Prague, Vienna and Budapest Trip Report

Old Jun 15th, 2018, 10:32 AM
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Prague, Vienna and Budapest Trip Report

A much anticipated trip for daughter and me – we like history, art, and architecture & have never been to Central Europe. We booked a tour that gave us 3 nights in each city, with a morning general tour of each, then 1 ½ days free (although the tour company provided excursions that could fill most of the free time). Typicalflight out of Atlanta, we were almost 2 hours late leaving Atlanta for JKF. Didn’t matter since we had planned a 5 hour layover (experience with Delta flights out of Atlanta have taught us to do this). Also left NYC about 90 minutes late; landed in Prague at 1:30 Friday afternoon. Trafalgar tour director there to meet us; bus back to our Prague hotel, the Angelo by Vienna, in the Smichov district.

We had a free hour before the tour reception, so we walked to the river, by a little shopping district, across tram lines, up a hill (about 12 minutes) to a busy river bridge. A nice view but we realized that we were not close to the historic city center.
Loaded up in bus for our welcome dinner – restaurant up on Castle Hill Slept well (I like these European beds with firm mattresses and flat pillows!), up early so walked to river alone. Sun strong even at 6:30 a.m. & warm. Sun rises at 4:45 a.m. & sets about 8:45 in Central Europe; I guess they don't have daylight saving time. Breakfast in the sunny & pleasant restaurant: excellent carrot juice, plenty of the usual eggs, cold meats, cheeses, fruits, yogurts, etc. Tried the beet juice once but that was enough. Met our excellent Czech guide, Peter, on the bus. Loved all the Prague buildings with their intricate details, particularly on the top floors. We walked from bus unloading, through castle security, around the castle to St. Vitus Cathedral (beautiful, we went in but very briefly, only to the free part), then around to an excellent overlook area for city. Loaded back in bus, drove to Old Town square, walked past the very disappointing empty hole where the wonderful Astronomical Clock (it’s being repaired) should have been on the Town Hall. On to the Jewish Quarter, where Peter talked about the Old/New Synagogue & the Jewish Town Hall next door with its 2 clocks. By 11:30, our city tour was over and then we headed off on our own.

Peter had mentioned that we were very close to St. Charles University & it had up a free exhibit about its recent history, so we headed there, away from the crowded Old Town Square. St. Charles was adjacent to the National Theatre, a beautiful large building. Exhibit very good, helped me realize how important the University was/is to the life of the Republic. (Tomas Masaryk, Czechoslovakia’s chief founder and first president, was a philosophy professor.)
We seemed to tire so quickly, walking on the cobblestones, in the heat. The high that day was only 79 but with sun beating down, it felt much hotter.

We had a nice lunch outside in the shade, I enjoyed Czech goulash in a bread bowl. We walked by Tyn Cathedral but unfortunately it was closed for its 2 hour lunch break; went into the free parts of the beautiful Art Nouveau Municipal House. . Its interior reminded me of San Francisco buildings.
We went on to the Klementinum, a complex of large buildings some dating back to the 1250s. By 1556, it was part of a Jesuit college and by 1700s, it was Charles University’s library and then the National Library of Czechoslovakia. We paid for a 50 minute English tour.

The Baroque Library Hall was disappointing; we were only allowed to peer in to a roped off area, no photos. It has a famous painted ceiling, old globes, old books, etc. We saw a facsimile of the “star of the collection”, the 11
th century Vysehrad codex, under glass.
Meridan Hall, with its centuries old astronomical equipment, was interesting but best part of tour, by far, was the view of the historic town center from the Astronomical Tower. I had to climb a lot of spiral steps and then steep 18th century creaky wooden steps to get there & it is hard for me, with a touch of acrophobia, to walk around on high, exposed places but this was a view worth those trials. We had signed up for a 7:00 evening walking tour of Prague so decided to make our way back to the hotel at 5:00 p.m. So much for our hopes to get back to Castle Hill and the Straher Monastery. Very pleasant 45 minute walk along the river, with frequent rest stops.

The Vlatva River was alive with riverboats, paddleboats, swans, ducks, and people. We saw the famous “Dancing House”; I was very disappointed, much preferred the classical Prague architecture.
We grabbed a quick grocery store supper of hummus, bulgar wheat salad, olives, and raspberries and ate with our feet up in the hotel room. Very tired.

