8/4 The soul train!

8/4 We checked out of our hotel and after a short taxi ride arrived at the train station to track down which platform we'd find the train to Zurich where we would be transferring to a Paris-bound train. We settled into the last of our first-class train accommodations and prepared to enjoy our passage across the Alps. Initially the sky was hung with low clouds that obscured any panoramic or high elevation views, but thankfully it cleared as we - and the sun - climbed higher. We've noticed how quickly time passes on trains - the result of comfort and the often engaging scenery? As we pulled out of Vienna we followed a river up into the mountains and eventually another down the other side and into Zurich, passing lots of classic pastoral scenes of villages and high pastures tucked in below mountain ridges, with an occasional castle ruin on some strategic outcrop. No snow, but plenty of bare rock walls and peaks. Before we knew it the eight hours to Zurich were over! While waiting for our Paris train to arrive, we stepped briefly outside onto Swiss concrete and Serge ran across the street to touch soil and a tree, and then it was time to board again....

 Swiss Alps ... taking pictures on a 99 miles per hour moving train is quite a challenge...

 front of our train snaking towards the Alps...

  

castle ruins from a distance ...

 want a good view - use a binocular ...

 enjoying the view ...

 more of the Alps ...

 approaching Zurich...

 Zurich ...

Zurich - here we come ...

 Rail No. 365, cab 27 ...

 Switzerland at last ....

 must step into the land of the Swiss...

 a happy traveler - Zurich ...

 Switzerland - hello and goodbye ...

The second leg of our journey was our first experience in coach class - still quite comfortable. We were entertained by a couple who kept getting displaced by passengers with reserve tickets. Evidently folks with open tickets can sit wherever there is an empty seat, but when someone arrives with reserved seats - like we had - they must give up their seats. This particular couple got bumped at least three times before finally getting settled for the ride.

 bound for Paris - all aboard ...

an Edelweiss beer and chips while on a train - life is good ...

As the day turned toward dusk, the landscape put on an almost uninhabited appearance - except for the obvious fact that it was tilled farmland with forest patches and a few roads but little evidence of habitation. Perfect conditions, apparently, for deer-spotting. Lyn tallied up 19 deer - as she kept reminding us - of which Joe only managed to see a few.

Cheers to the good things in life ...

By the time we arrived in Paris it was past dark. We caught a quick cab to our hotel, the Brighton - just a block away from the Louvre and the Seine river. Serge was happy to again to have his own room - even if it was a 'walk through' room to the entrance. Had a few issues - smell in entrance hall ("I think they're covering up that someone died," -Joe), low water pressure and looong waits for the water to get hot - but it was still our home-away-from-home. Had an initial disagreement with the evening desk clerk about our accommodations - they had us in a 2-person room despite our confirmation for three - but he came around and did his best to make us feel welcome. Before crashing for the evening we had to step outside and cross the Seine at which time we caught a view of the top of the Eiffel Tower with its slowly turning beacon light. We are in Paris!

 Paris, yes, yes....

 dreams do come true - we are in Paris at last ...

 ahh...what a sight - Eiffel tower at night ...

 the glowing Eiffel tower ...

 Seine river - close to our hotel ...

 Paris - city of lights, love and beauty ...

 Paris - goodnight for now, tomorrow we'll explore your beauty...

8/3 A three hour tour…

8/3  We decided to take a long bus tour of the city to get the big picture - three hours long!  There were only a handful of people on the coach. The driver didn't speak English, so he had cue-cards to make us understand when we had to get back on the bus after the scheduled stops. Serge and Lyn had trouble with the headsets provided - if you turned up the volume too much, the system shut down and you had to move to another seat and try again.  Joe avoided this by using his own headphones…

While the tour passed many historical sites around Vienna, it quickly became frustrating.  The prerecorded monologue was evidently dependent upon the driver activating it at appropriate times as well as an apparently idealized version of the traffic flow which refused to cooperate. Consequently, references to "on your right" or "on the next left corner" often didn't synch with where we were at the moment. The persistent Strauss background music - which at first seems so pleasant and relaxing, eventually became torturous by sheer repetition. The one brief reprieve - the Blue Danube waltz as we crossed the river was short-lived as it ended as quickly as we crossed - one of the few moments of synchronicity with the sound system and landscape.

  random places we passed by during our bus tour ...

