Day 5 ā Vienna
As Iāve mentioned, havenāt had the opportunity to travel much, so I was excited to get out on the streets of Vienna and see how it compared to Prague. I had such a strong sense of Prague by the time we left, I was very interested in how much of that was PRAGUE and how much was just my first time in a non-English speaking country.
It turns out much of it was Prague. Vienna felt completely different. We started our day at a cafe for breakfast in the traditional Viennese style. Then we went to the Volksgarten to wait for the National Library to open.
Volksgarten.
Then we went to the State Hall of the National Library to see fancy ceilings and old books. (This will be a theme). I love fancy libraries and you may remember that I made a point of also seeing the National library of Czechia in Prague. They had several amazing documents on display in cases including a Gutenberg Bible!
The National Library
Then we went to the globe museum and the Esperanto museum. Which we had all to ourselves minus the security guards and both of which fell into the category of old nerdy men are adorable when theyāre super into collecting things.
After all those museums we were pretty hungry so we stopped for lunch at a cafe that supposedly was visited by Beethoven, if I read the sign correctly, which, given my ability in German is super unlikely.
After lunch we went for dessert to Cafe Sacher which has one of two competing claims to the original Sachertorte. Not being a historian, I wonāt deign to judge which has the better of the historical argument, but I absolutely can judge which tastes better. The other will be up tomorrow.
Sachertorte at Cafe Sacher
From there we went to St. Peterās church. Where I saw more fancy ceilings. I swear I never get tired of looking at fancy baroque ceilings. I hope youāre not tired of looking at my pictures of fancy ceilings because I am just getting started.
Fancy ceilings part two.
Then we went for a guided tour of the Berg Theater a Theater that dates from 1888. The guided tour was entirely in German so I understood very little of it but I did research on the building and it was the only way to get in the door with out a ticket to look at...the fancy ceiling.
Berg theater grand staircase.
Berg theater exterior.
Then we went to the Belvedere Gardens. Iām sure the palaces had VERY fancy ceilings but we were pressed for time and my neck was getting kind of stiff so we just wandered through the gardens.
Belvedere Gardens.
So that thing above my head, thatās the sky, having heard me talking smack about other ceilings, coming to get me. 10 minutes after the above photo, the skies opened up. Shout out to the lovely woman at the grocery store who gave us on the nose directions to a place where we could buy umbrellas. Weād planned to walk through the Weiden neighborhood but the rain meant we hurried on the Naschmarket and dinner. I didnāt take any more pictures because of the rain. So thatās all Iāve got for today. TomorrowāMozart Beethoven and Falstaff!
