As soon as we got back from Madrid, we dumped the suitcases, did a couple quick loads of laundry, and repacked everything again. 24 hours later we were on the train to Vienna. Time to continue our Habsburg week!
We caught the RJX 261 from Munich to Vienna, which takes about 4 hours. Since it was dinnertime, we used the train app to order food from the dining car and it was delivered to our seats. I couldn’t resist tweeting it to @_DiningCar.
Once we arrived at Vienna, we caught a cab to our hotel and then crashed for the night. The next morning, we wandered around the corner to phil (a bookstore and cafe) for breakfast.
My friend Eileen calls Vienna “the Melbourne of Europe,” and yeah, I can see it. I went for the brekkie option that came with a glass of Prosecco.
We were staying in the Museum Quarter of Vienna, and I spotted this graffiti nearby: “Man tötet nicht aus Liebe.” (One does not kill for love.) This saying has been used a lot in conjunction with an Austrian campaign against domestic violence.
I also really liked this nearby intersection, with its rainbow pedestrian crossing and LGBTQI street signals. 🏳️🌈❤️
Our goal for the morning was to see some art, so we headed to the nearby Maria-Theresien-Platz. This public square sits between the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum) and the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History Museum). In the center there is a memorial statue of Empress Maria Theresa herself. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day in Wien!
We bought our tickets and headed into the Art History Museum. It turns out that Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria-Hungary commissioned these two museums to house the Habsburgs’ formidable art collection.
The entry to the Museum leads you into the ground floor of the Rotunda with its fantastically decorated ceiling. From there you can branch off into several different galleries.
We headed to the right into the Egyptian Collection. It was pretty much exactly what you envision as a kid – hieroglyphics on the walls, huge carved sarcophagi, and mummies in their painted coffins.
“Do you want to get cursed?” the Snook asked as I posed for a selfie with some burial idols. “Because I’m pretty sure that’s how you get an ancient Egyptian curse.”
I especially liked this statuette of a hippopotamus from Thebes. They’ve dated it to around 2000BC, so this little guy is like 4000 years old.
The building itself is a work of art, extravagantly decorated and carved.
I especially liked this Amazonian Sarcophagus showing the famous female warriors fighting against the Greeks.
The collection also includes a Roman mosaic depicting the story of Theseus. His battle with the Minotaur is in the center of the labyrinth, and around the sides are scenes with Ariadne. (The museum has spotlights that periodically turn on to highlight parts of the mosaic, which is why the scenes are lit up.)
A statuesque Mr. Snook, posing in a room full of Roman sculpted heads.
I love the stylised decoration on these Greek amphorae. This one depicts Silenus and the maenads, as well as more Amazons.
Another part of the museum is the “Kunstkammer” which houses its most fabulous treasures. This is the famous gold Cellini Salt Cellar from 1543, which was stolen in a daring heist in 2003 and not recovered until three years later. It’s insured now for like $60M.
We’d been going for over three hours at this point, so I was feeling a little tired and had a rest on a bench.
The collection includes quite a few works by Peter Paul Rubens. This one is “Haupt der Medusa” (Head of Medusa) showing the severed head of Medusa with drops of her blood turning into snakes. 😳
The museum also houses a large number of works by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the most significant artist of the Dutch and Flemish Renaissance. Here the Snook views “The Tower of Babel.”
We spent nearly five hours in the art museum, so it was definitely time to get outside and see more of Vienna. We walked along the Heldenplatz past the Hofburg Palace (where Marie Antoinette was born!), and through the archway next to the Spanish Riding School.
Our destination was St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the most important religious building in Vienna. It’s nearly 900 years old! I was not expecting the beautiful geometric designs made from glazed tiles on the roof. I’ve never seen anything like that on a church before.
The interior is also stunning, with paintings, sculptures, altars, and tombs wherever you look. We walked up and down the aisles. The cathedral was nearly destroyed in 1945 by retreating German forces, but the Captain saved it by disobeying orders to reduce it to rubble.
We walked all around the exterior of the cathedral too. The towers have many bells, and it’s said that Beethoven discovered he was deaf when he saw birds flying out of the towers but couldn’t hear the tolling.
Digression: The real reason for going to Vienna was to celebrate my 45th birthday. I had been thinking for a while about getting myself a nice wristwatch. (Not a smartwatch; a real mechanical watch.) I’d bought myself a beautiful Longines watch for my 40th, but a year later I accidentally left it in a hotel room in Singapore and I never got it back. I was heartbroken at the time and, though the Snook suggested repeatedly that we could replace it, I told him that I didn’t deserve nice things if I couldn’t care for them properly. Finally, several years later, I felt like it might be time.
