got progressively worse during the day. The weather didn’t really help-it was 54 degrees this morning when we left the hotel, and I didn’t prepare myself with proper attire.
We first had a tour of the Kunsthistoriches Museum. The museum had quite a few Velasquez paintings that I had studied in Spanish class (portraits of Maria Teresa). It also had some Rembrandt and old Egyptian artifacts. After we saw all there was to see we ate at the café in the museum because it had started raining outside.
We left the museum to find some more food and some shelter from the cold (by this time it had stopped raining). We ate at a bakery type place. Then to avoid the cold we took the train to the area around the Vienna Opera House where we were supposed to meet later in the day. The sun had come out by the time we got out of the train station but it was still freezing cold. I went to check my email and then hit up the Starbucks to get some warmth in my body.
Next we had the tour of the Vienna Opera House, which was absolutely gorgeous. It is the most beautiful thing to see in Vienna (in my opinion at least). The structure as a whole falls into three categories: the original part (built in the second half of the 19th century), the parts that were restored after the bombings in WWII (paid for by the United States and Britain since they had been the ones to bomb it), and the newer, contemporary intermission halls. I even got to see the backstage area. It was extremely beautiful.
After the tour was over we had about 2 hours to kill before we had to get in line to buy tickets for the ballet that was showing at the opera house. We just roamed up one of the main streets of Vienna and ended up at the train station near Stephansdom (the center of Vienna). We ate dinner in the train station and then took the train back up to the opera house. After we had waited in line for about 10 minutes a bunch of us were told that we could not see the ballet if we were wearing flip flops. He was a jerk about it and was very random about who he said couldn’t come in. So, we made an attempt to take the train back to the hotel as quick as possible and make it back in time to see the ballet (we had and hour and a half before it started). It ended up taking about an hour to just get back to the hotel so we gave up any hope of seeing the ballet.
I wasn’t feeling well so after having a cup of hot tea in the hotel restaurant I went to sleep. I slept for about three hours (until about 11 PM) and then got up and hung out for a little while.
I’m disappointed with Vienna. Perhaps if the weather was better I would feel differently about it, but I feel that overall there isn’t much to do here besides shopping. I think that thus far Florence has still been my favorite city.
We first had a tour of the Kunsthistoriches Museum. The museum had quite a few Velasquez paintings that I had studied in Spanish class (portraits of Maria Teresa). It also had some Rembrandt and old Egyptian artifacts. After we saw all there was to see we ate at the café in the museum because it had started raining outside.
We left the museum to find some more food and some shelter from the cold (by this time it had stopped raining). We ate at a bakery type place. Then to avoid the cold we took the train to the area around the Vienna Opera House where we were supposed to meet later in the day. The sun had come out by the time we got out of the train station but it was still freezing cold. I went to check my email and then hit up the Starbucks to get some warmth in my body.
Next we had the tour of the Vienna Opera House, which was absolutely gorgeous. It is the most beautiful thing to see in Vienna (in my opinion at least). The structure as a whole falls into three categories: the original part (built in the second half of the 19th century), the parts that were restored after the bombings in WWII (paid for by the United States and Britain since they had been the ones to bomb it), and the newer, contemporary intermission halls. I even got to see the backstage area. It was extremely beautiful.
After the tour was over we had about 2 hours to kill before we had to get in line to buy tickets for the ballet that was showing at the opera house. We just roamed up one of the main streets of Vienna and ended up at the train station near Stephansdom (the center of Vienna). We ate dinner in the train station and then took the train back up to the opera house. After we had waited in line for about 10 minutes a bunch of us were told that we could not see the ballet if we were wearing flip flops. He was a jerk about it and was very random about who he said couldn’t come in. So, we made an attempt to take the train back to the hotel as quick as possible and make it back in time to see the ballet (we had and hour and a half before it started). It ended up taking about an hour to just get back to the hotel so we gave up any hope of seeing the ballet.
I wasn’t feeling well so after having a cup of hot tea in the hotel restaurant I went to sleep. I slept for about three hours (until about 11 PM) and then got up and hung out for a little while.
I’m disappointed with Vienna. Perhaps if the weather was better I would feel differently about it, but I feel that overall there isn’t much to do here besides shopping. I think that thus far Florence has still been my favorite city.