TexasAggie's TR: 16 Days in Austria, May 2008
Sep 25th, 2008, 06:50 AM
#21
Hi aggie,
just came across your TR - great start. I'm particularly interested in Vienna as it's high on our "to do" list.
your shower can't have been smaller than the one we just came across in France - to wash your hair or turn round you had to open the shower doors! no XLs need apply.
looking forward to more,
regards, ann
just came across your TR - great start. I'm particularly interested in Vienna as it's high on our "to do" list.
your shower can't have been smaller than the one we just came across in France - to wash your hair or turn round you had to open the shower doors! no XLs need apply.
looking forward to more,
regards, ann
Sep 25th, 2008, 07:01 AM
#22
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TexasAggie - So glad that you are writing your TR! I was away on a trip when you first started it, but I'm glad I found it now. LOVE it so far, esp since Vienna is one of my favorite cities. Can't wait to read the rest of your adventure.
Sep 25th, 2008, 02:41 PM
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Aggie, I'm enjoying your Austria report and am glad to know that you intend to finish it because I'm still waiting for the end of your Greece report. I can't go there until it's done! Just joshing you - we all know how hard it is to complete the last little bit. Life has a way of intervening.
Sep 25th, 2008, 07:30 PM
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Really enjoying your trip report. We just returned from Austria last month, and your report brings back fond memories. Agree with you about Vienna being quite dead after dark. Spoils the fun, doesn't it ?
Sep 26th, 2008, 03:45 AM
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Aggie joke: A group of Aggie science students wanted to send a probe to the sun, but some UT students said that was impossible--the probe would burn up long before reaching the sun.
The Aggies replied that they planned to send the probe at night.
BUT I'm loving your trip report!
The Aggies replied that they planned to send the probe at night.
BUT I'm loving your trip report!
Sep 26th, 2008, 12:11 PM
#26
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LOL to all the Aggie jokes. DH is actually a Longhorn so I hear a lot of them in our home ;-)
Thank you all so much for the encouragement and interest. I have almost finished writing the next installment and shall post it soon.
A special hello to my dear Fodors friends Tiff and moolyn! It is so good to "see" you again, LOL, and I hope you are both doing just wonderful!
Thank you all so much for the encouragement and interest. I have almost finished writing the next installment and shall post it soon.
A special hello to my dear Fodors friends Tiff and moolyn! It is so good to "see" you again, LOL, and I hope you are both doing just wonderful!
Sep 26th, 2008, 12:25 PM
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<b>Day 3: Saturday, May 10</b>
Hooray for an uneventful shower on the first attempt! On this day, I am loving our stay in apartment. Sunbeams dance off the walls of the small, light flooded kitchen. I open the windows and listen to the sounds of the city waking up on a sleepy Saturday. I don’t usually cook breakfast at home as weekday mornings are a mad rush to get out the door on time and we usually sleep in too late on the weekends. By the time we’re up and hungry, lunch is more appropriate. Today, I putter around in the kitchen for a bit (aren’t foreign kitchen gadgets interesting?!) and we enjoy a leisurely breakfast of cinnamon toast and breakfast sandwiches (crusty rolls spread with melted cheese and fried cold cuts).
The order of the day was to explore the Hofburg Palace and Neue Burg "complex", or so it seemed to me ;-) We bought the combined ticket for the Imperial Apartments (Kaiserappartements), the Silberkammer (Silver and Porcelain collection), and the Sisi Museum (focusing on the life of the Empress Elisabeth). The Sisi Museum was mobbed - it was literally wall to wall with people. We carefully maneuvered through the crowds as quickly as possible and thus saw only parts of the exhibits. The Sisi Museum consists of about 6 or 7 rooms and many of them are connected by narrow passages. Considering the number of large tour groups (many had 30+ people) moving through all the time, the layout is poorly conceived, poorly executed or both!
The Imperial Apartments and Silver & Porcelain collections were far less crowded. I grew up in Dallas and am no stranger to formal dinners, yet I’m always bowled over at the extravagance of royal table settings and trimmings. The Hofburg’s collection is immense and contains a number of interesting pieces. Everything is labeled clearly in German and English and the audioguide included with your admission is quite good (although if you listen to every spiel you might want to plan to move into the museum for a couple days ;-)). We intended to tour the Imperial Treasury (Schatzkammer) but alas, we’ll have to save that for the next trip. I confess to being a mite disappointed about missing it. What woman doesn’t enjoy a good gawk at jewels the size of your fist?