As we walked through Vienna, we looked into several watch shops but I couldn’t find anything that met my requirements. I didn’t want anything too tiny or delicate, or with silly bits of diamonds stuck all over it. I wanted something simple and classic, and ideally I wanted it to be self-winding. What I really wanted was my old watch again, but even though we saw many Longines, I couldn’t find any just like it. The Snook convinced me to check out one more shop, Juweliere Ellert, a jeweler near the cathedral. The saleslady was very nice and showed me many different watches, but none of them were right. She asked me to describe my old watch, and when I did, she suddenly reached back into a cabinet and said, “Is it this one?” IT WAS. It turns out that the particular model had been retired in 2020 but they had one left, and she recognised it from my description. So I got my watch back! She even gave us a nice discount. It was the best, best birthday surprise, and I couldn’t be happier with it.
Anyway, after that excitement we were starving so we headed to 1516 Brewing Company for dinner and craft beer.
After dinner we walked back to our hotel, past the illuminated Vienna State Opera. I’d love to see a performance there someday.
Back at our hotel, it was finally time to relax. We were staying at Das Tyrol, which I picked mainly because it advertised having a private spa. (We’ve gotten a bit addicted to saunas!) We’d reserved a time slot so we put on our robes and slippies and headed down to the hotel basement. And, WOW.
It had a Finnish dry sauna, a steam bath, a big rain shower, and some couches to relax on. There was even an aquarium built into the wall! We spent an hour down there, and it was heaven. I highly recommend.
It’s been a terrible, stressful week, but I’m trying to find joy in little things. The first crocuses of spring. Breakfast with The Snook. The biergarten is putting out its benches and tables. And freshly made Krapfen (jelly doughnuts) for Fasching. Sending love and strength to all the kind people we met in Kyiv two years ago… ❤️🇺🇦
The Föhn is on! It’s a warm, dry wind from the mountains and it’s resulted in a warm, sunny Autumn day. We’re taking advantage by having lunch on the garden while we can… ❤️🍂🍁
We have been incredibly fortunate to get to travel, even during the pandemic. I had a recent work event in Barcelona and so the Snook decided to accompany me. We headed there a few days early so we had time to play tourist.
Neither of us had ever been to Barcelona before. Actually, other than a short work trip the Snook made to Madrid 20 years ago, neither of us had ever really been to Spain! We caught a Saturday afternoon flight from Munich and were there within a couple hours. We checked into our hotel and then went out in search of dinner. It was a lovely night.
It was nice to see palm trees again! We had made a 9pm restaurant booking off a recommendation from my boss Enrique, and we had plenty of time to walk through the city and explore. Our route took us past the gates of the famous Citadel Park.
Our dinner booking was at Passadis del Pep. We honestly had no idea what to expect. Our first challenge was just finding the place – there’s no sign, and you enter through an unobtrusive hallway. We noticed right away that our 9pm reservation – which felt quite late for us – was actually the first sitting of the night, as the place was still pretty empty!
Our waiter was an older guy who thankfully spoke a little English. “We have no menu,” he said. “We cook whatever is fresh and in season. Are you happy to be surprised?” We said we were. The starter was the classic “pa amb tomàquet” (bread with tomato) with some olives and chips.
I knew we were going to be in for a lot of seafood! Next course was a tuna tartare doused in olive oil with some crisp toasts.
The food just kept coming. Next was a pot of all different clams and pippis. This was my first time ever having razor clams! The Snook was in heaven, and we eagerly sopped up the pot liquor with bread.
See? Told you he was happy.
Next we had grilled Padrón peppers with sea salt, and a plate of lightly battered and fried baby shrimps. I was dubious of the Snook’s advice to just eat them, legs and all, but they were so tiny they had crisped up like French fries!
Little grilled squids! Just the right amount of char…
Next up was a local specialty of wild mushrooms with a very rich sauce. (Definitely butter, maybe even some egg yolks?) I liked this, but the Snook wasn’t as much of a fan.
At this point I noticed there was giant Jamón on a special stand behind the Snook. *drool*
These were like a langoustine, I think? With some sweet caramelised onions on top.
Yet more prawns! At this point we were getting pretty full, and there was no sign of the parade of dishes coming to an end. I flagged down our charming waiter to ask him how much more there was to come. “Steak or fish?” he replied. “Steak,” I sighed.
Our final “main” course was a beautifully rare steak along with garlic and rosemary fries. It was delicious, definitely the best steak we’d had since leaving Australia. We were so stuffed though!
But we were feeling great. We drank an entire bottle of a local Catalan wine. That probably helped.
Dessert was thankfully very light – just a couple scoops of lemon sorbet, and then our choice of a couple digestivs. I went for the cream liqueur, while the Snook went for the “Bruja” (which he said reminded him of grappa). What a great start to our Barcelona mini-break!
