Hanging with the Hapsburgs

For those of you who do not know this already, this is my second trip to Austria! When I graduated high school, instead of going to beach week, my friends and I decided to take a trip to Germany and Austria. I quickly fell in love with Austria and it easily moved into first place as my favorite European country. (Though, after this semester we will have to see if it remains there.) Even within weeks of coming home, I couldn't wait for the day when I would be able to return. I am so glad that that day finally came! And the fact that it only took two and a half years. I am returning to the same cities but getting to spend more time to really explore them. Vienna lacks the charm that the others have since it is such a big city but is full with so much important history!

Our first day in Vienna was rather gloomy and cold. It was drizzling all day but not enough that I felt the need to pull my umbrella out of the purse. It meant gray sky pictures but we spent most of the day indoors anyways. We had accidentally slept in until almost eleven- thirty so it was a rather late start to the day. But we hopped in our uber and headed out to Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer residence of the emperor and empress of Austria during the reign of the Hapsburg dynasty. 

It reminded me of my trip to Versailles this past June but this one is definitely not as grand but the two empires are connected. The Holy Roman Emperor, Franz I and his wife, Maria Theresa were the parents of Marie Antoinette, the wife of the French King Louis XVI. The palace was built for Maria Theresa as a wedding present although the property has been in the family since the reign of Emperor Maximilian II in 1569. It's fun to see all the rooms and learn something about the lives these royals lived. There is so much more about the Hapsburg Empire I would like to learn! Does the name Franz Ferdinand ring a bell? The heir presumptive that was assassinated and triggered the start of World War One. Yeah, that one! He was in line to become the Emperor of Austria as the nephew of Franz Joseph I. The dynasty was known to be devoutly Catholic and have contributed much to Church history! The gardens stretch for 500 acres but we didn't really take much time to explore them because of the weather, plus much of the beauty is absent during the winter months. It was time to go back inside and warm up!

The palace offered a "Strudelshow" in the basement of one of the restaurants and since my mom just loves apfelstrudel, we had to go! It was great! There were only six of us attending so we all could be up close to really get to watch what the chef was doing. I bought a culinary book for Austria and can't wait to attempt to make all the famous dishes of Austria, including the apple strudel that was shown to us that day.

From one mouth-watering experience to another. This trip has turned out to be just as much a food tour as a sight-seeing tour. We are trying to check off our boxes of all the traditional dishes native to each place. At the palace, we split a stuffed pasta dish with mozarella and argula that I don't remember the name of, but it was delicous. We each ordered fancy coffees, one named Emperor Franz I Kaffee and mine, Maria Theresia Kaffee (so technically our coffees were married to each other haha) which were tasty as well.

I still can't believe how early the sun sets here. It wasn't even 5pm yet and already everything was pitch dark by the time we left Schonbrunn. Since we had eaten late, we were still up to a little exploring back inside the city centre of Vienna before dinner. Which is convivent because our uber driver didn't take us back to the hotel. We got dumped off at a corner and he's like it is just over there. Well, it wasn't. Our hotel was in an upscale shopping area, so we enjoyed window shopping while making our way to view St. Stephen's at night.

St. Stephen's is still under restoration like it was when I visited in June 2015 but much less so than it was back then. In the picture, a neighboring building casts a weird shadow but it is really quite a sight all lit up at night. Finally we made our way to one of Vienna's oldest coffee shops founded in the mid 1800s, Cafe Central. It was the perfect end to the evening. They had live piano music and great decor. I decided I was feeling adventurous and ordered veal liver for the first time. I loved it at the beginning but after awhile the after-taste started to hit me and I realized that I would not be ordering this again. But a hazelnut mousse tart salvaged the meal and I was happy as could be again!

On day two in Vienna, we were determined to get an early start as we would be leaving the city at 4:30 to catch our next train. We got up early and visit two churches even before 9:30! First we went to this gorgeous church which was right next door to our hotel, St. Peter's. It was stunning! They still had their two big Christmas trees up which flanked the altar. We actually returned that afternoon at 3pm because there was a free organ concert which sounded beautiful in the great acoustics of the smaller Church.

Next we went to St. Stephen's Cathedral. We had been told to make sure we went up the bell tower to see the Pummerin Bell which was constructed using cannonballs from a battle against the Turks. And I am sucker for city views from bell towers, although it just isn't the same taking a lift up instead of having to walk 300+ stairs like we did at the Cathedral of Notre Dame in France.

Our next objective was to go to the Hofburg Palace, which is the winter home of the Hapsburg Family while in Vienna. But we got a little sidetracked in getting there as we passed a clothing store recommended to my mom by a friend. We spent awhile in there making a purchase and I was growing impatient as I knew we didn't have that much time left to accompolish our list but wow, am I grateful we were running late. Once we entered the gates we saw a marching band and hurried to see what was going on.

Turns out that the newly elected president of Switzerland was coming to the Austria for his first official state visit in office- it's tradition that he always comes to Austria first. First, the president of Austria showed up and he walked over to the crowds and chatted a bit while we got the chance to say good morning. Moments later the Swiss president arrived and we had the chance to shake his hand when he walked over to the crowds. It was truly a unique experience.

So finally we made it inside the Hofburg Palace which features three main exhibits: the royal silver collection, the Sisi Musuem, and the imperial apartments. We didn't spend that much time is the silver collection but rather merely looked inside of reading all the information. But it sure was beautiful and there was so much of it. I found the Sisi museum rather fascinating. I learned more about the famous Empress who disdained court life and stayed away as much as possible. She was obsessed with her looks and would spend two to three hours every single day doing her hair. She also had the tiniest figure imaginable!! She was 5'8, so the same height as me but weighed between 99-103 lbs and her waist measured only 20 inches. Seeing her dresses on display was incredible but also you wonder how the heck she remained that tiny. She only had four kids though, which was few for that time of history.

It was great to be able to see the inside of the palace this time around, as we didn't have time when I came to Vienna the first time. Their routine in this house was practically identical to that of the summer home of Schonbrunn. But it once again proved to me that I need to do more research into the history behind these great monarchs of Austria. But for now, the great source of Wikipedia will have to do as I try to piece together the family tree.

 Our final stop of the day was a guided tour of the Vienna State Opera House! It wasn't very long but we got hear about its foundings in the 1800s and then how much of it had to be rebuilt because of the bombings of World War II. But my favorite parts of the building were the ones that were original, not the renovations as they lose the old-world charm of the place.

 And so that ended our two day stay in Vienna as we took a train to go to Salzburg, where we will be for three days this time! There is so much of Austria that we still have before us on our adventure such as the Lake Districts, the Sound of Music tour, and the tiny town of Innsbruck. It's amazing how much we have done in just the five days since coming. I can't even begin to fathom how much I am going to be experiencing over the course of the whole semester. It feels like I have been here for a lot longer than I have. Although, I still haven't adjusted to the time zone change and haven't been getting enough sleep. So hopefully that will change soon!

The Brunette