A balanced lunch... is for other folks apparently. After our wander through the Hofburg, we tucked into creamy strawberry pastries and strong coffee (again with that huge dollop of the thickest whipped cream) at the Hofburg café. We lucked into a table outside in the square where we were delightfully entertained by a band in crisp, shiny parade dress. As I understand it, Whit Sunday is a not a state holiday so I am not certain why the band was playing.
Making our way from the café to the Neue Burg palace, we passed the queue of horse-drawn carriages. The horses had some very fancy duds on, I have to say! The costumes were of embroidered velvet and satin right down to the matching ear covers and "anklets". And it is my personal opinion that the horses know they look good... my, how they pranced about and snickered to one another!
The Neue Burg palace holds three museums: the Ephesos Museum, the Hofjagd und Rustkammer (Medieval weapons), and the Museum of Historical Musical Instruments. We combed through the Ephesos Museum collection quite thoroughly but only touched on the other two museums. The Neue Burg palace is a lovely building.
We emerged a little before 5pm and rather hungry. We walked toward the Burg Theater and followed the Ringstrasse from there until we came across a bridge straddling the Danube, on one side of which was a cluster of small takeaway food stands. DH tore into a gyro, I polished off a falafel sandwich, and we split a gelato. Ache in our tummies banished, we crossed the bridge and spent a couple hours wandering through the side streets of Vienna. Even at home in Denver, taking walks together is one of our favorite dates. In a beautiful foreign city, strolling hand in hand, deep in conversation and savoring the sights... well, it is even sweeter.
Loyal customers we are, so when we noticed it was approaching 8pm (Aida’s closing time), we scurried back across town to "our Aida" and picked up a couple tortes to go. They package them quite well and provide the cutest pink takeaway box! We dropped the goodies off at the apartment, freshened up, and began the great "where should we dine" debate. I say that facetiously, as DH and I are truly not gourmands. We ended up back at Figlmuller where DH had the tafelspitz and I had the spinach dumplings. Spinach dumplings... how I wish restaurants in the US made these! They are golf ball sized balls of diced spinach, breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese and they are lightly cooked in butter… and they are just delicious! It feels ridiculous to use the words golf ball when describing food, but that is really about the closest object that approximates the size, I swear! ;-)
Too full for desert, the pastries lived to see another day and we turned in around 10pm. Never fear though, they ended up on the breakfast menu the next morning
<font color="pink">Next up:</font> Day 4 and our visit to Schönbrunn Palace and the Heurigen.
Hooray for an uneventful shower on the first attempt! On this day, I am loving our stay in apartment. Sunbeams dance off the walls of the small, light flooded kitchen. I open the windows and listen to the sounds of the city waking up on a sleepy Saturday. I don’t usually cook breakfast at home as weekday mornings are a mad rush to get out the door on time and we usually sleep in too late on the weekends. By the time we’re up and hungry, lunch is more appropriate. Today, I putter around in the kitchen for a bit (aren’t foreign kitchen gadgets interesting?!) and we enjoy a leisurely breakfast of cinnamon toast and breakfast sandwiches (crusty rolls spread with melted cheese and fried cold cuts).
The order of the day was to explore the Hofburg Palace and Neue Burg "complex", or so it seemed to me ;-) We bought the combined ticket for the Imperial Apartments (Kaiserappartements), the Silberkammer (Silver and Porcelain collection), and the Sisi Museum (focusing on the life of the Empress Elisabeth). The Sisi Museum was mobbed - it was literally wall to wall with people. We carefully maneuvered through the crowds as quickly as possible and thus saw only parts of the exhibits. The Sisi Museum consists of about 6 or 7 rooms and many of them are connected by narrow passages. Considering the number of large tour groups (many had 30+ people) moving through all the time, the layout is poorly conceived, poorly executed or both!
The Imperial Apartments and Silver & Porcelain collections were far less crowded. I grew up in Dallas and am no stranger to formal dinners, yet I’m always bowled over at the extravagance of royal table settings and trimmings. The Hofburg’s collection is immense and contains a number of interesting pieces. Everything is labeled clearly in German and English and the audioguide included with your admission is quite good (although if you listen to every spiel you might want to plan to move into the museum for a couple days ;-)). We intended to tour the Imperial Treasury (Schatzkammer) but alas, we’ll have to save that for the next trip. I confess to being a mite disappointed about missing it. What woman doesn’t enjoy a good gawk at jewels the size of your fist?
