Frühling in Wien (Springtime in Vienna)

Spring is the most compelling time to visit Vienna, and while the song "Springtime in Vienna" by the Tragically Hip provided a useful reference, I did not find anyone screaming from their rooftop that they "live to survive our paradoxes". The weather was terrific, 22°C and somewhat humid, making it feel like 27°C. However, due to the sunny weather leading to glare in most shots I took and the fact that many of the places that I visited did not allow photography (requiring me to "accidentally" take a quick photo instead), the quality of my shots really suffered on this trip. I think you'll get the gist anyhow.

Day 1

I was scheduled to see a chamber music concert at the Vienna State Opera House in the morning, so I scouted out the surrounding area beforehand. Down the street from the opera house is the Burggarten, a small but beautiful park containing some statues of famous Austrians including Mozart and Franz Joseph I. Next to the park is the Neue Burg, a large building with a Greco-Roman flavor in its architecture, but I did not have time to visit the interior. However, I did have time to visit the Nationalbibliothek (Austrian National Library), as the touristy part is one large room (the Prunksaal) containing various antique books and other literary treasures, as well as artwork that looked far too ornate for a library.

At the center of the Prunksaal in the Austrian National Library is a statue of Emperor Charles VI. The ceiling above contained a mural depicting Apollo and Hercules.

Just around the corner from the library is the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School), where the Lipizzaner Stallions perform and conduct daily exercises. Just as I was about to head back to the opera house, I noticed that a show was about to start, and I was already booked for another concert later in the day, so I blew off the chamber music and went to the Lipizzaner Stallion performance instead. The horses are able to do some amazing moves, although I found that the live show did not contain as many formations as what I had previously seen on YouTube (which was likely a compilation of the best of several shows). I did get to see the capriole performed though.

A Lipizzaner stallion performing a levade while under saddle.

There are a lot of landmarks packed into the west-central area of Vienna, so I quickly viewed Michalerplatz and Hofburg Palace, then walked through the Burgtor to Maria-Theresien-Platz, and then to the Volksgarten and the Rathaus.

The front of the Austrian Parliament Building.

The concert that I really came to see was the Vienna Philharmonic, the world's best symphony orchestra. Sure, the classical music magazines might say the Berlin Philharmonic or the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam is better, but the neophytes writing for these magazines need a conductor who is more obvious in his movements! They don't appreciate the subtlety! Anyways, the concert for that day was conducted by Riccardo Muti and the program was comprised of Franz Schubert's Ouvertüre in C-Dur, op post. 170, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Symphony No. 35 in D major, and Johannes Brahms' Symphony No. 2 in D major. The orchestra was able to capture the essence of each composition and I even saw a few people moved to tears by the beauty of the performance.

The Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein. I was in the standing room section so the view was not great, but the acoustics in that section were still terrific.

After the concert, I had enough time to quickly visit the Belvedere, which consists of two palaces with a spacious garden in between them. The palaces had a more Baroque architecture and the garden contained a lot of trimmed hedges spaced far apart, so the entire complex had a simpler, more minimalist style compared to other sites around Vienna.

A mirror in the Belvedere gardens allows you to take a picture of yourself in front of the Upper Belvedere palace. I did not bother to submit the photo to the Perfect Tourist website.

At the end of the day, I watched a football match between SK Rapid Wien and FC Admira Wacker. For those who follow football closely, Rapid Wien is considered to have one of the best ultras in Europe and they did not disappoint. While the Ernst Happel Stadium was at only half capacity during the match, the supporters section was packed with fans who chanted loudly and non-stop for the entire match (even while Admira scored an equalizing goal). Rapid Wien is often the top team in Austria and they held possession for most of the match, but they are in second place this season and I could sense a lot of disappointment from the fans when a game that should have been three points for Rapid ended in a 1-1 tie.

Ernst Happel Stadium during a match between SK Rapid Wien and FC Admira Wacker. The yellow section is reserved for visiting team fans and the glare from the stadium light hides the small contingent of Admira fans that came to the match.

