Lewisham, United KingdomDeparture from the UKBremen, GermanySchuelpBack to BremenChristmas in the HarzDriving in the HarzAround Bad Harzburg and Christmas Market in GoslarWinter Tourism im HarzAnd home againViennaNew Year'sSightseeing in Vienna Day 2More sightseeing in Vienna and some plansArrival in BudapestTickets Booked!Bath HouseTrain to LvivWe made it to Ukraine!Leaving LvivOdessa, UkraineEventful arrival in KievMorning in KievOn the train to MoscowBrief stop in MoscowOur first trip east of the KnownOn the train to Kazan - a lot to catch up onkazan - at an ungodly hour of the morningOn the train to YekaterinburgOne night until SiberiaSiberia!!!!! Tobolsk - it's not on Google Maps! It's 4 hours north of TyumenDay trains5 Hours from IrkutskSafe arrival in IrkutskLake BaikalBack to IrkutskGoodbye to BaikalAn Experience in Ulan-UdeCrossing the Border - Happy New Year and Australia DayPlans changing in HarbinEnchanted with BeijingBeijing WanderingsCrashingMore CrashingSam's almost better againSecond last day in BeijingLast day in BeijingTianjin, ChinaIncheon ArrivalSeoul!!!Exhausting full day of enjoying SeoulI still love SeoulRainy and grey in BusanUnvalentine's DayInfinite turtlesDry land againA Perfect EndCoolangatta International Airport, or lack thereofBrisbane, AustraliaMum and Dad's
 | samandleonie |  | Heading East |  | Sightseeing in Vienna Day 2 |
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Jan 1 2009, 08:30 PM
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Vienna (Wien), Austria
Once we finally found the connection to the U2, we made our way in to the Rathausplatz to watch the New Year's concert live on a big screen. There were quite a few people there and it was a nice atmosphere. We stayed for about half an hour.
We got back on the U-Bahn and joined the hordes of tourists and made our way to Schloss Schoenbrunn, the summer palace of the Hapsburg Emperors. I think I should say here that, as much as we are loving Vienna, we have been a bit half-hearted about our research, because we're really looking to head further east and this was just a convenient place to stop. So I must say I don't know much more about Schoenbrunn than what I overheard the other tourists say. We also didn't take the time to go into the palace itself, as the gardens took up so much time and we were on our way somewhere else. Nevertheless, the gardens were well worth the time and the view from the Gloriette at the top of a hill was gorgeous. It certainly helped that the temperature rose and hovered around zero for most of the day. After the minus temperatures and Vienna's notorious wind-chill factor of yesterday, it was positively balmy. The sun also made an appearance, so it was a glorious day to look down on the grounds of the Schloss. Unfortunately the labyrinth was closed (as it's deciduous).
From the Schloss, we took a tram further out of town to the 23. Bezirk (district), which has two attractions we wanted to see: Kirche der heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit and a Heurige. The first is a cubist church, the Church of the Holiest Trinity, or the Wotruba church, as it's known. It was based on an idea by the sculptor Fritz Wotruba and finished in 1976. It's made up of 156 concrete blocks, each of a different size, without symmetry. Even inside, it wasn't shaped like a usual church, but had the lectern awkwardly placed half behind a concrete block, because it was the only place where everyone in the congregation could see it. It's difficult to describe what I liked about the church. The shape inside was almost organic, despite being made up of concrete blocks. It was unapologetically in one particular style and that was impressive.
Also on top of the hill, a footpath away from the church, was a Sterngarten, asolar clock and calendar, which is even more difficult to describe and impossible to photograph (don't worry, I'll still attempt to describe it). It showed the place on the horizon where the sun rises and sets at the equinox and both solstices. It showed the date at midday by marking on the ground where the sunlight falls through a little aperture. Sam had a great time working out how everything worked and what all the poles were for. We were there a couple of minutes before sunset and there was a lovely view over the mountains in the distance, but there was a little low-lying cloud that obscured the actual sunset. We could still see the accuracy of the horizon markings, as sunset occurred very close to the marking for the winter solstice. It was amazing to see just how different the path of the sun is from solstice to solstice.
Back down the hill from the church and the Sterngarten, we'd found on the internet a Heurige that was open (it's New Year's day – not ever a supermarket was open). A Heurige is unique to the Vienna area and is a kind of restaurant attached to a vineyard. It's only allowed to sell it's own “new wine” (ours had 2007 and 2008 vintages) and it also has basic food, differing from establishment to establishment. So we went to the Buschenschank Lentz (Buschenschank is a similar term to Heurige – too dull to explain the differences – and it was run by the Lentz family). First we tried the 2008 white, which was very dry, but we like dry wine and it was only €1 a glass, so one doesn't complain. We both had a Schnitzel and I had a Knoedel (a ball of... stuff... in stock) and Sam had potato salad. We also tried the red. The waitress was helpful (although obviously a little amused because we asked her, in our obvious Hochdeutsch (standard German) how Heurigen worked, explaining that we'd never been to one before). She put on her best Hochdeutsch for us and we did our best to understand the Austrians who spoke to us. The wine was so ridiculously cheap. Two glasses knocked both of us out and we went straight to sleep when we got back to the hostel (at 7:30). We've now woken up again (it's 9:30).
We generally haven't done too badly with the Austrian German. It's really quite similar (especially in comparison with Swiss German which we found almost unintelligible at times). There are just a few quirks of pronunciation. Of course, we also haven't heard any full-speed, between Austrians Austrian German. It will be difficult to leave the comfort of a country where we can speak the language. I don't know if we would have found all of the information about New Year's and in general found our way around so easily if we didn't speak German. But tomorrow night we're leaving safe, German-speaking land. A few days later, we leave the Latin alphabet behind altogether. So it can only get more interesting from here.
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