yk

Hi Fodorites-

DH &amp; I returned yesterday from a 6-day trip to Vienna, with a brief stopover in London. It'll take me a few days to finish my trip report, but I'll start by saying that we both <b>love</b> Vienna! We wish we had more time there, and certainly plan to return to Vienna in the future.

We love art and classical music, and Vienna (as well as London) certainly does not disappoint. To whet your appetite a bit, we went to quite a few art museums and exhibitions:
- Velazquez exhibit at National Gallery in London
- Holbein exhibit at Tate Britain
- Kunsthistorisches Museum, Belvedere, Albertina in Vienna

We also attended the Royal Opera in London, Staatsoper in Vienna, and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra at the Musikverein.

On the downside, I got sick on the day we arrived in Vienna and puked nonstop for about 7 hours...

111op

Welcome back. I've been wondering how your trip went.

But what an &quot;exciting&quot; way to begin your trip! I'm glad thought that the rest seemed to have gone much better.

I'm also curious to see why you love Vienna. I think that city doesn't speak to me despite my interests in art &amp; music.

yk

<b>Background</b>
For those who don't know me (or hadn't read my trip reports before), DH &amp; I are in our early 30s. Both of us have been to London before, 3-4 times for DH, and 13th time for me. But Vienna is a first for both of us. We are budget travelers, though we don't mind spending money on attending classical concerts.

<b>Itinerary</b>
Initially, I was going on the trip alone, as DH didn't think he could take the time off from work. I have been wanting to visit Vienna for over a year now, but getting there from Dallas can be rather challenging. After looking at plane ticket options, I decided to buy 2 separate tickets [DFW-LGW r/t on AA; LHR-VIE r/t on Austrian] with staying in London both ways. This ticketing option cut down the time in Vienna, yet was almost $500 less than a thru ticket from Dallas to Vienna.

I had planned a very hectic traveling schedule for myself, and wouldn't have done so if I had known DH would eventually go also. DH prefers trips to be more relaxing, with time to &quot;smell the roses&quot; so to speak. 3 weeks after I had made my plans, DH found out he could come afterall, so we booked him on the same AA and Austrian flights as me, and change our Vienna hotel reservation from a single to double room.

In the back of my mind, I know I won't be able to hit as many sights with DH coming along. In the end, with the complicating factor of me getting sick, we went to about 1/3 of the Vienna sights I had planned on.

<b>Preparation</b>
Apart from the usual stuff - checking opening times for sights and museums, it was very important to me to be able to attend the Vienna Staatsoper and Vienna Phiilharmonic. Tickets are hard to come by. In the end, I was able to get tickets for both.

For the Staatsoper, I got tickets online exactly one month prior to the performance, with getting up at 3am CST (10am Austria time).

For the Philharmonic, I called the ticket office exactly one week prior to the performance at 2am (9am Austria time).

For London, I bought tickets to Royal Opera in advance, as well as tickets for the Velazquez exhibition at National Gallery.

yk

<b>Day 0
Dallas to London</b>

Our AA flight was scheduled to leave at 5:05pm. We got to DFW over 2 hours early and had plenty of time to spare. We had a leisurely lunch at one of the eateries in the new Terminal D (opened about 1 year ago).

This AA flight is a 777, with 2-5-2 seating in Economy. We had seats 22F/G, which is the 3rd row of economy, on aisle of the middle 5. I knew the flight was quite full, and we were so relieved when only 22C was occupied (22 D/E remained empty).

Our flight took off on time. After dinner service (edible beef or chicken), I took a Advil PM and went to sleep. I sat in 22F and was able to stretch out quite a bit. The Advil PM worked - to a certain degree. It has a benadryl component to it, which made me slept pretty much the entire trip. However, the sleep was not of good quality and I woke up about once an hour. Also, the benadryl caused some seriously dry mouth effect on me. I must have drank 6 cups or more of water and still felt very thirsty.

