According to my salvaged fb albums, we went to Vienna next?? I thought it was later in the trip, but I don’t remember the order of anything specific. My friend Leslie had been at a summer piano camp in Salzburg, so we got a really good deal on train tickets to Salzburg through the Treinreiswinkel (which no longer exists and it’s really sad because they were super awesome), and then I found out that I had miscommunicated and she was actually in Vienna. So Tharash went and got train tickets for Vienna which was twice as expensive (being last-minute) and I felt guilty about it for years (that was a good chunk of change for us poor uni students, and he could have put that towards a new PC at some point). He, of course, forgot about it until I mentioned starting to get over it a few years ago. All in the past now.
Most of the pictures here are from Tharash, a turnabout from the usual picture ratio.
My first time seeing the Alps. We had taken a sleeping car on the way down and in second class that meant sleeping in a room for 6 people. I think there were at least four, including us. It felt a little weird.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
We did have to change trains in Salzburg, so we walked around for like 20 minutes.
Back on the train
IIRC, we stayed in a really fancy hostel (private room so it was basically a hotel), and the first place we went was the Vienna central cemetery the next day. None of us had very good German, even Tharash’s high school German is limited, so it took the groundskeeper a minute to figure out we wanted to see famous people, but he gave us a map. Here’s Beethoven.
Mozart’s memorial.
Leslie was SO EXCITED to see Schoenberg’s grave, she cried “Schoenberg, we’ve come to see you!” …I have no particular attachment to Schoenberg’s music myself, but it was really funny.
We also walked briefly through the Soviet area of the cemetery.
The cemetery church
Here we all are looking like the absolute tourists we are
This was where we got off the subway to our next destination
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
We had dinner here. Photo by MH
This was a very Viennese café, and I had gnocchi, and they are still the best gnocchi I’ve ever had in my life. Every once in a while since then I order gnocchi somewhere to see and I’m disappointed. That Viennese gnocchi was heavenly, and everything I’ve had since is only barely tolerable to my taste, so I dunno what’s going on there. Someone else ordered schnitzel, and the dish that arrived was gigantic; I’m told that’s traditional.
The interior is super fancy, with portraits of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi in the back. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
After dinner, we walked around the city some more to look at the interesting buildings. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Vienna, what is this??? Why is this??? Photo by MH
Still plenty of people out shopping. Photo by MH
St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Photo by MH
The rest of the cathedral, which has an interesting roof. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
The tower on the left was supposed to match the one on the other side, but they ran out of money and interest in 1511 so it’s super short and has a very Renaissance neo-Classical roof, instead of a super tall Gothic spire. Photo by MH
Our hostel had these fun cards on the doors of actors dressed as Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi, the kind that change pictures when you look at it from another angle. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
TBH, the Viennese seemed a little obsessed with Franz Joseph and Sisi, and Mozart.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Trees mark our destination. Photo by MH
This was Tharash’s tourist destination, Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment building designed to marry traditional and avant-garde design, while also being very ecofriendly to the point of having trees growing out of it.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
The fountain contains recycled elements from older buildings
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Even gravestones were recycled here. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
There is a snake and a zodiac in the fountain mosaic. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
We went into the associated… mini-mall? I’m afraid I have no memory of this bit. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
The Ankeruhr, a clock in the old town. Pictured: Maria Theresa and Joseph Haydn. Photo by MH
Tharash dutifully took pictures of all the figures as they passed by: Haydn, Marcus Aurelius, Charlemagne, Leopold VI, Walther von der Vogelweide, Rudolf von Habsburg, Hans Puchsbaum, Maximilian I, Johann Andreas von Liebenberg, Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg, Eugene of Savoy, Maria Theresa. More about them is listed on the Visiting Vienna website.
The list. Photo by MH
19th century Viennese seemed to have a thing for big-breasted sphinxes, these aren’t the last ones we’ll see. Photo by MH
Fountain/monument to the marriage of Joseph and Mary, and to the birth of Christ. Y’know. Just the average thing sitting around in Vienna.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Stephensdom!
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Baroque decor is very energetic.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
The choir organ
I was very impressed with all of this, I’d never seen a church this opulent before (except maybe in Montréal when I was 14? I don’t remember too well)
The main organ
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Um what is this. I don’t remember if I went in but I must have, right? Photo by MH
In the late afternoon, we went to a Schubert museum that was set up in the apartment where he spent the last few months of his life. Which actually belonged to his brother, who lived there with his own family. It seemed very small to fit so many people.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
More boobies, at the Belvedere, where we went the next day. I had a stomach ache the whole time, so I didn’t enjoy it as much as I wanted to. But I do remember seeing a painting inside that the tag said was on loan from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and being very amused that we had just come from there. Photo by MH
The Belvedere grounds are unnecessarily large.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
I don’t know what this is. It’s incredibly neo-Classical, though. Photo by MH
Tharash had lost his old sunglasses somewhere, so he bought new ones.
Our overnight train back from Vienna was out of second-class sleeping rooms, so we had to take a first-class sleeping room. It was super nice! But the thing I remember most about it was that it came with two teeny bottles of white wine, and Tharash first began to realize just how much of a lightweight I am (we only drank one bottle and took the other one back to show his parents).
Oh look, Tharash had the foresight to take a picture. The left wall folds down in two places to become a bunkbed. Photo by MH
I have absolutely no memory what was in the paper bags. XD Photo by MH
We’re off! Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Sunrise! Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Breakfast! Look at that ancient phone lollll Photo by MH
On the way back to Amsterdam, we stopped to change trains in Cologne, with a 2-hour gap, long enough to go visit the cathedral. So really this post should probably be called Vienna-and-Kölner-dom because we took enough pictures of it. XD
I was shocked that the cathedral is RIGHT OUTSIDE the train station. I was very excited to see it, though, because it’s mentioned in the fifth song from Robert Schumann’s song cycle Dichterliebe, which mentions the (then-unfinished) cathedral on the Rhine. I was very impressed with its size and ornateness. I’m also glad they didn’t cheap out, and finished it in the original style, unlike Stephensdom. It is the tallest cathedral in the world, at least until Sagrada Família finishes.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
These are just the side doors.
Tharash was already interested in capturing stained glass windows. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Wait you can just anti-gravity a pipe organ from the ceiling???? That’s allowed??? Photo by MH
Such majestic height. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
I had just seen Isabel Demers a couple weeks prior, performing in Victoria, and now I had just missed seeing her by three days on the other side of the world!?
I didn’t take any other pictures of the inside other than this poster, I felt awkward doing it, but I should have taken my own pictures of the organ. Tharash took all the other interior photos. I got Tharash to ask a person who worked there, who explained that there is a spiral stair somewhere that leads through a gallery to the organ. Also, there is another big organ up at the front by the altar, which can control the ceiling organ, which is an immense amount of power for any organist. I was also struck by how austere the interior was compared to the Stephensdom in Vienna. It was an incredible style difference. I rather like the gothic style better, at least architecturally.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
I think this fellow is entitled to look grumpy. Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Tharash for scale
Constructed 1248-1880
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Apparently they had been doing some work cleaning off Industrial Revolution grime from the stone (or maybe more recent industrial grime, idk) so now this part is all shiny and bright.
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Photo by MH
Gargoyles! Photo by MH
Our last train, pictured after arriving back in Amsterdam
Okay we probably took a few rest days after that. I still want to go back to Cologne to tourist it itself someday, I’ve been through it several times now but never stopped to see more than the cathedral. And I’d like to see the cathedral again too, it’s been a while.