Time flies so quickly! The visit to Vienna started splendidly when the Fleming’s hotel Westbahnhof Wien let us check in at 7 am. The nice gesture by the hotel allowed us to have a couple of hours of luxurious sleep before heading to the centre. The Hungarian sleeper compartment was OK but when the trip starts at midnight and finishes at 6 am, you still want to sleep some more.
The hotel was really nice and modern with good service. The glass-walled shower standing next to our bed was a bit strange – and shower in front of workmate or a casual friend to share a room could be embarrassing. The WiFi was free if you asked for it, and the bar downstairs sold reasonably priced drinks. The breakfast buffet was a delight with nice German rye bread, fresh fruit, a selection of cold cuts and cheeses and miniature Danish.
Wien was a delight with two lovely museums. After a short walkabout to see St Stefan’s cathedral, opera house, Mozart’s statue and the Habsburg palace – and being annoyed by literally hundreds of pseudo-Rococo courtiers trying to flock you some classical concert tickets – we decided to choose Belvedere as our palace of the visit. The fact that it serves now as an art museum was important for me since we have been concentrating perhaps too much on archaeological museums. The views from the upper palace were stunning although the gardens were under repair works. The collections gave a good idea of the history of the Austrian painting art with the breathtaking Gustav Klimt paintings as a highlight. There were also some interesting classics inspired romantic paintings and odd French painting. I also find a painting the style of which was very much of Finnish Gallen-Kallela’s. When I checked the name of the painter, it was a Gallen-Kallela...
The lower palace had a Kokoschka exhibition that detailed his career into early 1920s. That provided more new knowledge and the palace had a couple of stunning rooms like the one used as a museum shop with all paintings inspired by the finding of Herculaneum in the 18th century. After checking the sculpture exhibition in Orangerie our feet were so achy we staggered to the nearest beer hall – which happened to be a microbrewery next door. Later, we did not feel hungry so decided to take a simple round trip with the circular tram route – only to find out that the tram changed number at one point and headed to the suburbs. An hour later we were looking for a restaurant in the centre and settled with Gutemberg which provided a delightful meal with huge Wiener schnitzels and dry Austrian white wine.
This morning we visited the Natural History museum for me to see the Venus of Willendorf in live. And there it was with all the other Venuses and I was so happy. The archaeological frescos and metal finds from Hallstatt added to the joy. I also found out that Hallstatt had been a salt mine. Something that is often not mentioned when archaeologists discuss the metal object types from this place and period. The true revelation was the fossil and mineralogical collections which combined amazingly the old-fashioned reference collections with humorous new interactive displays. I awed the collections of semiprecious stones and meteors with old faded tickets. The small vivarium and its grumpy chameleon ended our visit after a short break with juice spritzers and a piece of Sacher cake.
The train to Budapest had a restaurant car and we celebrated our recreation of the Orient Express route, Grand tour and our week-old marriage with a starter and main course flushed down with Hungarian champagne. Without realising, we entered Budapest and got a taxi to Gellert Hotel. Now we only have to learn our way to the baths tomorrow!
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