Our group headed to New Town from the hotel; Peter provided excellent commentary and opinion on Prague political life. Wenceslaus Square, which is a boulevard, was bordered at one end by the huge neo-classical Czech National Museum (which we never had time to visit) & also the site of a huge statute of King Wenceslaus on a horse.
Peter pointed out the Melantrich Building balcony where Dubcek and Havel appeared together in 1989, signifying the success of the Velvet Revolution. Wenceslaus was the site of massive protests both in 1968 and in 1989. He also took us in the Lucerna Arcade for view of the upside down Wenceslaus on a horse statue, perhaps a political statement on current Czech politicians. And then on through a beautiful garden (such roses!), with a close-up view of the beautiful Church of Our Lady of the Snow; across the street then to a restaurant where we had beer & pretzels down in an ancient basement, with a musician playing lively folk tunes.

After that rest, we headed to the St. Charles Bridge, built in the late 1300s, to see it (and the surrounding city) lit up at night. Lots of people but very magical out there with its 30 statues. Many of the statues are now copies with the originals in museums (rather sad!).
Back to the hotel, very tired, about 10:15 p.m. Tomorrow the Jewish Quarter.

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Old Jun 15th, 2018, 10:37 AM
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Advice needed -- I wrote above post and copied & pasted it in from Word. I can't seem to get paragraph indentations and extra spacing between paragraphs to show in the post as it appears on the Forum. Sorry about the one long run-on paragraph.
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Old Jun 15th, 2018, 10:45 AM
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Use hard returns to get paragraphs.

You don't need to space it.

We can tell this is a different paragraph from the preceding one.
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Old Jun 15th, 2018, 12:35 PM
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It looks like the moderators added a Trip Report tag AND inserted paragraph breaks for you.
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Old Jun 15th, 2018, 12:56 PM
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Continuing with the 2nd day in Prague . . .

Many of our fellow tour members headed out to Kunta Hora for a Trafalgar excursion but we stayed in the city, to spend time thoroughly exploring the Jewish Quarter. Caught the tram a couple of blocks from our hotel at 8:30 and had a very pleasant ride into town, did a quick detour to walk over the uncrowded bridge that could give us views of Charles Bridge. Then bought our tickets at the Jewish Center and hurried to get over to the Old/New Synagogue soon after it opened at 9:00. Peter, our Czech guide, had told us the ambience would be spoiled if it were crowded and we were fortunate, we spent about 30 minutes there, in its small space and only had 2 or 3 fellow tourists wander through.

We had a bit of trouble finding the entrance since one has to go down steps . . . the level of the street now is considerably higher than it was when the synagogue was first built.

First synagogue I had ever visited so I was very grateful when a docent came in and asked if I had any questions. The synagogue building itself was built in the 13th century, in Gothic style. At that time, it was known as the “New Synagogue”, replacing an older, smaller synagogue. It seemed small, the size of my old country church that could hold perhaps 100 people and in plainness. There were wooden individual chairs around the edges, most with family names on them. I learned the light over the altar indicated that it was an active synagogue, still holding services. There was an outer room where women could possibly hear the service, although the docent explained to me that in medieval times, women’s attendance at services was not considered necessary.

There was also one chair that had a bar across it; that was the traditional seat of the Rabbi Loew, the 15th century rabbi of such goodness that no one has been considered worthy of his seat since (Legend says this Rabbi created the Golem to save the Jewish community in a time of peril.)
In the center was a wrought iron cage called the bimah. Above it was a reproduction of an ancient red flag with the star of David that the Jews were given by one of the medieval Emperors as their city flag. This was also the synagogue where Franz Kafka had his bar mitzvah.

Very moving experience visiting the oldest synagogue in Europe. I still feel though that I did not understand it or its history.

Next we visited the Maisel Synagogue, which is now just a museum. Originally constructed in 1590 by the wealthy mayor of the Jewish community, it was later extensively damaged by fire and redone in a neo-Gothic style in 1895. It now has exhibits on Jewish religious artifacts. (Was used by the Nazis to store their collections from synagogues in Central Europe.)

