Vienna Day 3

We started off to follow the walking tour in our guide book. We began just outside the Opera House (more on that later). Next was the Sacher Cafe, famous for its Sacher-Torte chocolate cake.  But it was a bit early for coffee and anyway there was a long line up of people waiting to get in to this classic Vienna coffee house.  So we moved on to see the Monument Against War and Fascism - very moving. Then we ducked into a much less crowded 'classic' cafe, Cafe Tirolerhof - with marble-topped tables, chandeliers, upholstered benches, lots of folks lingering over the provided newspapers and grumpy waiters in suits.  

We got the typical Viennese coffee service - on a little tray with a glass of water.

We carried on along some wide pedestrian avenues (Kärntner Strasse) with glitzy storefronts at street level but older facades on upper stories. 

We came back to St. Steohen's Cathedral, centerpiece of Vienna, with its tiled roof. 

Then a famous chocolate shop, formerly serving the royal family. 

Looked yummy but very expensive!  

We then detoured from the walk to return to the Rathaus for the celebrations of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. Where else would this be celebrated? When we arrived, crowds had already gathered in the plaza in front of the building, and the choir and orchestra were all in place on the stage. We worked our way into the crowd until we were just behind lots of folks holding the music. Thought if we got any closer we may have to sing parts unknown to us!!  At exactly noon the orchestra played a fanfare. Then there were a bunch of speeches in German before we finally got to the music. First piece was Bach's "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring", next a Mendelssohn. Then more speeches. We waited patiently and finally were rewarded with the entire Handel's Hallelujah chorus with full orchestra and choir onstage, and hundreds of people in front of that singing along with all their might, all in the plaza in front of this historic building!  The words were projected onto big screens beside the stage. There must easily have been 2-3 thousand people involved. 

The music director was totally engaged and singing along to keep all the participants together!

By the time this was over our feet were feeling very flat, so we returned to hotel for lunch snack, and to put our feet up before heading out again. Next we went to take the tour of the Vienna State Opera, one of the most famous music halls in the world.  The opulence was guaranteed - thanks to Franz Joseph I (whose very simple hunting villa we'd visited in Bad Ischl). You can only go inside if you take a tour and they are done in many languages. First you line up to buy your ticket then go down to find sign for your language of choice. The tours are done at 2 and at 3 each day. We were amongst hundreds taking a tour but were with an excellent tour guide who was able to keep our group of about 25 together.

The main entry staircase - 

The Emperor's intermission room - 

A small section of the seats. The top level is for standing room ticket holders. You can still do that for 3-4 euros,

Or - you can watch the live performance for free on the big screen just outside the Opera House.  There is a determination here to make cultural events accessible to all. 

For dinner tonight we looked at some of the recommendations in our guide book for close to our hotel. We picked Amerlingbeisl - an outdoor courtyard hung with vines. Chilly but interesting. Cobbled floor with a scattering of fallen leaves. We both had pork mediallions served with polenta in a delicious pepper sauce. 

Our shared dessert was a very thick chocolate mousse that was like eating soft chocolate fudge. OMG! 

Moving on to Vienna

Weissenbach is just a small hamlet so not much in the way of sightseeing there. It is situated on the largest lake in Austria, Attersee. We were less than impressed with this hotel, either the hotel is very tired or the staff very tired at the end of the season or both. Dinner was ok but served by a grumpy server. I had goulash with Austrian dumpling while Wendy had schnitzel. Another guest in the dining room learned over and explained to me that the dumplings were a very old Austrian country dish that poor people would eat, made from chunks of old bread and squeezed into a ball then baked. I found it very heavy and only ate about 1/4 of mine. The beef goulash was delicious. We shared a chocolate dessert that was nummy, best part of the meal.

