Last day but one....

Monday, October 4

Allo all!
Soon my trip will be coming to an end.  Thank you all for reading, whoever you are out there!
I spent this morning getting aquainted with them ol' Hapsburgs....(they sure do like gold...)
anyway...i actually really enjoyed going thru the Imperial Apt's mostly because i got totally involved with this whole Sisi deal....the much loved wife of Franz Josef....i can see why...now i want to read more... 

Then the Hapsburg Treasury, supposed to be the best collection in Europe....well...goodness me...i came out feeling i really could have saved myself 12 euros....the one thing i really liked seeing was the Holy Roman Emperor's Crown..... i mean, after all.....doesnt get much more historic than that...well except for the Venus of Willendorf  (more later).  But aside from that, it was just one room after another with robes, jewels...ok jewels are nice..but...holysmokes...enough is enough lol  You can only see so many jewels before you start to have the opposite desire (see Kybalion Universal Law No...um..?)   Hapsburgs and gold equates to Baroque churches and chubby cherubs...after a while you just want to escape to a park (which i did, see later)

Then i walked over to the National Museum of History, solely so i could have a look at the Venus of Willendorf....now this was seriously impressive....her impact is so much more in person than from a picture in a book.  I loved seeing this!

Aint she Loverly?

....25,000 years old they say...and she still looks pretty good, doesnt look a day over 24,867!  I found her to be extraordinary...worth the walk over and the price of admission. (I race-walked through the rest of the museum hehe)



NY Times Crossword!!

Then I escaped to that wonderfully quintessential experience...the Vienna Cafe...ahhh!  had lunch in an old classic one, the Tirolerhof....did the classic thing and pored over a newspaper and lo and behold what did i find? my beloved New York Times Crossword!!
 and a Sunday one at that!  which i finished up, completely content with my Vienna coffee.  The menu was all in German, but I bluffed my way through, ordering soup "keine fleische bitte" (sp?)...am picking up a bit of German here and there : )


Then i went for the 3 pm tour of the Opera House....to prepare for seeing Tosca tomorrow...great tour! and the best part was being able to go backstage - it is simply enormous and they were setting up a huge set for tonight's performance (a different one)...just fascinating to see all this.

Then i walked through the Stadtpark...the beautiful City Park ....beautiful little lake, trees everywhere and the pavillion where Strauss used to do his thing....this park reminded me a bit of St. Stephens Park in Dublin...also beautiful.

Ended my day's adventures by going through the Haus der Musik, nearly beside my hotel....some fun exhibits there plus great headphones for listening to the Vienna Philharmonic....could see all the famous conductors' batons...very cool.

Travel Tip #4 (is it 4 or 3?)....Vienna has SO much to see and do...that in 2 1/2 days, i could only do a little, which was fine ...i am completely content with what i have managed to see.   I dropped Schonnbrun from the list because it would have been too tight and when in Vienna....it is better to go to a cafe than to worry about cramming things in : )  I would have really liked to have seen the Belvedere Palace though, for its Klimt originals....c'est la vie!  I've really enjoyed Vienna...very warm and easy city.  

Cafe Tirolerhof

My hotel here was in such a great location, just one block from the Opera House, so after Tosca tomorrow, I will be "home" in 5 minutes.  Has been easy to find wherever I've gone off to.   Also very easy will be the route to the Airport on Wednesday....there is a metro stop close to my hotel, 2 stops from there, i can catch a special airport train that will have me at the airport in 16 minutes...wow!

Tomorrow, last day.....on tap: watching the Lippizzaners practice in the morning...the Kunthistorisches in the afternoon (wonderful World Class art collection, i cant wait to see these!), then try to print off boarding passes, then a light dinner and finally.....prepare to see my first opera, Tosca!

Gruss Gott!
love and hugs, P.