Vienna with Joel

A trip to Austria without seeing Vienna isn't quite complete. When I told the teachers and students at both of my schools that Joel was coming to visit, most of them asked, "You'll take him to Vienna, won't you?" (actually, with the students, who don't quite understand future tense, verb placement, or the sound the letter "v" makes, it was more like "Take you him to Wienna?") Like I've said before, there's an idea that Vienna is THE Austrian city, and places like Graz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck are "willages" with plenty to see, but only after you've seen Vienna.

So I carried out my duty as a temporary Austrian and took Joel to Vienna. I shouldn't make this sound like a chore, though, because I really like both Joel and Vienna, so it was a win-win situation for me. As the seat of the Hapsburg monarchy (there's a map of the Austro-Hungarian empire that they ruled over above), Vienna was built to celebrate wealth, power, and hierarchy. These are all things that make me a little uncomfortable, but Vienna is (was) so good at being an imperial city and was designed so well to fit this purpose that I can't help but like it. Within the ring (the city center), many of the streets are wide, pedestrian, and grand, and the Hofburg (imperial palace) dominates the way you would expect an imperial palace to dominate. Imagine walking down an already-impressive street like this, which is the Graben...

...turning a corner...

... and bam! having an imperial palace right there waiting for you as a perfect photo op. It should be noted that in this picture of Joel, me, and a lamppost standing in front of the Hofburg you can only see a small part of the palace. It's massive.

 The squares, celebrating various heroes of the Austro-Hungarian Empire are super-sized, as are the statues depicting these heroes in the middle of the squares. Here I'm standing in Mariatheresienplatz in front of the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Fine arts Museum), which perfectly mirrors the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum) on the other side of the square. The statue in the background is my good friend Empress Maria Theresia.

Joel and I spent a few hours at the Naturhistorisches. We saw a huge collection of precious stones and minerals, an interesting exhibit on Darwin, and the Venus of Willendorf, which is one of the oldest known artistic representations of a woman and pictured left, but the most exciting part of the visit was the fact that we saw an actual (dead) coelocanth, preserved in formaldehyde. To me they look a lot like the giant catfish at Dawson Springs, Cerulean Springs, or wherever it was that we had to do Open Water Certification for Scuba class. And dad you're right, Joel will need a really big tank if he ever hopes to have one as a pet.

Vienna isn't the friendliest city and it's not known for its hospitality (it's too busy being proud of its imperial past), but it makes up for it with institutions like the Viennese cafe, where you can sit and enjoy the good life over a cup of coffee and seriously delicious cake. Joel and I went to Cafe Central, which is the biggest and most impressive cafe (and also where Trotsky planned some of the October Revolution!). There's usually live piano music in Central, and, joy of joys, we went on a day when they happened to be playing showtunes. And yes, Meggy and Mary, they did play both "Memory" and "Music of the Night." And yes Meggy, I did play both of those in orchestra. Later we walked by the Opera House but only had the patience to take a picture in front of it, not to wait in line for hours to see an opera neither of us could probably stay awake for.

We saw the cathedral, a few other churches, and other sites, but I really need to mention the quirkier side of Vienna. After treating ourselves to the "Luxury Menu" at a nondescript Chinese restaurant for Valentine's Day (spring rolls, soup, entrees, and dessert!) we went out to the Prater, a famous amusement park that's sort of like Coney Island minus the hot dogs and plus the German language. I've wanted to ride the ferris wheel at the Prater for a really long time, so Joel and I waited in line, paid a lot of money, and crammed into a car with a chatty family of Italians. About 30 seconds into the ride, though, I realized how old the ferris wheel was and how high up it was taking me and decided I didn't like it anymore. I blame my dad for my distrust of amusement park rides (Dad at Holiday World before riding the Banshee: "See that timing chain, Emmy? That snaps and you're done for.")

We also stopped and saw the power plant designed by Austrian architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who was known for hating straight lines and creating buildings that were in harmony with nature (his apartment building in Vienna has trees growing out of windows).

Overall I don't think Joel was as enchanted by Vienna as I am, but he did really enjoy seeing the coelocanth and drinking all the Viennese coffee. And who couldn't be intrigued at the very least by Hundertwasser's power plant? Plus, we ate off the "Luxury Menu", and that just doesn't happen every day.