Our Headwater reps, Jill and Colin, picked us up at 10am and drove us to the closest train station, Attnang-Puchheim. We caught the 11:35 train to Vienna. 1 3/4 hr trip and then onto the subway (u-bahn) and within 30 minutes of arriving in Vienna, we were checked into our hotel which was only a couple of blocks from our stop. The room we checked into was tiny, and I mean tiny! Hard to come into after our lovely hotels from our Headwater and HF trips. We just left our stuff and went out for a much needed cappucinno after telling the hotel clerk that if at all possible we needed a bigger room. We were told the place was full. After we were caffeinated we headed for St. Stephens, the Vienna cathedral. It is a glorious church, built around the 1240's on top of an earlier church.  We love to go into these old churches which are dark, cool, full of history, and so much quieter than the streets. 

We were a bit overwhelmed by the crowds in Vienna, after walking in the country for the last week. Bus loads and bus loads of tourists. We wandered around for awhile in the old city, which is contained by a ring road. The best thing is that many of the streets are pedestrian with only the odd car or taxi with a special permit. Makes for more pleasant walking. 

We ended up at an Italian place for dinner, thinking pizza was what we needed tonight: comfort food!  (Not looking forward to going back to our 'cupboard' to sleep tonight.) This restaurant was a unique operation for us: you are given a card when you come in and then find a seat, before going to the right counter to order a pizza, or pasta, or salad or whatever. Then to the drinks counter. Each station loads the order onto the card, and then at the end you pay at the front counter whatever is listed on your card. Wendy chatted with the pizza maker who turned out to be from Ottawa.

We went back to our hotel and checked at the front desk, and the evening clerk said he had a cancellation and we could move into our new room. We checked it out and were pleased that while not big by any stretch of the imagination, it was acceptable. We quickly moved our stuff over and ended up happy.

This morning we decided to take the tram that circles the ring road. We bought 24 hr tram passes and hopped on. This way we could get off and on when we saw something we wanted to look at. It's a much cheaper way to see some of the sights than the "hop on hop off" buses found in most big cities. They have a commentary but we had a guide book so we thought it was a good deal. We did jump off at one spot on one of the Danube canals. We went for coffee at a cafe over top of the canal.  You can take a boat from here to Bratislava in one hour! Imagine!

The canal at this point is the border between old city and new city. Baroque vs skyscraper!

 

These new modern buildings looked like they were slanting into each other.

We jumped back on the tram and got off next at the Rathaus (City Hall). 

Today it is surrounded by fencing as the grounds are being set up for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. But apparently during the month of Christmas a huge advent calendar is displayed on this building using the windows. Each day in December a new one is opened. Wouldn't that be fun to see? We tried to imagine which windows are used for that.

We heard music that immediately drew us up to the fence to see what was going on. A full orchestra was practicing on the stage and the group in front was a choir with their choir master up on a chair conducting, his music pages blowing in the breeze. We stood and listened to the entire Hallelujah chorus from Handel's Messiah! What a treat!  This was followed by a little Bach. This is a rehearsal for tomorrow's concert. (We chatted at our spot along the fence with a couple from Oregon who told us they tell everyone they are from Vancouver! Proud Americans!)

We wandered home for a little lunch (apples and cheese) then headed off to find a laundromat. We had the address but it was a little farther than we thought. Then we got to figure out the washers, spin-dryers and dryers. We went home on the tram with some nice clean clothes. Oh the joy of clean pjs!!

In the evening we attended a Heurigen, a Viennese wine-garden near the vineyards on the north side of the city. We took the tram to Nußdorf, and went to this one, in operation since 1711. 

Although there was a lovely garden courtyard, we opted to eat indoors as it was cooling off by then. We tried their 'new wine', actually last year's vintage, and the some of their Gruner Veltliner, the wonderful crisp Ausrtian white wine. 

Then we headed to the deli counter to choose an appetizer, bread with choice of spreads, and some hot dishes. The gal serves them out, and weighs them.  You pay her right there and carry your food back to your table. Another gal came by our table with a big basket of chocolate-covered fruits but she  didn't work for the restaurant, and was making the rounds of tables at other nearby Heurigen.

The place was filling up and getting noisier as we headed out for our tram ride home. 

