charismatic megafauna since 1985

Vienna, day 1

Originally my plan was to spend today in Salzburg, but I decided to skip it and just spend an extra day here in Vienna. I rolled off the night train around 8am and walked down to the hostel. I’d had breakfast on the train (yogurt and muesli) so after dropping my stuff off and picking up a city map, I took the U-Bahn downtown.

In Rick Steves’ book, he says that the #2 tram goes around the Ringstrasse, giving a good view of the sights. He’s right, to a point; it goes around part of the Ringstrasse but not the whole thing anymore; only the #1 tram. What this meant was that I got a bit lost right off the bat when the tram ended way outside of downtown. After consulting various maps, I just decided to take the same tram back to where I started; the Opera house.

I actually ended up going a stop past the Opera, but that was okay because it put me right by the Hofburg. This palace is where the Hapsburgs lived when they were ruling Austria, and it’s got some impressive sights inside. After getting lost, I had time for 2 parts of the building: the Imperial Apartments and the Treasury.

The Apartments are what you’d expect from an Emperor and Empress Lavishly decorated (lots of gold, silver, silk, and custom art) across more rooms that two people should legitimately need. Even the dining room, set up for a family dinner, had more pieces than exist in my house I’m pretty sure. And of course the pieces are silver; porcelain, as less fancy, was only used for soups and deserts.

The Treasury is where all the jewels and other treasures of the Hapsburg dynasty are kept. I was a bit surprised by how many of the objects were clothing; I’d figured it would be mostly crowns. swords and such. There were some legitimate treasures though. There’s a 6foot or so horn from a unicorn (probably a narwhal), a piece of the true cross (with a nail hole!), and some exquisite gems.

After picking up some more groceries and making a quick dinner (and writing the blog post about Switzerland) I headed back downtown for a classical/opera concert at the Hofburg. Apparently it’s a version of a very famous performance that’s done every year on New Years Eve and Day; the woman who sold me the ticket said that it’s on TV but I’d never seen it before. It was mostly Strauss (whom I’m not familiar with) but there was some familiar Mozart thrown in.

My favorite part was the interaction between the guy on the drums/miscellaneous instruments and the conductor. At one point, while he’s playing two pieces of metal with hammers (it sounds like an anvil), he pulls something off the conductor’s stand and holds it up; it’s a Playboy. He starts looking through it, and showing it to the other musicians, who all start looking at it while they’re playing. After a half-minute or so, he turns it around and out drops the centerfold; a poodle. After the piece is over, he makes a big show of taking the magazine with him.