Vienna: Day 1

Hi All,

We are on our way out of Austria to go to Budapest, Hungary.  Our time in Austria was short, but packed with activities.

After arriving in Vienna we immediately took a coach tour of the city.  All of the sites in Vienna are basically on the perimeter of something called "the ring" which is a four kilometer long road and sidewalk in the shape of a crude circle.  We saw a few parks, the opera house, the Hapsburg Palace and a few other things. 

We learned that Vienna was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire during its peak and that most people consider the Holy Roman Empire second in terms of power to the Roman Empire during each of their primes.  The Hapsburg family brought the empire to prominence and had the first female ruler in European history. The reason they even needed a female ruler was because the Hapsburg's believed in keeping the bloodline very tight and only marrying relatives.  This led to a lot of birth defects and one of the daughters was the only person mentally capable of ruling the empire.  She was one of the best rulers and introduced things like a proper tax system and an education system for all. 

Another interesting tidbit of information about Austria, in general, is that it declared itself eternally neutral after causing the first world war.  This means that it cannot tear down statues of questionable figures.  In Vienna, there is a statue dedicated to the man who created the forty hour workweek.  He also happens to be the man that created the philosophy that Hitler followed – the world would be better without the Jews. I find it absolutely absurd that they will not tear down the statue.  Neutrality is fine, but it sounds like the Austrians refuse to use their common sense when it comes to a simple issue like that.  

Vienna is also where Hitler lived for a period of his life before rising to power.  We saw the area of apartment buildings he lived in, ironically, next to a bunch of Jewish people.  We also saw where he sold some of his artwork on the street.  Finally, we saw the university that denied him acceptance to study art.  We passed by the very stairs that he sat on and weeped after finding out that he was denied. As my tour guide said, it really makes you wonder - what if?  What if he had been accepted?  Would everything have been prevented?  You really can't think like that, though.  It's not healthy. 

After our city tour, we stopped and saw the facade of the Schönbrunn Palace.  Then, we headed over to a historic Schnapps Museum for a tour. The store attached to the museum itself has been used for a few movies as it still looks like it did over 100 years ago!  They even have an American cash register from 1915 that has never been repaired and is still functional.  The owner of the museum/factory gave us a tour.  He was at least 80 years old, but was hilarious.   We got to try a few free samples when the tour was over.  My favorite one was cherry flavored.

After the Schnapps tour, we headed to our hotel and checked in.  It was a business hotel about 30-40 minutes outside of the city center.  The rooms were much more spacious than anything else I've stayed in in Europe.  We had dinner at the hotel since there was nothing else around it.  I had my second bowl of goulash for the day and one of the traditional Austrian desserts, Apple Strudel.  It was amazing.

After dinner, I headed to bed.

Well, we just crossed into Hungary and are about to stop, so I'll write about my second day in Vienna after lunch.

Michael