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Aug 4, 2005 – Vienna
Morning exposed us to the lavish breakfast
that we would find every day while on the boat. Pretty much anything you could
imagine and then some, spread out in front of our eyes. I had to work pretty hard to limit myself. At breakfast,
we discovered that all the waiters were Magyar.
(Later
we discovered that this was true of nearly all the crew and “hotel” staff as
well. They rapidly spread the word and we were addressed in Hungarian from then
on. By 8:15, we were on
buses for the excursion into Vienna. Driving through the city, we saw all the
main sites and buildings except those in the outlying areas (like Schönbrunn). I
know the picture is only a postcard, but it summarizes our bus tour. We stopped
at the Hofburg and did a full, inside tour, learning much about the Hapsburgs,
and especially Sissi. Our tour guide, Erich, was the first of many excellent
guides. We then went to the Stefansdom, the cathedral. In addition to the
beautiful architecture, we saw a few details that were new to me. There is a
plaque commemorating Mozart’s death, although as a commoner he was buried in an
unmarked grave somewhere outside the city. There is an embedded Turkish
cannonball in one wall. I was disappointed to see that as a tourist site, they
collected an entrance fee to see the interior. We just looked from beyond the
fence, since there was Mass going on at the time.
Vienna Pictures
We went back to the boat for lunch, which, in
retrospect, we might have skipped, eating in town. We returned by bus with the
intention of cashing in Zsuzsa’s old shillings at the National Bank – somewhere
in the vicinity of the Votivkirche – but, by the time we found it, it was closed
(bankers hours tend to end at 3:00 pm). We wanted to make the 4:00 bus back to
the boat, so we hustled. What should have been about a half hour quick walk, we
made in 17 minutes (puff, puff, pant). We were in time for Michael Murrin’s
lecture “Vienna: Fortress City, Imperial City” from which one major fact stuck
in my head. Because Vienna was born as a fortress, all personal dwellings were
explicitly designed to be apartments. There are no single family houses in
the original city – they are all in the outlying areas. Bill Summers lectured on
the “Mozart Theaters in Vienna”. By the time the lecture was finished, and while we
were eating our “Austrian Dinner”, we were moving downstream toward Budapest,
making the first of numerous border crossings (with stops to clear the boat and
all the passports). After dinner at 7:30, (late in our minds), we dropped into
bed while the boat took us. We slept through locks, Visegrád (we were told it was
shrouded in fog), Esztergom – likewise foggy – and the bend in the river.
(Later
we discovered that this was true of nearly all the crew and “hotel” staff as
well. They rapidly spread the word and we were addressed in Hungarian from then
on. By 8:15, we were on
buses for the excursion into Vienna. Driving through the city, we saw all the
main sites and buildings except those in the outlying areas (like Schönbrunn). I
know the picture is only a postcard, but it summarizes our bus tour. We stopped
at the Hofburg and did a full, inside tour, learning much about the Hapsburgs,
and especially Sissi. Our tour guide, Erich, was the first of many excellent
guides. We then went to the Stefansdom, the cathedral. In addition to the
beautiful architecture, we saw a few details that were new to me. There is a
plaque commemorating Mozart’s death, although as a commoner he was buried in an
unmarked grave somewhere outside the city. There is an embedded Turkish
cannonball in one wall. I was disappointed to see that as a tourist site, they
collected an entrance fee to see the interior. We just looked from beyond the
fence, since there was Mass going on at the time.
Vienna Pictures