Vienna

I arrived in Vienna on the high speed ferry from Bratislava around midday. Near to the end of the journey we left the Danube river and headed along the Donaukanal (Danube canal), which is an arm of the Danube which runs through Vienna for about 17 kilometres. It’s the place where graffiti artists are rampant.

I was only 0.6 miles from my hotel so I decided to walk with my luggage for exercise. The Graben Hotel is a four star establishment and located on a side street in the city centre. I had hoped to stay somewhere nicer however the prices were astronomical because Vienna was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest two days hence. I didn’t know this when I booked. Lots of Eurovision types about the place.

Vienna is a massive upgrade on Bratislava and the prosperity, wealth and sophistication was immediately evident. They’d put me on the top floor in the eaves which suited me fine, but the TV was the smallest I’d seen in a hotel room – only slightly bigger than my laptop. I turned it on and found Rex Harrison speaking German.

I went walking and headed to the Austrian National Library only a few minutes away. I’d seen pictures of the library and it made it onto my bucket list immediately. It’s regarded as one of the most beautiful historic libraries in the world, founded by the Hapsburgs (Charles VI) in the 18th century. 80 metres long with walnut bookshelves, marble statues, a frescoed dome (my favourite type of dome), 200,000 antique books with decorated bindings, and a couple of Maeve Binchy first editions. The inside felt more like a cathedral than a library.

After the library I strolled a little further and found myself surrounded by architectural wonderment all within the Hofburg Palace complex. This was the centre of Vienna and therefore the heart of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

Next I headed to St Stephen’s Cathedral which dominates the city centre. The outside competes with the Sagrada Família in Barcelona in terms of the wow factor.

On the way there I popped into St Peter’s Church which was mighty impressive in its own right. Sadly, the cathedral was too busy for my personal space requirements so I postponed it.

Early evening rain had appeared making the streets a little quieter. I returned to the cathedral and was able to gain access easily although a service was in progress. There was a segregated area at the back with metal railings separating worshippers from spectators. I lingered a while.

I carried on my evening stroll and found another church. I didn’t realise at the time but it was St Peter’s again. Just approached from a different direction. Anyway, this time there was a man playing his organ and I made the necessary donation and sat for 30 minutes listening to an organ recital in a beautiful church. I felt fully catholic for about 30 minutes. The only piece of music I recognised was Toccata and Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach. I felt very blessed to be sitting in such wonderful surroundings. Then they kicked us all out at 7:30.

I dined in a trattoria near the hotel and had a delightful waiter from Turkey. A good day despite being in close contact with Eurovision fans.

The next day I was up early on a mission to beat the crowds at Vienna’s top tourist attraction – Schonbrunn Palace. The palace opened at 8:30 which suited me and I was there by 8 with very few other tourists. Two coach loads of Japanese Fakawi turned up however I thought I could lose them in a forty room palace.

Passing through the rooms and learning about Austrian history I was struck with the story of Agnes. Agnes was born in 1072 and had many titles including Agnes of Germany and Agnes of Waiblingen. Her father was Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor and at the age of seven she was betrothed to Frederick II of Swabia. She held off marrying him until she was 14. It’s reported that she had 11 children with Fred although not all of them survived into adulthood. He died when she was around 33 and she married again, this time to Leopold III who was Margrave of Austria from the House of Babenberg. Leo lost his first wife in the same year as Agnes’s misfortune and they married a year later. Apparently she birthed another 18 children for Leo. That’s 29 pregnancies. Perhaps they should have called her Agnes the Fertile.

As one of the first in the palace, I was done in record time. I’d bought a ticket allowing me access to five areas of the complex and area 2 wasn’t even open by the time I’d done area 1. I headed for area 5 instead which was the Gloriette. It was a distance away and looked open. I had the gardens pretty much to myself in the morning drizzle. Great views back toward the palace.

I knocked off the other three areas. Number 2 was the Orangery which was no great shakes. A bit like walking around a garden centre. It was orange though. 3 was a nice garden and 4 was a maze where I got a bit lost. I’ve never been good at mazes.

I took an Uber to my next landmark which was the Donauturm tower which is the tallest structure in Austria. It was located out of town the other side of the Danube and it wasn’t crowded at all. It’s 827 ft tall and the elevator took me up to the outside platform. Some good views but cold and windy so I didn’t last long there, but the revolving cafe did a nice cheesecake. One rotation took 26 minutes.

The weather had improved dramatically and I decided to divert my hotel bound Uber to Belvedere Palace instead. I wasn’t overly interested in going inside. I’d had an enough internal splendour to last a few weeks so I was content to trot around the outside.

In the evening I went back to St Peter’s for another concert. This time it was a string quartet and they played some wonderful classical music. This was a paid concert and it was thoroughly enjoyable. I’ve never seen a man move his fingers up and down the shaft of his violin as quickly as Lukas. Quite remarkable.

The audience clapped a little too soon on one piece. Some classical music can do that to confuse and embarrass Philistines. I’ve often wondered if there is a woman somewhere called Phyllis Stein. After that they were nervous about clapping too soon and there was a delay at the end of each piece. “Have they or haven’t they…finished”. The signal seemed to be when they withdrew their bows in a slow deliberate movement.

The next day I arrived at Vienna International Flughafen far too early but eventually made my way to the lounge which was excellent. An award winner no less. Seat 1C had me next to 75 year old Yuri originally from Moscow who owns two theatres in Moscow and splits his time between Vienna and Moskva. The war in Ukraine has made travelling between the two quite difficult. Good chap who gave me a different perspective on the war in Ukraine. He still didn’t like Putin though. I blame Lenin. Vienna is a beautiful city and I will hopefully return.

Next stop Azerbaijan.