- Vienna

Fountain

Our trip was nearing its end. We arrived in Vienna on July 24, thirty-nine days after our trip began in Turin Italy on June 16th. I was looking forward to Vienna as another change of pace. One thing for sure, this town was easy to get around. There were so many public transit options. They have a system called "city bike" that provides free bike use throughout town with over 80 stations for pick up and drop off.
After you register by paying a $1 fee, all bike use is free provided you never exceed an hour of continuous use and wait in excess of 15 minutes between uses. If you exceed an hour the charges are minimal, but the system is intended to keep the bikes in use for commuters. There were always bikes available when I looked and they were all in good shape. They had the solid rubber tires so not super comfortable, but fixing flats in a system like this wouldn't be feasible. There's also an app you can download that provides bike inventory and available spaces at every station. Pretty clever.

City Bike Station

Spittelau District Heating Plant

Shannon and I spent one day walking around the city. We followed the Ringstrasse, a large boulevard that encircles the old downtown where once the city wall was located. At one point we found the Vienna University. It's now abandoned and walking through campus was like being on the set of The Walking Dead minus the zombies. Later on, while taking a different walk around town, I found the new University, which is really impressive, but seeing this older campus empty and sprouting weeds everywhere was strange.  That same area we came across a co-generation heating plant designed by the Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser.  Shannon had researched Hundertwasser's work, and she was interested in seeing his museum. We made it over there later that same day. Hundertwasser, who passed away in 2000, was an Austrian artist and architect who focused heavily on sustainable architecture, and art that utilized bright colors, organic forms and humans within nature. Having grown up in largely industrial times he rejected straight lines. This single fact played out in most of his work. There's a Hundertwasser quote that goes something like, "just carrying a ruler with you in your pocket should be forbidden at least on a moral basis". 

We visited his self-designed museum, which contained intentionally uneven floors and stairs that often tricked you if you weren't paying attention. Hundertwasser once said, "an uneven floor is melody to the feet" believing that a flat floor was for machines not for humans. We also visited the Famous Hundertwasser House down the street - an excellent depiction of his style. 

Hundertwasser House in Vienna

One night we took a carriage ride around old town. While on the tour our guide pointed out various historical buildings including cafes where Hitler held meetings, the oldest watch works in town, the royal palace, St Stephens Cathedral, and narrow alleyways full of historic buildings I couldn't possibly recall. Many of these older parts of town can be seen in the Orson Wells movie, 'The Third Man'.

With the carriage horses

St Stephens Cathedral

The Vienna subway was also great. We used it extensively throughout the city and never waited longer than 6 minutes, and usually less than 2. We also made good use of the buses and trams, because they went everywhere. They were logically linked with the subway to create a cohesive system that could easily get you anywhere.

On our second day in town we visited the Schonnbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Imperial family. We also saw the Kunsthistorisches Museum and Prater Park. It was also on our agenda to try the local schnitzel and desserts, which we did. Nothing here disappointed. We enjoyed the city, the people and sites. I will say..after 34 days of white bread in Italy, Slovenia and Croatia it was good to get back in a country with true wheat and rye breads.

The Schonbrunn Palace gardens, with view

While visiting Kunsthistorisches museum the extensive coin collection rooms were closed due to hot temperatures in the building. They wanted the room kept segregated to minimize the impact on the coins. Remarkably, when I inquired about the coin collection, they offered to open it for my viewing alone. Not only did they open it for the two of us, but the museum personnel provided an abbreviated tour of the huge coin collection explaining the story behind many of the exhibits. We had very little time that morning so we limited the remainder of our visit in the massive museum to the Roman and Egyptian wings before meeting back up with the girls to head to Prater Park. While at Prater we all went on the historic Ferris wheel. The girls had a ball checking out the rides and the locals. While they did, Shannon and I took a walk out to the Danube River and even saw some swans floating along the shore.

We spent significant time walking around Venice. It's a beautiful city with outstanding architecture.

Schonbrunn Gardens

In front of Mozart Statue

Ferris wheel in Prater Park

Summer Palace