A friend and I decided to try a 5-day, “long weekend” trip to Austria from the US March 12-16. The primary impetus for the trip was to see 85-year-old Austrian conductor Nikolas Harnoncourt direct Concentus Musicus Wien. It was the first trip to Vienna for both of us and only my second trip to Europe.
Thursday March 12 – Departed US.
Friday, March 13 – We arrived in Vienna around 13:30. By the time we checked into Pension Suzanne, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and picked up a few items at the DM, it was 16:00. We did the Rick Steves Vienna City Walk, went back to the hotel to freshen up, and then headed out to the Staatsoper to see Werther. The Opera House was beautiful, but I must admit I started intermittently dozing when the lights went down.
Saturday, March 14 – We started the day with a hearty breakfast at Pension Suzanne, and then did a modified version of Frommer’s Walking Tour 2, which gave us the chance to admire the Secession. We moved on to Maria Theresien Platz to meet Gerhard S., one of the tour guides for Cold War Tours Vienna and the founder of the Third Man Museum, for a Cold War walking tour (the company also offers biking tours). We walked through the southern part of the First District, as he discussed sites of significance related to post-war Vienna. He had an excellent book that allowed us to compare the current appearance of sites/streetscapes to their bombed-out, postwar appearance. We passed through the Naschmarkt on our way to the Third Man Museum where we breezed through the Third Man part of the museum and spent an extended period of time in the post-WWII portion of the museum. There are fascinating things there, like an interview Gerhard recorded with a retired American pilot who made 17 bombing raids on Vienna (he just happened to be on a tour of Vienna with Gerhard a few years ago). After the tour, we headed to the Museum of Military History, an expansive museum that includes the car in which Archduke Ferdinand was assassinated and a “Panzergarten” (tank garden); sadly the tank garden was closed. From there, we walked to the nearby Belvedere. We only had time to see the Upper Palace, so it was more of an art experience (Upper Palace) than a history experience (Lower Palace). The museum has a nice Klimt collection. Public transportation carried us to the Riesenrad for a ride on Vienna’s big wheel. We enjoyed walking through the surrounding uncrowded amusement park, though this likely would have been less enjoyable during summer. From there, we went to the Annakirche, where we enjoyed a string quartet in a Baroque atmosphere with hard pews. Jet lag being jet lag, I dozed here, too! For dinner, we had planned to find a heurigen, but decided just to hit a nearby Italian restaurant instead.
Sunday, March 15 – The day started with another hearty breakfast, and then off to ride a tram half-way around the Ringstrasse to reach the Sigmund Freud Museum, where we started a Sigmund Freud tour with Reinhard from Context Travel. Freud likely is not a high priority for most travelers to Vienna, buy my psychologist friend and I (pediatrician, psych major in college) loved it. As part of the tour, we walked through other sites of significance for Freud and walked through the campus of the University of Vienna (learning some about the current state of higher education in Vienna, too). A quick stop at Café Landtmann, an old Freud haunt, for Apfelstrudel and coffee brought the tour to the end. From there, we headed to St. Stephen’s Church for a look at the interior and a walk around the outside, and then headed out to Schönbrunn Schloss, which won out over the Zentralfriedhof (cemetery) due to the cloudy, 42 F day. I honestly had some hesitation about going to Schönbrunn because I generally find palaces to be a little boring. The warmth of an indoor activity seemed appealing, though, so we went. I’m really glad we did.....