A balanced lunch... is for other folks apparently. After our wander through the Hofburg, we tucked into creamy strawberry pastries and strong coffee (again with that huge dollop of the thickest whipped cream) at the Hofburg café. We lucked into a table outside in the square where we were delightfully entertained by a band in crisp, shiny parade dress. As I understand it, Whit Sunday is a not a state holiday so I am not certain why the band was playing.
Making our way from the café to the Neue Burg palace, we passed the queue of horse-drawn carriages. The horses had some very fancy duds on, I have to say! The costumes were of embroidered velvet and satin right down to the matching ear covers and "anklets". And it is my personal opinion that the horses know they look good... my, how they pranced about and snickered to one another!
The Neue Burg palace holds three museums: the Ephesos Museum, the Hofjagd und Rustkammer (Medieval weapons), and the Museum of Historical Musical Instruments. We combed through the Ephesos Museum collection quite thoroughly but only touched on the other two museums. The Neue Burg palace is a lovely building.
We emerged a little before 5pm and rather hungry. We walked toward the Burg Theater and followed the Ringstrasse from there until we came across a bridge straddling the Danube, on one side of which was a cluster of small takeaway food stands. DH tore into a gyro, I polished off a falafel sandwich, and we split a gelato. Ache in our tummies banished, we crossed the bridge and spent a couple hours wandering through the side streets of Vienna. Even at home in Denver, taking walks together is one of our favorite dates. In a beautiful foreign city, strolling hand in hand, deep in conversation and savoring the sights... well, it is even sweeter.
Loyal customers we are, so when we noticed it was approaching 8pm (Aida’s closing time), we scurried back across town to "our Aida" and picked up a couple tortes to go. They package them quite well and provide the cutest pink takeaway box! We dropped the goodies off at the apartment, freshened up, and began the great "where should we dine" debate. I say that facetiously, as DH and I are truly not gourmands. We ended up back at Figlmuller where DH had the tafelspitz and I had the spinach dumplings. Spinach dumplings... how I wish restaurants in the US made these! They are golf ball sized balls of diced spinach, breadcrumbs, and parmesan cheese and they are lightly cooked in butter… and they are just delicious! It feels ridiculous to use the words golf ball when describing food, but that is really about the closest object that approximates the size, I swear! ;-)
Too full for desert, the pastries lived to see another day and we turned in around 10pm. Never fear though, they ended up on the breakfast menu the next morning
<font color="pink">Next up:</font> Day 4 and our visit to Schönbrunn Palace and the Heurigen.
Sep 26th, 2008, 12:44 PM
#28
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Hi TexasAggie - We also ate at Figlmüller (though only once) and I had the spinach dumplings too! I liked them, but the butter was a bit too much for me (mine were swimming in the butter).
BTW, you didn't miss much by not going to the Treasury at Hofburg. There is the Crown for the HRE, but I don't recall too much bling-bling... at least nothing like the Crown Jewels at Tower of London.
BTW, you didn't miss much by not going to the Treasury at Hofburg. There is the Crown for the HRE, but I don't recall too much bling-bling... at least nothing like the Crown Jewels at Tower of London.
Sep 26th, 2008, 01:20 PM
#30
Great stuff. Ah yes, the Silver and Porcelain collection. I believe I called it The Martha Stewart Museum.
I really wish on our last trip I would have had time to visit The Kunsthistorisches Museum . Oh well, a reason to return.
I really wish on our last trip I would have had time to visit The Kunsthistorisches Museum . Oh well, a reason to return.
Nov 10th, 2008, 12:12 PM
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Hi, TexasAggie,
I've enjoyed your trip report and am really hoping you plan on finishing it. Pretty please? My husband and I may be visiting Salzburg and Hallstatt, so I'd especially love to hear about your time there.
Thanks!
Meredith
I've enjoyed your trip report and am really hoping you plan on finishing it. Pretty please?
My husband and I may be visiting Salzburg and Hallstatt, so I'd especially love to hear about your time there.Thanks!
Meredith
