(Vee reporting) 4/24/06 - Knowing that we had only 2 nights and one full day in Vienna, we made sure to plan our day very well. Our hotel happened to be in a very nice location, only 3 blocks from city-hall (Rathaus), 4 blocks from the Parliament (parlament), and only a bit further away was the impressive Imperial Palace. The weather was georgeous (again!). Vienna gave us from the very first minute a "grandiose" impression. It strongly shows an imperialist history through its large beautiful buildings all over the city. I remember this was my first impression as well, a few years ago when I was here.
Walking through the gardens of the "Hofburg" (Imperial Palace) we arrived to the very center of downtown marked by Stephansplatz and Stephansdom (St. Stephan plaza and cathedral). Vienna's streets were designed as rings around this cathedral. The most inmediate rings are very broad and pedestrian only, filled with shops, restaurants, coffee shops, shops and more shops. The cathedral itself has a strong gothic style and is very impressive. At this point we needed our usual snack break, which we took a few blocks north towards the 2nd level ring in an area called the "Bermuda triangle", a place known for its coffee shops, bars and restaurants. Cliff had a salmon sandwhich and I had the biggest ice-cream I ever had in a cone, very delicious but a bit too rich! By now we had seen pretty much the key highlights of the city. Being Monday, most of the museums are closed, however we learned that morning about the "Haus Der Musik" a fantastic contemporary musuem that feauters over 5 full floors anything related to vienese musicians (Mozart, Bethoven -born in Bonn- , Strauss, Schubert, etc); music, sound, technologies of music and sound, the science of travelling sound, etc, etc.
This was one of the most impressive museums we have been to so far. Besides the typical audio-guide, it also feautred all kinds of interactive toys that allowed the visitor have fun while learning about music and sound.
It took us a good 3 hours to complete the tour and did we have fun! (I'll try to have at least one little video about this experience).
With the daylight still strong, we headed towards Karlkirche (chruch of Saint Charles). We paid an entrance to take a lift (elevetor) to the top of the cupula, but once we are up there really didn't feel like the scaffolding platform was very solid. The church is currently being restored and the temporary steps, elevators and platforms seem to shake with every step one made.
By now it was close to 7 pm. and we remembered that we wanted to call Nikolaus to see if he would be available for dinner that night. Reaching him was no problem, but unfortunately he was in Frankfurt for the day, not to return to Vienna until the following morning. Since we were schedueld to leave Vienna for Prague in the morning, we wouldn't be able to get together. We made sure to let him know how thankful we were for his help and thoughtfulness, and said good bye. We both agree, Nikolaus seems so nice, fun and a thoughtful guy, it was really too bad we couldn't make it work. Time for another break! We headed back to the Bermuda triangle section and got ourselves some very needed capuccinos. This gave us enough energy to head back to the hotel, and have a quick break before deciding what and where to have dinner.
Now this is very unusual for us. We very rarely go to the same place, unless we really have to. The "Siebenstern" beers however and the free wireless Internet were still stuck in our brains from the night before. Almost ashamed for not being more adventurous we both confessed that we really wanted to go to the same place. We did so, and I'm happy we did. Once again dinner was awesome, the only unexpected problem was that first we had dinner and beers, and by the time we finished and wanted to start working with our laptop, I got the "beer effect"...I got terribly sleepy, and could barely hold my eyes open. Cliff uploaded as fast as he could some of the Switzerland pictures, and then attempted to respond some overdue e-mails, and despite my efforts to stay awake....I just couldn't. Cut short with our internet work (we also wanted to make some calls home, since it is my sisters birthday), we just had to go. Oh well, it was still a beautiful day.
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