Museums and Cathedrals on a Rainy Day
Slept fairly late this morning, waking up at about 9:40AM. Drizzling rain today without a break. We showered and had our breakfast in the apartment, then went to Hernals station where we each bought our weekly Vienna transit pass.
The Albertina Museum
We caught the tram downtown, getting off at Schottentor station, then walked south from there – our destination: the Albertina Museum:
It took a few hours, but we went all through the Albertina staterooms and also checked out the Monet bis Picasso exhibit:
Leaving the Albertina, we walked around the Staatsoper area and took in our surroundings:
Lunch Time!
We ended up at the Maredo restaurant for lunch, across the street from the Vienna State Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper). We each had the “Big Burger” (which was very good, by the way). We were familiar with the Maredo name as we had eaten at this chain when we visited Berlin:
Finishing our meal, we walked up to Hapsburgerstrasse and went to the multimedia show Time Travel: The Vienna History Show which depicted Vienna’s history in a multimedia presentation: this was great! Very entertaining, especially the rats! (it’s a long story). Awesome.
The Graben
The “Time Travel” show lasted about an hour. Leaving the theatre, we walked over to The Graben for a few sights. The Graben in Vienna is an exclusive and lively shopping street in the heart of the inner city. The street hosts a plague column, among other things. The origin of this street dates back to the old Romans and it is surrounded by popular alleys, streets and places which stand for the typical flair, elegant tradition and gourmet pleasures:
Peterskirche (St. Peter’s Catholic Church)
We stopped for a visit in Peterskirche (St. Peter’s Catholic Church) – beautiful!! I was impressed by the architecture and took a lot of photos. A service was happening at the time we were there so it was very hushed:
Stephanplatz and Stephansdom
We continued our journey to the Stephansdom (St. Stephen’s Cathedral), the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna. Arriving in Stephanplatz (a very popular square at the geographical centre of Vienna) we walked around the outside of the church, taking lots of pictures, then went in. We toured the inside a bit but a service was taking place so most of the area was closed off. I thought the Cathedral dark and dingy on the inside and the experience was a bit of a letdown:
Getting our fill of the interior, we went outside and finished our walk around the Cathedral’s perimeter. There were many rows of Fiakers [pronounced Fi-ker] (horse and buggies) here:
Outside, the rain drizzled on, seemingly without end. In need of a rest and fuel by this point, we stopped at the “Cafe Bistro” near Staatsoper. Vince had a Verlangerter (coffee), and I had a tea, water and apple strudel. We lingered for quite a while, just enjoying the busy vibe of the street:
… And Then Home
It was getting dark already at this point (about 6:00PM), so we left the cafe and went down to the Karlsplatz U-Bahn, where we picked up some bread from the Anker bakery. From the bakery we caught the U2 to Shottentor station, then the #43 tram back to the apartment.
Arriving back at the apartment about 7:00PM, we reheated the leftovers from Saturday night’s meal at the Apollon restaurant. Afterwards we just rested, and I backed up our daily pictures to the Macbook. Off to bed at about 10:30PM tonight, pooped after another full day (and still suffering a slight touch of jet lag).
Oh yes, and one last gratuitous shot to close off the day. Earlier in the day when we had been wandering past some of the shops, the photographer in me spied this cool window display and I knew I had to grab the shot. These store mannequins were suspended over the street inside a clear Plexiglass box; the image was shot from below:
That’s it for today!
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