St. Wolfgang to Weissenbach

StrandHotel Margaretha - our 2 night stay in St. Wolfgang.

We had a little more leisurely departure this morning because the Headwater reps were not picking us up until 10. We were all ready when they arrived to drive us to the start of our hike just before Schwarzensee Lake. We could have walked from the hotel up and over the hill to this spot, 5.7km, but Jill said it was a slog uphill through the woods so we decided to skip it and start a little further on. 

Our hike today was quite pleasant, a different landscape than we have had for the other hike days in the last week. The instructions say we hiked 11.5km so we figure 12ish. The bush and land was dryer, the creeks mostly dried up, and the hills covered in deciduous trees starting to change color. The weather report mentioned thunder showers but we had none of that, just some blue sky and sunshine. (Must be the new rain pants we both bought in Bad Ischl on Day 2!)  We passed a few hikers and a few cyclists but no tourists. It was very quiet up in the hills. We heard birds but did not see any squirrels or chipmunks which made us wonder if there are any here. The only wildlife we have seen in Austria have been four deer, a couple of days ago. They are avid hunters here so I think the deer have all been shot and their heads and antlers hanging at the end of someone's barn or in the hallway of their house. Wendy saw a cardboard box of deer heads at the end of a barn as we were hiking past but I wouldn't let her take a picture. 

Schwarzensee Lake

Attersee Lake - our first glimpse

Arriving at Hotel Post in Weissenbach on the shores of Attersee. 

And the end of our Headwater Hike in the Austrian Lakes Area. We found hiking today we had a much clearer idea of the lay on the land after being up at the top of Schafberg yesterday when we were looking down on many of the lakes we have hiked to or gone past or just heard about in the past week.

The other thing we found interesting is all the modes of transportation (besides our own two feet) we have used in the last seven days: van, bus, funicular, train, gondola, & cog train. Tomorrow Colin and Jill will pick us up at this hotel and drive us to a train station to catch our train to Vienna and we become tourists again.

Just before starting out this morning.

St Wolfgang - day off hiking

Today we expected rain as per our phone's weather schedules yesterday but we got up to a gorgeous day and promises of clear sky until afternoon so we decided to head up Schafberg Mtn. on the Cog train. At an altitude of 1783m it is higher than Katrin where we used the gondola to go up to 1415m a few days ago.

The last time we were on a cog train was in Switzerland in 1995. A cog train has the engine in the back to drive the two cars up a very steep incline. There is a chain in the middle of the tracks that we assume helps to prevent the whole thing from slipping backward. Anything more than that is too technical for either of us.

The ride up to the top took 35 minutes with incredible views from either side of the car.

Our train leaving the station to go back down. You can see the church tower in St Wolfgang in the distance. Ours was the first train of the day and not crowded like the 3 we passed going back down.

We arrived up to the top where there is a hotel with restaurant, and a second restaurant a little over to the side as well as some walking paths and great views between them. There are trails up from the bottom of the mountain so some folks walk up from there and/or back down again. Or you can take train up nearly to the top and get off at a station and walk up, that would take a good walker an hour. We went both ways on the train cause it was our day off!!!

Coffee and view at the top.  

The highest mountains in Austria are snow-covered in the distance. St. Gilgen is the town you can see at the end of the lake.

Lake Mondsee

Lake Attersee where we will head out for tomorrow.

The train station at the top

After a good wander around at the top we headed back down so we could check out the town of St Wolfgang and its pedestrian streets. 

And The Church of St Wolfgang. The first church was built on this spot in 976 by Bishop Wolfgang, who was later canonized. This church was built in the 15th century and became a pilgrim destination to honor St. Wolfgang. 

The pews all have labels at each seat for a family, probably an early fund-raising scheme. 

I was wondering whether this family just didn't pay enough to get a view of what was happening at the front as they have a huge pillar right in front of their faces, and a very small seat!

A hotel right in town - look at those flowers. 

So tomorrow we will hike on. Our last day of hiking in Austria with Headwater.