Then on to the Pinkas Synagogue, which is now a memorial to the murdered Jews of Bohemia and Moravia, with names engraved on every available wall space. Upstairs is a heart wrenching art display from the children of Teleztin. It is adjacent to the Jewish cemetery, which is a jumble of tombstones and trees, with the earliest burial dating back to the 15th century and the most recent one being 1787. It was a small plot of land to be used for so long as a cemetery, the graves were laid on top of one another. Some prominent families had stone tombs over their graves. Many markers were still readable, some had symbols (ex: hands) which referred either to their names or occupations.

Next we visited the Klausen Synagogue and Ceremonial Hall, also now museum space. The exhibits in the Ceremonial Hall related to the Jewish Burial Society.
We broke for an excellent lunch at the Golem Restaurant, near the Old/New Synagogue. Despite its name and location, many of its dishes included pork. My lunch was sour cabbage, potato dumplings and roasted beef. And then took a brief detour to visit the Tyn Cathedral, which we had missed the previous day. It’s a massive Gothic church, in the middle of Prague’s Old Town, and its interior was perhaps the lightest & brightest of any Gothic church I’ve ever been in.

Last synagogue was the Spanish synagogue, the largest and most beautiful of them. It was built in the mid to late 1800s, in the “Moorish style” that was popular then. Beautiful, bright colors and mosaics; very different from the other synagogues. A very open balcony for women.

This synagogue also has exhibits but also some services; the light hanging above the altar was on. Exhibits covered the history of the Czech Jews from Emancipation to the Present & seemed interesting but at this point, we were exhausted.

I am very grateful for the time we spent in the Jewish Quarter, but it may be that we needed a guide to better understand what we were seeing. We did rely on a guidebook.

We then walked over to the St. Agnes Convent. Part of the convent houses the museum of medieval art & has an admission charge, but we wandered through the cloister and chapel areas, out to a little garden, very charming. It was Gothic architecture (from the same time period as the Old/New Synagogue) and has been restored very nicely.

Again, we had hoped to make it back to Castle Hill but energy was lagging. 5:30 and we walked back to the Charles Bridge to have one last good view of Prague and then back to our hotel for the evening, again with supper from the local grocery store.

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Old Jun 15th, 2018, 02:48 PM
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CLBtravel - to get a paragraph break do a double return . . .

Then you get a break like this.
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Old Jun 16th, 2018, 05:15 AM
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This is well written and I'm looking forward to you getting to Budapest, one of my favourite cities.
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Old Jun 16th, 2018, 08:54 AM
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Very nice review. Thanks for sharing. Hoping for more.
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Old Jun 16th, 2018, 12:47 PM
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yes, sorry you've had formatting problems but I'm enjoying reading as well, and looking forward to reading about more of your travels.

Keep it coming!
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Old Jun 17th, 2018, 12:52 PM
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Continuing on . . . yes, Budapest was probably my favorite place, too. Prague had most beautiful architecture, Vienna the art, and Budapest the most interesting history

. . .Monday . . . Left Prague with regrets about all that we didn’t get to see but glad for the time we spent. Through countryside, into Slovakia, and arrived at Bratislava for a 2 ½ hour lunch break, Rick Steve’s in hand. First look at the Danube here. Hot and sunny as we headed for the cobblestoned historic center of town. Enjoyed the whimsical statutes here . . . a huge Hans Christian Anderson (who did some folk tale collecting in the area), a Napoleon era French soldier, and a “man at work” from the Communist era. We walked around and through the courtyards of the Old Town Hall & the Primatial Palace, a lovely pale pink and white building that is now a museum with 6 family medieval English tapestries that I would love to have seen (but alas, closed on Monday). We continued on through streets with shops & poked our head into their courtyards, as encouraged by Rick Steves, to see even more shops. Quickly got sandwiches and very tasty strawberries at a nearby grocery store pointed out to us by tour guide & ate in the shade; then hurried over to see St. Martin’s Cathedral. If we had realized how interesting & old it was and that it was built into the city’s old medieval walls, then we would have cut short our street gazing and been here first. It is a Gothic cathedral, first built 1350-1450, the “re-Gothizied” in the late 1800s. Right next to the cathedral is a Holocaust memorial, on the site of a Jewish synagogue that had existed side by side with it for centuries, until razed by the Communists in 1970. [BC1] Made it back to meet the bus on time, hot and tired again. Crossing into Austria, we did have all our passports checked but it was a quick process.

