Day 08–Thursday, May 28
https://www.flickr.com/cameraroll
Vienna:: Free time or
tour of Vienna and the Shonbrunn Palace with Renate Hofbauer/travel to Prague
(4 hour drive)/dinner on your own/hotel in Prague
We’ve hit the halfway
mark of the trip. It is hard to believe we have been together for almost 8 days
already.
On the road again. After
a third night in Vienna we boarded the bus and are off to tours. Some of the
members have decided to visit other sites or pursue hobby interests this
morning.
We set out with Renate,
our tour guide, who told us about buildings and associated stories around
Vienna. She shared a novel of information. It’s 51 percent green space, Johann
Strauss is from Vienna and wrote the Danube Waltz there. It is 3500 Euro to
stay at the Imperial Hotel and anyone famous who visits stays in it—examples:
JFK, Queen Elizabeth, and Liz Taylor.
We drove past sites like the Swartberg Palace
and Karlskirche (St. Charles’s Church) a baroque church, architecture by
Otto Wagner and the “Neo-” buildings. Instead to tearing anything down, it was
updated in the same style that it was built. Neo-gothic, Neo-classical,
Neo-everything. We were informed that the Charles Church has all the hearts of
the Habsbergs. Embalmed bodies have no organs, but theirs were kept safe,
hearts in the church, entrails elsewhere.
Other trivia: Mozart is
buried there, died at 36, but is in a common grave. Vienna University was
founded in 1365. Thanksgiving Church, a large Gothic church, was built to thank
God for sparing the life of Francis Joseph; the church is made of limestone and
is porous, taking on the pollution in the air. Over time, the church has been
cleaned, many pictures of it have striking black and white edges because of
that pollution. It is currently being cleaned again. Vienna also has Egon
Schiele work and Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss.”
The bus stopped in front
of the Shonbrunn Palace and we all walked to the gardens. Roses of all sorts
are everywhere. The gardens, expansive with gravel walkways and wrought iron
trellises, are probably the size of 6 or 8 football fields. They span from the
castle to a building way in the back of the gardens. Renata explained the
designers placed that building at the very back gardens to stop your eye from
continuing on to the natural horizon, so you look at the space.
A short stroll and then
we went to the museum. I learned on that stroll that Fr. Jay is going to take
ownership of the castle, but he’ll probably only use 10 rooms; it would be
ridiculous to use more. (He was joking…I think.)
Before the castle tour
we met with the other group members who’d been out and about earlier
this morning. Eric and Sam brought me a postcard of “the Kiss” because I didn’t
see the original. (Awe, thanks guys!) And we went inside…
Renata lead us through
40 rooms in 45 minutes! We saw Baroque (symmetrical) and Rococo (asymmetrical)
art in the rooms, heard stories of the Habsbergs members and tried to stay
together as a group. It was full today. Shoulder to shoulder bodies listing to
audio guides and struggling to get the next room. Interesting tidbits about
Mozart being portrayed as a child and busts of Marie Antoinette stick out to
me.
The tour was quick and hit the high points. We
were in the bus shortly after it concluded, meeting up with the remaining
members and on our way to Prague. Besides a pair of controversial bright yellow
shorts, the day went very smoothly.
We had a four-hour drive
today. The landscape is changing. We’ve gone from ornate skylines to blocky
buildings, from grape vines to rolling hills that look way too much like
Wisconsin.
Entering the city is like traveling
to an alternate universe. Somethings are familiar and many things not so much.
Money is really different here. 25 of theirs is 1 of ours.
Tonight we’re on our own
for dinner. I’m sure the group will once again attack the local scene. I’m
hearing talk of attending an opera here at some point. The opera house is
supposed to be amazing.