DH, OTOH, was unable to sleep at all. He probably dozed off for no more than 1 hour on this 9+ hour flight.

Apart from the usual meal service, there was no offering of any additional beverage during the flight. Everytime I needed some water, I had to walk to the back of the plane to ask for it.

We arrived a few minutes early at LGW.

yk

<b>Day 1
LGW to Hotel (Millennium Gloucester)</b>

LGW was surprisingly empty. Maybe because we were the only flight to arrive at that hour - which was just around 8am. Since we were sitting towards the front of Economy, we got off the plane relatively quickly. The line for immigration was very short.

After picking up our luggage, we took the connecting train to S. Terminal to catch the Gatwick Express (GEX).

Even though it was 8:23am by then, the 8:20am GEX hadn't departed yet. We jumped on and the train took off a minute later. The GEX train was completely packed, so we had to stand for the 30-min trip.

[<b>Money-saving tip:</b> I found a promotional code for GEX and bought r/t tix online with a 25% discount. With such discount, the final cost came out to be &pound;37.50 for 2 r/t tickets. The slower-Southern train costs &pound;9pp each way, so it would have come out to &pound;36 total. If I hadn't found the 25% discount, I would have opted for the Southern train.]

We arrived at Victoria station at 8:53am. I couldn't believe that we made it from LGW to Victoria so quickly, considering our plane landed just over 1 hour earlier.

This unexpected early arrival sort of disrupted my plan. By the time we made it to the Tube station and lined up for tickets, it was about 9:15am. I opted to be cheap and bought the <b>off-peak</b> 1-day travelcards, which means that we had to wait around at the tube station for 15 minutes before we could get on.

Finally, we took the District line 3 stops west to Gloucester Road station. The Millennium Gloucester is 1/2 a block from the tube station.

Check-in was quick and we were delighted to find out our room was ready! We were offered a twin room only. No double rooms were available. After a nice hot shower and change of clothings, we were ready to head out at 11am.

[The Millennium Gloucester is a Priceline win. I will write a hotel review at the end of the trip report.]

More to come: Velazquez at NG, Holbein at Tate Britain, La Boheme at ROH...

yk

<b>Day 1 - continued

National Gallery (Velazquez &amp; Cezanne)</b>
We arrived at NG just before 11:30am. I had purchased advance tickets for 11:30am slot. When we arrived, they were selling tix for 12noon.

The Velazquez show is held in the main galleries, instead of the basement of Sainsbury wing. I read several reviews of the show and all the reviewers perferred the current location. Natural light does better justice to the paintings than artificial light.

I am not a big fan of Velazquez, and don't know much about him. At the entrance to the show, one can get a free booklet guide which has narratives to each painting, so that viewers don't have to crowd around each painting to try to read the wall description.

Even though there are limited timed tickets, the place was <b>packed</b>. The show is organized chronologically and divided up into 4 rooms. We found the paintings in the first 2 rooms (earlier painting) rather dull. Colors were dark and muted - lots of brown and dark green.

Beginning in Room 3, the paintings are now the portraitures he's famous for, and they are much better - both in color and in technique. We particularly like the several portraits of Infanta Maria Teresa.

I also noticed that one of the paintings is on loan from the Meadows Museum at Southern Methodist University in Dallas!

We were done with the exhibit in about 45 minutes, then we swung by the <b>Cezanne in Britain</b> exhibit. The name is somewhat deceptive, as Cezanne had never set foot in Britain. The show is actually on paintings by Cezanne that reside in the British Isles. We went through it quickly, then headed off for lunch.

<b>Lunch in Chinatown</b>
I wanted to have Chinese food, so we set off for Chinatown. After checking out numerous restaurants, we settled on <b>China China</b> (3 Gerrard Street).

P ordered Chicken and Fried Pork over rice. I had a beef brisket noodle soup. We shared a plate of stir-fried vegetables (yau choy). Total came out to &pound;16.