Arrived at Vienna hotel, the Mercure, at 4:15. Lovely hotel, very quiet, with the entrance in a courtyard between two streets. Also very large hotel – it seemed to take us 5 minutes to get from front desk to our room.
Many in our group were going off for a Strauss/Mozart dinner concert but instead we headed to Stadtpark – unfortunately, headed the wrong way from hotel so by the time we backtracked and then walked the 5 or 6 blocks to the park, we were tired again. Park very lush and green, with flowers, statues, a little lake, a very small flowing stream (maybe the Vienna River?), lots of ducks, people, and dogs. We were able to pick up a quick supper from a Turkish food stand at the corner of the park; ate on a park bench where our food attracted a dog out on his walk. Had good conversation with dog owner, whose English (of course) was very good and who knew our home area (Atlanta) as a new booming film center. Park was Vienna’s first and established in 1862. Took pictures of the Golden Strauss statute, of course, and then made our way back to hotel.

Tuesday, Vienna . . . Very nice breakfast outside this morning. Our city guide for Vienna, also named Peter, gave us history of Ringstrausse as we started out. First stop was the Kunsthistorisches (Art History) Museum, where we had a “before opening” tour of the treasury. Museum was huge & gorgeous, built in 1891 to house the Habsburg art collection. I was much more excited about its collection of old paintings than I was about the guided tour of the treasury. Still, I did see interesting things, including the famous Cellini salt and pepper cellar that was stolen & then recovered a few years ago. Also saw wonderful old clocks, tapestries, an interesting early Protestant altarpiece (very much like Catholic painted ones but with lots of text), and some charming, unusual stone tile mosaic paintings. Just not my highest priorities to see in this museum. When tour was over, we had 45 minutes left for the museum itself (which had now opened) but that also had to include a bathroom stop. We headed first for their one Vermeer and it was the best one I’ve ever seen, The Art of Painting. Museum wasn’t crowded so I could be upfront, center, and just look at it for several minutes without feeling guilty. A real treat. It’s physically the largest Vermeer painting I’ve ever seen. We were in the Dutch/Flemish section, so we also spent time with Pieter Brueghel, saw his famous Peasant Wedding but I liked his winter scenes best. We also made sure to see the Klimt murals in the museum as we were leaving; had planned to return for the entire afternoon (our ticket used for pre-opening visit would still be good) but learned that Putin would be opening a big new exhibition on loan from the Hermitage that evening, and the Museum was closing at 1:00 p.m. for a security sweep. Bad luck for timing for us! We continued on with the city tour (looking back, we should have just stayed at museum) but the rest just consisted of walking around the center of Vienna, seeing the outside of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the shopping street, the Habsburgs chapel, and the outside of the huge Hofburg Palace (although this was useful in getting oriented to the area).

We ate lunch at a nearby salad and buffet place (how nice to have lots of green choices!) and then headed to the National Library, State Hall, part of the Hofburg Palace. This was such a treat to me – a beautiful library with marvelous exhibits (in German and English) celebrating its 650
th anniversary.
The exhibit remembered early scholar librarians, showed copies of early inventories, and then what is claimed to be the first “card catalog” (entries about the books were written on slips of paper that could be alphabetized and interfiled). Continued through WWI and the Nazis and the question of restitution for stolen items that were added to collection during those times. Beautiful handwritten records! By the time we finished with the Library, it was almost 4:00. Daughter very much wanted to see the interior of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, so we walked back there but once inside, it was discouraging. Very crowded and hot. We walked around the free parts of the interior, but she decided against paying to go up to the nave. Really disappointed in the cathedral. Neither of us had energy to climb the tower for a view. We walked around some outside the cathedral, too. It has a beautiful, unusual colored tile roof, lots of interesting stone carvings. I especially liked the outside pulpit which is supposedly where an important bishop preached to a bigger crowd than could fit into the cathedral itself, to power them up for the battle with the Ottomans, when they were at the gates of Vienna in the 1500s. We got a bratwurst for supper from one of the street stands, sat with lots of other folks squeezed together on benches in the shade, while helicopters zoomed overhead, probably because of the Putin visit. And then, just walked home to hotel (with another short stop in Stadtpark). Very embarrassing to be in for the night at 7:00 but we were both exhausted.
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Old Jun 18th, 2018, 04:24 AM
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You and I (and your daughter) were at KHM at the same time! I was attending with my art group a guided presentation of, "The Shape of Time," that was supposed to have been followed by the vernissage for the "Old Masters from the Hermitage" except that the latter was unexpectedly canceled (presumably because of the Putin visit). DH and I returned on the weekend for the latter exhibit and thought it well done.

