Vienna

The following morning we checked in and watched the bus drive by as we were doing so. They managed to take some time to “check” us in and we left knowing we had to wait 20 minutes before the next bus. This really screwed up our plans as we wanted to go to the Spanish Riding school for 10am. The weather so far is cold and it is snowing, though it is not staying on the ground. We made it onto the bus and got off at the main station for the area. Julie and I made a small mistake when we entered the station. We read the sign and thought we were heading to the subway, but went to the surface train instead. We learned from a fellow that the train takes us into town and should be leaving shortly, well shortly was close to 20 minutes. We weren’t alone in this error though. A group of Americans came on the train thinking it was the subway too. I guess, we should have thought about it first being above ground and everything but we were tired and I hadn’t had my coffee yet. And to our defense, some subways come above ground at times. To add to our confusion the first 3 stops were identical to the subway stops it was only on the 5th stop that we realized our error. We offered some help to the Americans about which stop they should get off at to make it down town but they didn’t listen and got off one stop early. When we consulted our map, they got off where only the train goes to and there are no sites whatsoever nearby. So Julie and I got off at the correct stop and took line 3 to get off at the stop for the Spanish Riding School. Once we made it above ground (the train did go subterranean too) we used our GPS to locate the SRS because we had no clue where we were. When we started to walk around while the GPS was trying to get signal we felt like the city had been abandoned. But eventually we made it to the school and started seeing some signs of life. The morning practice ends at noon and runs for two hours. Since we can’t afford to wait until Saturday for the show (and can’t really afford the show either) we (Julie) accepted seeing the morning practice. When we finally arrived at the school, Julie no longer wanted to attend the morning “show” because she felt it was too late and that they would no longer allow anyone inside after 10. I figured we should give it a try since we were there. Lucky for us they don’t care what time you show up for the practice and they willingly accept full price for a ticket. So Julie got to watch the horses practice for around 45 minutes, and thankfully for me we were late so I only had to watch them practice for 45 minutes. I’m not saying I wouldn’t enjoy watching the Saturday performance, but the practice was so boring. Julie thinks differently and I’m sure there are a few other people I know that would agree with her. To Julie’s dismay I wanted to just start “walking” with no particular route or idea of where I wanted to go. But we walked anyway and ended up stumbling on a pedestrian route that brought us right to the Augustinerkirche (Augstiner Church) and Joseph’s Platz. We wandered around a bit more before stopping on a bench to see about locating one of the recommended coffee houses in our Shoe Strings guide. Drinking coffee is apparently the thing to do in Vienna. Well, we had two café’s picked out, the Café Sacher which is home to a famous cake called the Sacher torte and they have been serving it since 1832; and the second one was Café central because some famous people drank there (Trotsky, Freud and Beethoven). I put the shoe strings guide away looked up and saw Café Sacher right next to where we were sitting. That solved that problem. I wanted to go to this particular café for Julie, since she has no interest in caffeinated brew. I had hoped the famous cake would be something for her to enjoy. The cake though is not much to talk about (Julie and I left the café saying that McCain’s deep and delicious cake is better). The cappuccino I had was alright but again, nothing to talk about. There was a Starbucks across from the café so Julie and I went there to get her a Chai Tea Latte and me a Caramel Latte Macchiato, both Grande’s to go. I went to the bathroom while Julie waited for our drinks to be made. We aren’t sure if I got my actual drink, it didn’t taste like they added any caramel and Julie told me that there was some kind of confusion which she later blamed on me. I guess I should explain. While I was waiting for our coffees Julie went to the bathroom. My order came up but Julie’s wasn’t finished yet and a young woman had the same order as me, so I let her take it. But I don’t see how that would cause mass confusion, it was one drink and they were the same. We then passed by the Museum quarter before walking back to the Schatzkammer. From here we went to visit the national library as it was of some interest to Julie. Inside the huge library they had an exhibit about a Jewish photographer/journalist that was sent to a concentration camp where he later died. All of the photos, letters and news articles were only looked at 3 years ago and they set up this display in honor of the work he had accomplished. Vienna was a very beautiful city to just walk around and every building was huge and over the top. I would definitely like to come back, perhaps when it’s warmer and not snowing and preferably on the weekend so we can take in some shows.