After lunch, we walked over to Covent Garden to pick up our tickets for that evening's opera - La Boheme. Then to the tube station to Pimlico station to Tate Britain.

WillTravel

Being sick sure does slow down a trip, as does taking a family member. I'm glad you had a good time anyway.

JoeTro

can i ask how the cezanne in britain was? i was really hoping to make it before it closes, but I don't think I'll be able to, and I'm wondering what I've missed. I love impressionism but have never been crazy about cezanne's landscapes.

JoeTro

By the way, I'm from Dallas too. Small world. I believe both the DMA and the Meadows are going to have some great exhibitions at Christmas.

yk

JoeTro-

What a coincidence that we're all from Dallas and are going (or have gone in our case) to London/Vienna. Where else are you going on your trip?

Anyway, like I said, we breezed through the Cezanne exhibit. Even though I like Cezanne somewhat, we were both quite tired at that time and were starving. I don't recall seeing any particular gems that really stood out. So no, I doubt you're missing anything major.

yk

JoeTro-

BTW, are you talking about the Van Gogh show at the DMA and the &quot;Cranach to Monet&quot; at Meadows? I've gone to both and was underwhelmed. Not bad, but of course one can't compare them to blockbuster shows in London/NY.

I'm looking forward to the Matisse show early next year, which is a combo show done by DMA/Nasher.

Even though you like mainly Impressionism, I'd still highly recommend the Sugimoto photo exhibit at the FW Modern. It is absolutely stunning and should not be missed!

yk

<b>Day 1 - continued

Holbein at Tate Britain</b>
Just to recap - We flew overnight to London and had minimal sleep. We hit the ground running, and by now it's 2:15pm and we're practically zombies.

We weren't crazy about <b>Holbein</b> at all. However, we recently saw a photo exhibit by <b>Sugimoto</b> where there were photos of wax sculptures of <b>Henry VIII and Jane Seymour</b>. These wax sculptures (Madame Tussaud) were based on paintings of them done by Holbein.

[<b>Money-saving tip</b>: The Holbein exhibit charges admission &pound;10. However, one can print out a 2-for-1 coupon on daysoutguide.co.uk for this. It's valid with any train ticket - we used our 1-day Travelcard.]

There were no lines for tickets, and the show was not nearly as crowded as Velazquez. However, it was still a lot of people. I didn't realize majority of the exhibits are drawings instead of oil paintings. Given our exhausted state, I got tired of looking at the drawings. I also didn't have a chance to read the reviews in detail ahead of time, so I didn't know what to look for specifically. Anyway, we were happy to see the Jane Seymour portrait, as it normally resides at Kuntshistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Towards the end of the exhibit, I found myself falling asleep while standing up! It's a sign it's time to go. We only spent about 45 minutes there. (One of the reviewers wrote that it took him 3 hours to go through the show.)

We hurried back to our hotel via Tube and were so happy with the sight of our beds! We set the alarm clock for 6pm and slept soundly for the next 2.5 hours.

yk

<b>Day 1 (final)

Royal Opera at Covent Garden</b>

Our alarm went off at 6pm, and yes, we were still very tired despite a 2.5-hour nap. We freshened up, changed, and headed to Covent Garden.

Our seats are not together, but 6 seats apart, because I had bought my ticket first when initially I thought DH was not coming on the trip. Anyway, we were too polite to ask others to move, so we just sat apart. Our &pound;50 tickets landed us still on the top level, but center seats with a great view of the stage.

The opera that night was <b>La Boheme</b>, which surprisingly I had seen at the ROH twice before already. The current production dates back to 1974, so that's nothing new there. I wonder when ROH will stage a new production for it?

Despite having seen it numerous times, it was still a wonderful production. This is especially true for DH, as he had never been to a first-class opera performance before (he's only seen operas in Philadelphia, Dallas and Fort Worth).

During intermission, we had the requisite <b>ice-cream</b> (&pound;2). It is made exclusively for ROH and apparently recipient of many awards.