Our first break of two planned was at a location of absolutely no historical significance, chosen only because it offered several stalls of tourist paraphernalia. Still, we bought a few "necessities" and the clerk was pleasant and negotiable. The second stop, at the Schloss Schonbrun - the former summer residence of the imperial Habsburg family - set our compass for the rest of the day as we all agreed we must return after the tour - which we did.

When the bus tour finally ended - a half hour late due to the traffic that had essentially made the site descriptions like puzzles to solve using passing scenery cues, we had lunch and decided to take the underground (subway) back to the palace with the understanding that we would walk the long distance back to the hotel.

 Schloss Schonbrun Palace ...

At the palace we decided to take the "Imperial Tour" - for tours were the only way to access the interior spaces and be dazzled by the lives of the historically famous. The self-guided tour had the distinct advantage of user-control over the recorded descriptions. We enjoyed the simplicity of Karl VI's living quarters, the more decorative public rooms, the paintings, the venue of four-year old Mozart's earliest performance, the stories of the independent and beautiful Sisi and the motherly Empress Maria Theresa.

 the beautiful Empress Sisi ...

 

Empress Theresa led the renovation of the summer palace which shows 

the wealth and opulence of the Habsburgs family...

 crystal and gold chandelier in the living room - no pictures allowed inside the palace beyond this ...

 front balcony overlooking the front entrance of the Schonbrun palace...

After the tour and gift shop visit, we spent a couple hours wandering the expansive gardens of the estate with its geometric flower beds, elaborate fountains and statuary. Finally taking the long climb to the Gloriette -  a royal dining hall that looks across the gardens back to the palace rear courtyard.

 part of the massive imperial gardens at the Schonbrun palace...

Gloriette in the background...

 sculpture of a Roman soldier's armor at the Gloriette ...

 two-headed marble eagle adorning the Schonbrun palace ...

 a picture of a young Mozart when he first performed at the Schonbrun palace ...

 Statues of Greek mythology overlooking the geometric gardens ...

 Glorious day at the Schonbrun ...

 massive geometric gardens...

 energy release ... side gardens of the Schonbrun...

an obelisk outside the Schonbrun gardens

Satisfied with our submersion into the historic high-life, we began the loooong walk home. At one point Joe led us for a long stretch along a path parallel to the rail lines, which while definitely leading us back toward Old Town, passed through some sketchy areas that made us a little leery. Still, we eventually made it back to tourist central and immediately found a cafe at which to celebrate the day's accomplishments.

 some 'thing' we passed on our loooong walk back to our hotel...

thankful for a great visit in Vienna....

 goodbye beautiful Vienna...

8/2 I don't know why you say goodbye I say hello…

8/2  Up early to shower, breakfast and pack - we had a morning train to catch. Kiss Matthew goodbye while he sleeps, Lyn leaving a lipstick kiss, but talk to him later from the train station. Oops! Our planned departure time (8:29 AM)based on our itinerary doesn't match our issued ticket time (1:20 PM)! We head to the train station anyway with the intention of boarding the earlier train as we only have two nights in Vienna and an afternoon ride would eat up the day. Mamer and Merlines to the rescue - they successfully have our departure times switched, walk us to our car when the train arrives and wait to see us off - such courteous hosts! So long Prague! Good bye Maseks! Thank you Mamer and Merlines! Hope to see you all again in the not too distant future!

 goodbye beautiful Prague ...

with Mamer ...

with Merlines ...