Bruegel's landscapes are among my favorites. The paintings have all been spruced up (somewhat a controversial topic) in preparation for the Bruegel exhibit that commences in the fall, just in case you are planning a return.
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Old Jun 18th, 2018, 09:10 AM
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Nice TR so far, CLBTravel. Shame that you lost the opportunity of going back to the KHM due to Putin's visit.

Like you we liked Prague a lot [though we were there between Christmas and New Year quite a few years ago] and Bratislava where we spent one night having flown into what Ryanair describes as Vienna Airport though it's actually in another country. It seemed to be too good an opportunity to throw up and we often talked about going back and exploring more of the Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

Looking forward to reading more about your impressions of Vienna!
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Old Jun 20th, 2018, 07:45 PM
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Enjoying your report very much. We too are visiting Vienna and Budapest for the first time this September. Looking forward to the rest of your report.
We were in Prague 5 years ago. At the time, we took a tour of Terezin concentration camp outside of Prague where the children drew those pictures. As you said it was very moving. If you would like to read a historical novel I would recommend The Lost Wife by Alyson Richman. It is set in Terezin and goes into the details of those drawings. Another book by Hana Volavkova contains images of the surviving art work and poetry it is titled I Never Saw Another Butterfly.
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Old Jul 5th, 2018, 08:19 AM
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Hi, I am so glad to read your report and look forward to Vienna and Budapest as my husband and I will be traveling in your footsteps in reverse in less than 2 weeks. Thank you for such a detailed review of your trip. How was the weather? The temperature will be in the low 80's when we are there and that means getting out walking early and going to museums in the heat of the day. Can't wait for the next segment.
Cheers
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Old Jul 6th, 2018, 03:15 PM
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Am planning on finishing this over the weekend, got interrupted with a work trip to New Orleans that included a little time for sight seeing. It was hotter in the three cities than we expected; felt hotter than the temperatures (with official highs around 80) indicated. I live in middle Georgia -- I'm used to heat and humidity and nowadays, super air conditioning in buildings. The sun seemed to heat up the city center cobblestones and reflect off them, making it feel hotter than it should fee. Budapest was the coolest of the three, just because we had overcast days there. Not all museums are air conditioned. The Holfburg in Vienna didn't seem to be; it was very hot and stuffy in there early afternoon.
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Old Jul 6th, 2018, 03:18 PM
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The Jewish Museum had a tour offering to Terezin when we were there but time didn't permit our taking advantage of it, unfortunately. I agree about I Never Saw Another Butterfly; I saw a stage version of it several years ago and remember it clearly.
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Old Jul 8th, 2018, 12:38 PM
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Wednesday, Vienna . . . day started early as we had decided to join the Trafalgar excursion that left hotel at 7:45 for Schonbrunn Palace. I had read the two Sisi historical novels by Allison Pataki and was expecting the “summer palace” to be much further from city center and to have much more related to Sisi and Franz Joseph in it. Instead, our tour concentrated on Empress Marie Theresa, who had remodeled it from a hunting lodge into a Baroque palace in the 1750s. Over 1400 rooms, we saw only a few and I remember very little of the house tour, except Marie Theresa’s Chinese room and the huge ballroom gallery at the front of the palace which we were told was used for JFK and Khrushchev’s historic meeting.


Trafalgar told us that by taking their tour we would be arriving early, before the crowds. That was partially true; the tour groups did seem to enter about 15-30 minutes before the general opening. But we had to leave at 10:00, which gave us less than 2 hours total. Daughter and I spent the last 45 minutes in the gardens and that was perhaps my favorite part. Huge, huge, lovely gardens. The part closest to the palace seemed to be mostly an English rose garden but there were other, more out of the way spots that had shade trellises, big trees, small fountains, etc. We made it up to the huge Neptune fountain for some nice views of the palace and of the Gloriette (which we didn’t have time to walk up to).


