Saturday, August 24th, 2019
Vienna, Austria
It’s 6:45am CES and we are waking up extra early to beat the crowds to the Schönbrunn Palace. At 7am, sharp Sarah and I are at the hotel breakfast buffet. Over a few cups of amazing coffee, we discover that we can buy timed tickets for the palace online for a discount. We decide to purchase tickets for 10am to allow time to walk through the gardens before it gets too hot outside. After a very satisfying breakfast, we start the process of taking multiple trams to get to the Palace, which is located just outside of town.
We arrive by 8:45am and have just the right amount of time to wander the courtyard and large garden behind the palace. While the garden has some splashes of flowers and color, it’s mostly well-manicured lawns and straight lines of trees. Nonetheless, the open space is beautiful and mostly devoid of tourists.
Around 10am we start our tour of the palace. We are shuffled through 40 different rooms, including the private apartments for Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth. Most of the tour focuses on Elisabeth, who was also called Sisi. She was reluctant to accept court life but was loved dearly by the people and her husband. She gave birth to four children, three daughters and one son, who tragically died in a murder-suicide pact with his mistress at age 30. Sisi was murdered by an Italian anarchist at age 60.
At 11:30am we are ready to leave the palace just a the crowds are pouring in. I am feeling grateful for the early start to our day. We head back to the main part of town and find a well-shaded cafe for lunch. I order a salad with tuna and sparkling water. I find this is a welcome departure from almost a full week of sausage and beer.
After lunch, we go to the St Stephansplatz cathedral. It’s crowded, but we successfully shuffle around the perimeter, while Sarah points out items of interest using Rick Steve’s guidebook. The cathedral is grand and I take several photos of the art and architecture.
Next, we stop for a cappuccino break. It’s nice to sit down for a minute and the caffeine reinvigorates us for the rest of the day.
We make one last stop in the main square at St Peter’s cathedral, for a free bout of organ music. We arrive early and get a good seat in the pews. The music starts off quiet but eventually fills the entire room with organ pipes that are larger than any I have ever seen.
Now that it’s almost 5pm, it’s time to go to the Vienna wine gardens, a place that has been at the top of my list for a while. Sarah and I take a series of trams to get out of town and to the first and largest wine garden called, Heuriger Kierlinger. Most of the seating is outside in a medium-sized courtyard filled with plants and vintage decorations. It feels rustic and I am charmed. There is a family, clearly, locals, celebrating a birthday close by and I am immediately jealous of their lifestyle. As it turns out, the wine is just okay, but the ambiance makes up for it. After one glass I am starting to get hungry and we decide to move on to another place for dinner.
Next stop is Mayer Am Pfarrplatz. As we walk up a small hill on a deserted cobblestone street, I suddenly feel like we are really off the beaten path. We pass some empty apartment buildings with broken windows and in the diffused dusk light I think that it’s really pretty. When we enter Mayer, it becomes clear where all the people are. There are no cars or even bicycles out front and I silently try to figure out where they came from.
We are seated at a long picnic table near the back. The wine menu here is much more robust and I order a red blend and Sarah orders a Pinot Noir. I love my wine and eventually am so hungry that I brave the cafe to order food at the counter. The language barrier is severe as Sarah and I just point at things in the deli case. I end up with blood sausage, sauerkraut, and a cheese plate. It's pretty much exactly what I wanted and I am feeling proud.
After a few more rounds of wine, I wander back into the cafe to attempt to order dessert. I get the items to which I pointed but am ultimately disappointed in the dry, overly sweetened pastries. Sarah points out a small apartment attached to the outside of the main structure and says that it's Beethoven’s old apartment. It turns out that he summered here and, in 1817, worked on his ninth symphony while staying in this very apartment.
Eventually, it becomes dark outside and I am feeling very tired. I convince Sarah to peek into one more heuriger, called Zimmermann, but ultimately we agree to not drink any more wine.
We find our way back to central Vienna and decide to stop at the outdoor film fest to see what’s going on. It is Saturday night, after all.
We drink one round of beer while watching the locals watch a movie in German. Around 11pm we walk back to the hotel. Today was a long day and we are beat.
