Austria – Dave and Kay's Travel Adventures

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Our first stop was Schönbrunn Palace. Previous buildings stood from the 14th century. It was mainly used as a hunting lodge and game park. When the Turks invaded the buildings were destroyed. Its present appearance was built in the 1740s. At this point Maria Theresa was the reigning empress. It had been military offices after WWII and then in 1955 when Austria became a Republic the palace became a museum.

The palace and gardens of Schönbrunn became a UNESCO site on their World Heritage list in 1996.

We walked around the gardens. Even though the flowers weren’t in full bloom, it was still lovely to see.

The Gloriette was located up the 200 foot hill.

The Gloriette in the gardens was built in 1775. Maria Theresa had the Gloriette designed to glorify the Habsburg power and consisted of military themed columns and arches. It was also supposedly said that it was built to improve the view from the palace!

The Easter Markets were fun to visit and we did find a few treasures. The approximately 70 markets offered decorative eggs, bunnies made from various materials, Easter candles, some toys and much more. They were busy and when we left around noon it was getting very crowded.

We crossed the Danube River and saw another area of Vienna. One stop was to the very unusual Hundertwasser-KrawinaHaus. The building had 52 apartments and it was a public-housing complex. The apartments had unusual angles and no straight lines! It was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasserhaus. When it opened in 1985 it wasn’t liked and many criticized the building but overtime it became a beloved building. It was a popular place for visitors. Check out the pictures below.

The Donauinsel Lighthouse on Danube Island was never a working lighthouse. It originally was a theater backdrop for the Bregenz Festival stage (1989-1990). It was part of the opera “The Flying Dutchman”. It was dismantled and moved to Vienna and rebuilt in 1991 where it was used at an exhibition and stood in front of the Vienna Technical Museum. Again it was disassembled and moved to its present location on Danube Island!

The Urania Observatory sat where the Donaukanal and River Wien come together. It was an observatory, education center, and a historical landmark. It was built in 1910 and had a cultural and architectural impact on Vienna.

Ruprechtskirche- St. Rupert’s Church was the oldest Romanesque church in Vienna! It was founded in the 8th century and over the years various changes and expansions.

The Secession building was a beautiful exhibition hall, completed in 1898 and it was last renovated in 2018. It was called the Secession Building because a group of rebel artists (Gustav Klimt was part of this group) broke from the traditional Viennese artists. The white structure had a cupola constructed from 2,500 gilded iron laurel leaves. The architect of the building was also a member of the Secession.

St. Francis of Assisi church was located next to the Danube river and was built between 1898 and 1910.

Another landmark of Vienna was the Spittelau waste incineration plant that looked like a piece of art but it processed about 250,000 tons of waste yearly. It also created enough green heating for more than 60,000 homes and electricity for 50,000 homes in Vienna yearly.

The bus dropped us back off to the city center of Vienna which was listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage site! We had the rest of the afternoon on our own. Our first stop was to visit the inside of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Yesterday we saw the outside of the church.

The cathedral was built in the 12th century. Over the centuries the cathedral had additions added. It was burned out during the Battle of Vienna in 1945 and it was reconstructed in 1952. It was a gorgeous church inside and out!

After lunch we visited some shops and strolled the city streets. But the highlight was taking a carriage ride that lasted 45 minutes. We rode all around the city center and went to places we hadn’t seen.

The Leopoldine Wing of Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna, home to the offices and residence of the Austrian president.

There also was a protest happening near the president’s residence. We believed the protest had something to do with the Middle East and Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in town to meet with the Austrian foreign minister Alexander Schallenberg.

We stopped in the Demel Cafe. It was a famous pastry and chocolaterie shop since 1786! It smelled delicious and the cafe was elegantly decorated.

When we returned to our hotel in the early evening, we were going to walk to visit a local pub that was nearby but it was closed on Saturdays so we all decided to have another bowl of the delicious Artichoke soup for dinner at the hotel!

Friday, March 15, 2024

After breakfast we loaded our bus to head to Vienna, Austria! We crossed from the Pest side to the Buda side and headed to the freeway. Hungary had a national holiday, it was the 1848 Revolution Memorial day. This Revolution failed but it was closely linked to Hungary’s modern history. Hungarians rallied against the Austrian empire.

Since it was a holiday many people were heading out of town for a long weekend. Today was Revolution Day. The revolution began in Hungary on March 15th, 1848. With the Russian army invading Hungary, the revolution was defeated but it still was an important date for the Hungarian people.

The freeway traffic was bumper to bumper. Our guide and driver heard the Hungary and Austrian border crossing was really backed up so we crossed into Slovakia and then drove into the country and saw its capital city, Bratislava.

Tural Monument-statue of a tural bird, an ancient Hungarian symbol in Tatabánya, Hungary

When we arrived in Vienna it was lunch time. We had lunch at a restaurant called Leopold. Unfortunately as we sat down one of our travelers fell backward and cut the back of her head. She was checked out at a local hospital and joined us that evening with stitches in the back of her head. Luckily she was able to continue on the trip.

As we were driving in the bus we saw trees with what looked like “balls” of something in them. Our guide told us it was mistletoe! It was a parasitic plant that took water and mineral salts from the woody part of the trees.

We past by one of the German’s Flak Towers that was still standing. It was used by the German Luftwaffe to help protect the city. It was a large above-ground anti-aircraft gun blockhouse tower constructed by the Nazis. It also served as an air-raid shelter.

We passed by the Vindobona which was once a Roman military camp and settlement. It had strategic value because of its location near the Danube river.

We had a step-on guide who pointed out sights as we drove to our drop off point near the city center.

We walked around the city center. The Burgtheater was built between 1874-1888. It was the most important German language theater and was still an important theater worldwide.

Our group had a reservation at the beautiful Café Landtmann. In 2023 the café celebrated its 150 years of operation. One of their most famous customers was the psychoanalyst, Sigmund Freud.

After our afternoon dessert we walked through the Volksgarten a large garden which was located on the Hofburg grounds. Volksgarten means “the people’s garden” and it was the first public garden in Vienna.

Our walk continued past the Hofburg Palace, the Imperial Palace. It was the residence of the imperial family and was located in the center of Vienna and now served as the workplace and home of the President of Austria.

We walked past the Stallburg Imperial Stables. Some of the Spanish Riding school Lipizzaner horses were sticking their heads out of their stalls.

This monument on Morzinplatz to the victims of Nazi terror was erected by concentration camp survivors in 1951. It was then replaced in 1985 with a bigger monument that Vienna paid for. Its granite blocks came from the quarry of a former concentration camp. It had a bronze statue that symbolized a survivor.

The Pestsäule Plague Column was erected in 1690 after the Great Plague and was located in the inner city of Vienna.

Vienna’s City Hall was built between 1872 and 1883. It was built in the gothic style and its tower was similar to gothic cathedrals. Now the head office of Vienna’s municipal administration works here.

The Church of St. Michael was one of the oldest churches in Vienna. It was located across from the St. Michael’s Gate at the Hofburg Palace. This church was over 800 years old!

St. Stephen’s Cathedral was our last stop today. Construction began in the 12th century but most of what we saw was from the 14th century. This church also was the site for many imperial weddings and royal funerals. Tomorrow we would visit again.