<b>Dinner</b>
The opera ended at 10:30p, and we ventured back to <b>Chinatown</b> again for dinner. This time we picked <b>HK Diner</b> (22 Wardour Street). DH ordered a fried <i>ho fun</i> noodle with shredded pork and vegetables. I had a <i>century egg</i> and pork congee. DH also ordered a beer while I had an iced <i>yin-yang</i>, which is a mixture of coffee and Hong Kong-style milk tea.

The food is good and we certainly will return there in the future. &quot;Good&quot; in the sense that it's authentic Cantonese-diner cuisine. Don't expect anything fancy. Dinner came out to &pound;16.

HK Diner
22 Wardour Street
020 7434 9544
Opens 11a - 4am

By the time we made it back to the hotel, it was 12 midnight. We collapsed in our beds. Our alarm is set for <b>3am</b> the next morning.

111op

It reminds me that I've yet to write about Holbein, but I guess I probably won't have the time to do it. I actually didn't have time to see the drawings really so focused on the paintings. I think that the best of them can basically still be seen in public museums anyway. There's one beautiful female portrait -- but that's in London's National Gallery.

I remember three portraits of Erasmus, and the largest and what seemed to be the most elaborate one is actually in a private collection (one came from the Louvre, can't recall about the last one).

What I find astonishing about this exhibition is how much the Queen lent to it. In that sense I think that it really was a unique experience that could only be experienced at Tate Britain.

That -- and what most reviews have pointed out -- for the first time in about 450 years, the portraits of Henry VIII, Jane Seymour and their son Prince of Wales are reunited. But of course, all three paintings normally reside in public museums.

yk

<b>Day 2

London to Vienna</b>
Yes, our alarm went off at <b>3am</b>. Our flight to VIE leaves at 6:15am and I had scheduled a car service pick-up at 4am at the hotel.

I had reserved <b>Just Airports</b>, which I had read many rave reviews here, but also a few negative ones. I was actually somewhat worried using them after the negative responses here. But compared to some other car service, I think Just Airports have the best price.

To my relief, our phone rang at 3:55am and the driver was waiting downstairs. We hurried down, checked out, and got on the car. The driver was very curteous and professional. His driving was very safe. I would not hesitate to recommend Just Airports here based on our (one and only) experience.

Without any traffic at all, we arrived at <b>LHR</b> Terminal 2 just after 4:20am. The cost for the service was &pound;25.

I initially thought we arrived too early for our flight, but changed my mind once we got inside the terminal. The place was full of travelers already and seemed chaotic. We found Austrian Airlines and there was already 3 different lines forming, each line was about 20 people deep.

The check-in counters, OTOH, were not open yet. They were scheduled to open at 4:30am.

Instead of the usual way of lining up here in the US - with one line only for multiple counters, the Austrian check-in has 4 lines for 4 counters. Of course, we ended up in the <i>slowest</i> line. The agents finally began check-in at 4:40am, and the agent in our line took 15 minutes to check in one pax. I really don't understand why on earth it could possibly take so long, and the 2nd pax was taking up just as much time.

Finally, DH and I moved to another line which moved faster. We got our boarding passes at <b>5:10am</b>.

Next, we joined the long line through security, which took another 20 minutes. We had a few minutes to spare, so DH got some coffee which I had about 1/3 of it.

By the time we boarded the plane, I wasn't feeling too well. I decided it was due to being tired and lack of sleep, so I got out my eye mask and neck pillow and rested.

Breakfast was served and I had no appetite at all. Then I began to feel nauseated. I thought maybe it was from motion sickness. DH was eating a piece of bread, and I took a small bite hoping it would help settle my stomach. Instead, up came a cup of gastric fluid mixed with coffee. Thank goodness there was an air sickness bag in the seatback pocket!

I managed to make it through the flight without throwing up more. The following details were a bit fuzzy...