Tour returned us to hotel (passing the statute of Russian WWII soldier with its huge wreath of flowers laid the day before by Putin). We rested for a moment & then walked back towards city center. We stopped for a very early lunch at the Aida coffeehouse closest to St. Stephen’s. Our guide from yesterday had recommended this chain. We managed to get an outdoors table in the shade (sun was very hot); daughter had coffee and apple strudel, I had water and club sandwiches (we shared). It’s hard for an impatient person like myself, determined to see all that is possible during short time, to relax and wait for service. But I did. We talked to some Australians at table next to us; I think all customers were tourists and almost all orders were for desserts. My sandwich request came as a surprise to the waiter. Sandwiches good, strudel a bit of a disappointment.


Then, on to the Hofburg Palace. We had assumed this would be air conditioned – wrong! First stop on the tour was the Sisi museum and this was hot and very crowded. I enjoyed seeing her and Franz Joseph’s rooms, particularly Franz Joseph’s office & desk. We went quickly through many rooms of silver, serving dishes and china. Most interesting part were collections of drawings and paintings done by Maria Theresa’s husband and daughters. They were surprisingly charming.


Rather sad to see the cradle and room of Napoleon’s son.


By the time we came out of the Hofburg, it was 2:30 and cloudy, threatening rain. We considered going to the nearby Jewish Museum (other folks who were with tour told us later Museum was in 2 parts and very good). We decided we’d had enough of being indoors & hot so we walked to the tram stop that took us out to the Belvedere Palace and Gardens instead. We only had a few minutes to walk around the gardens before it started raining so headed inside the palace for the art. This may have been my favorite time in Vienna. The Palace had plenty of visitors, but it wasn’t crowded; the art was spread throughout a large space and well displayed. And the Klimt paintings were lovely! My particular favorites were his landscapes and the portrait of Fritza Riedler, although I admit The Kiss and Judith were spectacular, too. I also found that I liked Egon Schiele’s works, too, particularly a quiet portrait of his wife. Third floor also had some nice paintings from 19th century and great views of the city itself.
It was raining softly by the time we finished at 5:00, we did walk through more of the gardens, but we were tired – did the 20 minute walk back to the hotel, bought supper at a noodle shop, and ate in the room while packing up for departure the next day. Again, disappointed to be in so early but the heat and the cobblestone walking just seemed to drain me. Tomorrow -- on to Hungary!

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Old Jul 10th, 2018, 10:11 AM
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Hi, I am thoroughly enjoying your first hand account, so valuable from someone with similar travel ways. It is so good to know about the Hofburg gardens as I was hoping to see a few on our trip. Looking forward to the last segment of your trip. We also like a mix of in city and out in the countryside....
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Old Jul 10th, 2018, 09:32 PM
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CLBTravel, I share your sentiments about the lack of air-conditioning in the museums. Last week I was entertaining a visiting colleague who wanted to see KHM, and I was unpleasantly surprised at how uncomfortable the corridors of the museum were; thankfully the galleries themselves had a modicum of cooling. 'Tis too bad that you had such a short time in Vienna.

3Gnhgirl, just to help with your planning, there are no gardens at Hofburg. I think you may have been referring to either Schönbrunn or Belvedere. Near the Upper Belvedere entrance there is a lovely alpine garden that few tourists venture into; also, nearby to Belvedere is the University Botanical Garden.
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Old Jul 11th, 2018, 06:38 AM
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Anyone who wants nicely air-conditioned museums should head for Venice. Despite the very hot weather last week [first week of July] I was able to enjoy my visits to Ca 'Pesaro [which has a deliciously shady cafe bar overlooking the Grand canal], the costume museum near San Stae, and Museo Correr in Piazza San Marco, and also the 1km long hall at the Arsenale where the architecture Biennale is being held was lovely and cool. In fact it was rarely a problem to get out of the heat whether in museums or shady piazzas, or just by bagging the seats at the back of the vaporetti, though it was sometimes necessary to let the first boat go, knowing that a less crowded one would probably be along in a few minutes.

fourfortravel - I remember dragging my long suffering husband round the alpine garden before we went round the Belvedere. I don't think I knew about the Botanical gardens so he had a lucky escape. We were there in a hot July too, but I don't remember the Hofburg or the KHM being over warm, but we went early in the day to both places which may have made a difference.
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