Day 86: Vienna: A quiet second look, or not!

August 13, 2012

With our plan to have an “extra” day in Vienna today, we had a chance (in principle) to take a step back and look at the city, free from being lost (too much), and from frantically trying to experience it all at once.

At first, this worked out. We got out of the S Bahn at “our” station and slowly walked toward St Stephen’s, which is basically the centre of town. We noted again the mix of old and new buildings at the edges of the old town, then the all-old buildings but with their bottom floors renovated for plate glass store fronts.

We mingled with the slightly harried Monday morning workers, but at 8:30 a.m. the city was free of tourists (except us, and about three hardy Chinese people). St Stephen’s Platz was populated by delivery trucks, and the church itself had only a few memorial candles burning. A few faithful occupied a side chapel.

St Stephen's Platz, deserted except for delivery trucks.

St Stephen's Platz. There must be quite a story behind the out of place ultra modern building, in the dead centre of Vienna.

We had the idea of going to see the Lipizzaner Stallions cross the laneway as they went from their stables to practice at the Spanish Riding School, in the Winter Palace. We foolishly got lost, and therefore a bit frustrated. This was increased a bit when we found the apparently lazy horses do not practice on Monday!

Oh well, we headed off to clean up one more (of dozens and dozens) loose end. We had cited Sacher, Demel, and Gerstner as the main three torte venues, but had not checked out Gerstner (oh my!). Gerstner indeed had lots of lovely tortes and many unique strudels. Forgive me for the following extensive coverage of them!

Actually, the sales lady was not so forgiving and told me “no photos”. It’s a stupid idea, since photos only advertise their product, for free. If I were up to reverse engineering their secrets, firstly I would not likely be an English speaking, clueless looking guy, in cycling shorts. (Or, maybe I would!). Next, I would actually buy the product and rush it to my secret lab.

Anyway, I told the lady I was ticked, and therefore she had lost my business. So, I can not tell you how these things actually taste. However, I don’t think Gerstner was too concerned about losing my business, so I bet they are OK.

Our next fateful decision was to go to Schonbrunn Palace. This was the summer palace of the Habsbergs, and is just outside the second ring road of the city. Everybody says it’s a must see. In fact, we learned it is the most visited tourist site in Austria.

We learned that from a pamphlet, but we could immediately see it when we arrived. The place was swarming with tourists. By swarming, I mean you basically could barely move, and had to line up for everything. After (yes after) waiting out a 600 foot line to buy a ticket, we learned that the wait to actually get in was 90 minutes! They have a high tech system for this – the turnstile will not accept your ticket unless the appointed period of penance has expired. And when I say “turnstile” I don’t mean just any turnstile, you have to line up to get to your appointed “gate”. Sheesh.

Part of the lineup to buy a ticket at the Schonbrunn Palace

The ticket buying scene once you make it inside

The procedure of metering the people through in principle should give you a chance to see something other than other people’s heads once you are in. But clearly, under pressure of numbers, they are flowing people in at a great rate. It was only just possible to see something. They also said “no photos” – pshaw!

Out in the “garden” we were confronted by a huge (huge!) area of grounds. A lot of it was gravel, either in a wide avenue straight out from the palace, or between rows of formally planted large trees. The immediate impression was of something that might be fun for riding horses or carriages, but the soul soothing colour and coolness of many gardens was lacking. Dodie pointed out that this was a real, authentic royal park. I pointed out “so what”!

A look back along the gravel to the palace

Looks like it is made with custom equipment

The interior of the palace was suitably ornate, with lots of gold moldings, giant paintings, and such like, but actually it paled compared to some of the cathedrals we know. We actually think these royals must have had a fairly tough life. Our own house is more "luxurious" than theirs in many ways.

The audio guide is offered in 16 languages

Inside the palace - this room shows the typical basic decoration of gold painted moldings/carving. Most rooms also had various giant paintings of family members.

Inside the palace - this painting illustrates well how the garden grounds were actually used in their time

Inside the palace - a bit different decor in this room

Inside the palace - a painting of Empress Elizabeth - "Sissi"

Inside the palace - the "King Sized" bed.

Inside the palace - detail of a bit of the golden trim in a random room

Still, it was all in good fun, and we were glad at the end that we had not acted on our early impulse to sell our tickets to someone at the beginning of the huge line.

One highlight was a demonstration of strudel making, in the "royal" bakery. Of course, we had already had a private lesson from Birgit, but here was a chance to compare techniques. In this version, a lot more butter and oil was used, and the apples were not grated and had the bread crumbs pre mixed in. This allowed the to be piled very high before being encased in the dough. In the end, though, both were about the same - yummy!

The man and woman presented in German and English

A lot more butter was used than in Birgit's version.

Plus here the dough was sitting for 30 minutes in sunflower oil

For a complete calorie hit, we also went to the in house restaurant:

At the Residenz restaurant, maybe our last schnitzel.

Despite all the fun components of the palace trip, we were beat, and did not quite welcome the huge crowds that we now found back in the city. However even walking (weaving) through them had its appeal in this lively place. Still, we were glad to retreat to our crowded campground at Klosterneuburg, which now seemed like the wilderness!

Tomorrow, assuming we can find the right station and understand our all German tickets, we are outta here, and heading somehow for our appointment with the Neckar River and the cycle north through Germany to Holland!

The formal garden - a closer look. Actually, a really close look revealed a lot of weeds. They need to spend some of our admission fee and get on it!

We are leaving, but another platoon is marching in!

Courtier-clad ticket sellers for concerts in the Grand Hall of the Musikverein are having a meeting. There are dozens of these sellers around town. We woiuld have liked to go to the concert, which is in the room (the "Golden Hall") used by the Vienna Philharmonic for its New Year's Concert, but did not have time.

Hey Laurie, yet another Ritter Sport flavour!

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