Day 2

I have gradually switched the format of my weekend excursions to three days, with the hope of spreading out my itinerary over a longer period and using the trips to relax rather than rush from one place to another. However, I'm finding that the extra day has given me the opportunity to take side trips to places that are close to the primary destination (e.g. going to Stonehenge during my London trip). The same concept applied to Vienna and I ended up using the second day to visit Bratislava, the largest city and capital of Slovakia. It's only a one hour train ride from Vienna.

Bratislava has two train stations to which you can arrive, and I ended up in the southern station, so I ended up visiting the UFO Observation Deck first. It's basically a tower on the main bridge crossing the Danube. While the tower provided a great view of the river and the south side of the city, it was too far from the old city to provide a view of the historical landmarks (except for the Bratislava castle which you can see from anywhere). Across the river, the old town offered some interesting sites, including the old town hall, a city museum and a few statues that had a comedic twist to them.

In the main square of the Bratislava Old Town is Napoleon's Army Soldier Statue.

The Stara radnica (Old Town Hall) of Bratislava has a tower with a great view of the city. In the far left is the UFO Observation Deck. In the far center right is the tower of the Cathedral of St. Martin. In the far right is the Hrad Bratislavsky (Bratislava Castle). At the bottom of the photo is the Hlavné námestie (Main Square).

The Galeria Mesta Bratislavy is a small art museum containing classical and contemporary works by Slovakian artists. Pictured is Bratislava Marketplace (1934) by Gustáv Mallý.

I had plenty of time to walk up to the Bratislava Castle, which contained some beautiful rooms, although the exterior was still undergoing some renovation work (a new garden was still being landscaped on one side).

The front entrance to Hrad Bratislavsky (Bratislava Castle).

East of the old town was St. Elisabeth's Blue Church. The building is small but has a unique light blue exterior that makes it stand out from its surroundings. The interior was simple but elegantly designed with the same white and light blue colour scheme of the exterior. I'd say the church is rated a little bit higher than it should be by some travel sites, but the colour scheme alone made it a unique site to visit.

The exterior of St. Elisabeth's Church (aka the Blue Church).

Day 3

There were far too many items left on my to do list to finish in one day, so I spent the morning focusing on one of Vienna's most famous landmarks, the Palace and Gardens of Schönbrunn. It turns out you could spend the whole day there and still not see everything. The palace is huge, containing the fancy offices, ballrooms and salons of the Austrian Emperors from the Habsburg dynasty, although only about 40 rooms are open to the public. The Schönbrunner Schlosspark also contained countless parks and gardens, plus its own zoo (the Tiergarten Schönbrunn, which I did not have time to visit). I managed to see the Neptune Fountain at the center of the gardens, and then climbed the hill up to the Gloriette.

The hallway in the Schönbrunn Palace. My camera struggled with the sunlight and interior lighting, so I recommend trying a Google search for images of the palace interior to get a better glimpse of the spectacular rooms in this palace.

The Gloriette had the top of the hill in Schönbrunn Gardens. I'm not sure why the pool water in front was brownish red.

I spent the early afternoon in the Stephansplatz area, which contained some high end shopping for tourists as well as several churches. The square was named for the Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral), which is the largest church in the city, but which has a relatively plain interior compared to other nearby churches (the Peterskirche, Jesuitenkirche and Griechenkirche all had better interiors).

At Stephansplatz, the exterior of St. Stephen's Cathedral.

The interior of the Jesuitenkirche. The ceiling contained a mural that looked like a three dimensional painting of a dome, which made the flat ceiling look like it was much higher than it really was.

Before heading to the airport, I had enough time to stop by the Vienna International Centre, where the United Nations offices are located. One of my former colleagues from Health Canada happens to be on a secondment with the UN on the exact same schedule as my secondment with the OECD. It's funny how paths can cross again even half a world away. He was nice enough to give me a tour of the conference centre and facilities.

When I exited the western building of the UN complex (facing the similarly designed eastern building), I noticed the Canadian flag centered right in front of me. I did not check the order of the flags closely but they appeared to be arranged by country name alphabetically.

Despite missing more items on my to do list than most trips (since I always make the lists too long to ever be completed), Vienna was still the most interesting and fun trip I've had so far. The variety of cultural and historic sites, coupled with the great weather, plus the chance to see Bratislava, made for a great trip.

As an aside, I'm looking into uploading a few videos from past trips to YouTube and will post details shortly (or post them on the right side of this webpage).