I threw up one more time at the immigration hall. After picking up our luggage and went through customs, we sat down on a bench in the arrivals hall. I was feeling too nauseated to even get up and walk, let alone taking the train to get to the city.

I ended up lying down the the metal bench for the next <b>2 hours</b>, while throwing up every 30 minutes or so and having shaking chills. Towards the end, not much was coming up. DH had to go to a store to ask for a plastic bag for me.

Finally, I decided that lying on this bench at the airport is not the solution, and I would be better off lying in a bed at the hotel. Poor DH had to drag both our luggage, while I was holding up the plastic bag to my face.

I vomited a few more times on the CAT (City Airport Train, &euro;16pp r/t) which took us to Mitte station in just 16 minutes.
http://www.cityairporttrain.com/home/

[The CAT is much more expensive than the slightly slower S-Bahn, which also stops at Mitte. But because I was feeling so poorly, I felt the splurge was justified. OTOH, I didn't want to take a taxi directly to the hotel as I was worried the motion of the taxi would make me fee worse.]

Instead of switching to the U-Bahn at Mitte, we took a taxi instead to our hotel, <b>Pension Suzanne</b>, which is located near the Opera House. Taxi fare was &euro;10 (tip-included).

By the time we arrived at the hotel, it was after 1pm. Luckily, our room was ready and I collapsed in the bed.

DH got directions to the nearest supermarket, so he set off to get himself some lunch as well as some drinks for me.

I was somewhat worried about myself. I hadn't eaten or drank anything all day and I could tell I was getting very dehydrated and lightheaded. If I continue to vomit, I may need to go to a hospital for some iv fluids. Of course I didn't buy travel medical insurance this time!

Fortunately, by the time DH returned with some juices, the worst seemed to have passed and I was able to keep the juice down.

After DH finished his lunch in our room, I sent him off for more errands - picking up our Staatsoper tickets and Philharmonic tickets at their respective offices. I slept some more while DH is gone.

By 5:30pm, I was finally feeling better and able to function. DH finished his tasks also, so we freshened up and headed out to make the best of our &quot;wasted&quot; day.

yk

BTW, I'm not looking for any sympathy here by describing my illness. I know for sure it is because I ran myself down with this hectic schedule and got sick when my body is exhausted. I did try to drink lots of OJ before and during the DFW flight to London, but I guess it didn't help much.

Anyway, this was a valuable lesson learned. I have to come to terms that my body is not like it was when I was 18, and it really needs its rest. In the future, I won't be making such crazy schedules.

It is ironic afterall. The reason I booked us on the <b>6:15am</b> flight was so that we could get into Vienna early and still had a good number of hours left to go sightseeing. Instead, the lack of sleep got me in trouble, and the day ended being unproductive.

111op

Sorry that the first day was so awful. Could fatigue really have caused this? Were you already under the weather when you took off for Europe? (You mentioned Benadryl.)

yk

I'm pretty sure it was due to exhaustion which made me susceptible to any virus. I acutally felt fine up until I got on the Austrian flight. I felt well when I got up at 3am, and during the ride to Heathrow. I was very surprised by how quickly this illness striked and how debilitating it made me in such short time. Thank goodness, I got over it as quickly as it hit.

yk

<b>Day 2 - continued

Mozarthaus</b>
There are a few tourist attractions that open late. Mozarthaus is one of them. We left our hotel at 6pm and walked down Karntner Strasse towards Stephansdom. It took us some effort before we located Mozarthaus (Domgasse 5).

Previously known as <b>Figarohaus</b>, Mozarthaus is the only building in Vienna still exists where Mozart had lived. He lived there with his family for about 3 years, during the highest point in his career. He wrote the opera <b>Marriage of Figaro</b> while living there, and hence its old name.

Admission is &euro;10 and includes a free audioguide. The house layout spreads over 3 floors, and the exhibit begins on the top floor. We found the long-winded audioguide exhausting. There isn't much artifact to see actually.

Back on the first floor, we actually see Mozart's apartment and some period furniture. We spent about one hour there and left at 7:30pm.

[Compared to Mozarts Geburtshaus in Salzburg, I prefer the Salzburg one where visitors get to see instruments played by him and manuscripts.]

<b>Dinner</b>
I didn't do any research on restaurants or dinner options for that night. As I was still not feeling well, I didn't want to eat at a formal restaurant and then had to throw up. We spotted a <b>Nordsee</b> - which is a German chain seafood restaurant - right on Karntner Strasse. This ended up, not surprisingly, the worst meal on this trip.

I had a salmon dinner, which has 2 salmon fillets, baked potatoes, broccoli, and mushrooms in cream sauce. The salmon was dry, broccoli was more yellow than green. DH ordered seafood paella, which was somewhat better. Dinner plus a beer and a water came out to &euro;22,80.

We were in bed by 9pm that night.

yk

<b>Day 3

A Late Start</b>
Despite going to bed at 9pm the night before, we didn't wake up until <b>9:15am</b>! We quickly got ready, had breakfast (included with room rate), and set off for some real sightseeing. I have completely recovered from my illness the day before and was ready.

Our first stop was <b>Kuntshistorisches Museum</b>, which is one of the greatest Western art galleries in the world. It was a nice 15-min walk there from our hotel.
http://www.khm.at/

Admission was &euro;10, and audioguide is extra. We decided not to get it. I came equipped with a 10-page Rick Steves' guide to KHM, which is surprisingly useful.
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/desti...ria/kunst1.htm

Currently, there is an exhibition on display - Bellini, Giorgione, Titian - which was shown at National Gallery of Art in DC earlier this year. The show took up several of the main galleries of the museum, which threw us off a bit based on the map and listings of paintings in the RS's guide.

The layout of KHM is somewhat confusing. The large galleries (with large-format paintings) are towards the center of the building. Smaller galleries line the periphery. One can easily skip 1 or 2 small galleries if one doesn't pay attention, and may miss some gems in those small galleries.

Anyhow, we enjoyed the Bellini exhibit, but that wasn't the reason we went. Next up is the <b>Bruegel Room</b>. It was just an amazing sight, to see all these beautiful paintings side by side. The best part? The museum wasn't crowded at all, unlike what we encountered in London. One can spend 5-10 minutes in front of each Bruegel without being crowded upon or pushed to the side. Even DH, who isn't a fan of Bruegel, was very impressed. It was just great to look at the actual paintings and see all the minute details instead of looking at reproductions in books.

There are plenty of other gems, including a beautiful Raphael (Madonna in the Meadows), Mantegna, several Caravaggios, Rembrandts, Vermeer, Bosch, Cranach and Durer etc.

We also came upon 2 small portraits done by <b>Jan van Eyck</b>. The details on the portraits face are so fine and meticulous. One of the portrait is of a goldsmith named Jan De Leeuw. I thought he has a strong resemblance to DH!

[A few other famous paintings, mainly the Velazquez and Holbein ones, are on loan in London.]

It took us about 3 hours to go through the picture gallery. We went downstairs and walked quickly through the Egyptian and Roman Antiquities section. Sadly, the Decorative Arts section is closed, where the Cellini Saltcellar (&quot;Saliera&quot is kept.

We decided to get lunch at the <b>cafe</b> inside KHM. DH ordered a sausage plate (2 frankfurters with mustard and bread roll &euro;4). I had a potato cream soup with mushrooms. We then shared a truffle torte for desert. Above plus water and a latte came out to &euro;22.

After lunch, we stopped by the <b>museum shop</b> and bought some souvenirs and postcards. We finally left KHM 4 hours later.

If there were only <b>one place</b> I could visit on this trip to Vienna, it would most certainly be KHM.

It was a beautiful sunny day, yet we spent most of the daylight hours indoors. (It turns out to be the only sunny day we had in Vienna.)