 THANK YOU Mamer, Merlines & Matthew - we'll miss you!

 so long until we meet again ....

We enjoy the five hour ride across the countryside - one reading the newspaper, one reading up on the sites and reviewing some survival phrases, and one snoozing until hunger drives us all to the dining car for a real "meal on wheels".  The time passed much quicker than expected and before we knew where the hours and kilometers had gone, we were pulling into Weis Meilding - the train station of Vienna.

 on our way to Wien (Vienna)...

 Vienna at last ...

We purchased tickets to ride the subway to a stop close to our hotel, but due to a cross-cultural moment ended up on a tram which required the purchase of another set of tickets, but which got us to within two blocks of our hotel - The Astoria - nonetheless. We 'rolled in', checked in, took a short nap, and then stepped out.

another country, another city to explore ...

Another area of streets turned over to people! We walk the Karntner Strasse amid the other tourists - foreign and domestic - feeling immediately that we have again moved through time.  The stores along the walkway might be found in a stroll in New York, while the buildings they are housed in appear to be high-end Renaissance - nothing in this part of town feels or looks medieval or ancient - although not far from where we're walking you can find ancient Roman ruins…. But we turn a corner and suddenly face a gothic cathedral begun in the 12 century - Stephansdom - 'Austria's finest gothic edifice'. We circled the church - collecting impressions and pictures of its dark-stoned exterior and adornments including colored tile roof, grim statuary and leering gargoyles, before entering. Once again we discover that no two churches are alike, and each is a museum of fine art unto itself as the patrons used the finest artists and sculptors of their day to decorate them. We were too late to climb the bell tower, but not too late to roam the interior, marveling at the artistic detailing on the columns, altars, arches, walls and ceilings. The most unadorned space in the church were the stained glass windows, perhaps because they had been replaced when the church was bombed in WWII, as the roof and organ had been?

 the imposing tower of Stephansdom ...

 a fine sculpture outside Stephansdom ...

 a horse drawn carriage is still a regular form of tourist transport in Vienna ...

 admiring the beautiful Stephansdom...

 such enormity and beauty ... it is sometimes overwhelming to take it all in and store the experience into the recesses of one's memory ...

 outside Stephansdom ...

 Karntner Strasse ...

We exited, driven out by our own hunger and desire to sample local fare, but were captivated by yet another church that we stumbled upon unexpectedly, St Peter's - which became Serge's favorite. This church is small and unimposing on the outside, tucked between and surrounded by other buildings, but with a beautiful interior space beneath a tall oval-shaped dome (because of the narrow space within which it was built. The building site was an old Roman fort at one time and the original church thought to be the oldest and first in Vienna. The current Baroque style church was built in the late 17th century by Emperor Leopold I as thanks for Vienna surviving a bout with the plague. The interior is full of gold-covered embellishments typical of the Baroque style and includes beautiful ceiling frescoes as well as paintings that were bright with their original colors as the result of a relatively recent renovation.

 an icon of Mary surrounded with gold ... St. Peter's church ...

lavish organ at St. Peter's ...

gold, gold everywhere... St. Peter's ...

From St. Peters we made our way through the arching Michaeler Gate of the Hofburg Palace and into the inner courtyard where the late sun caught the statuary in a way that invited picture taking. We continued across a couple large plazas toward the Museums Quartier where we had decided to find dinner. The Baroque complex - once home to emperors horses! - has become one of the world's largest museum complexes. Unfortunately (or not!) closed by the time we arrived - but as one of Vienna's young people's "hotspots" by virtue of its outdoor art, cafes and green spaces - it was just what we were looking for. We grabbed an outside table in a spot overlooking the greens we'd just crossed and enjoyed beverages and a meal while watching people and the large rat that Lyn noticed scampering beneath the shrubbery in the early evening light.

 Michaeler Gate of the Hofburg Palace ...

 Courtyard of the Hofburg Palace ...

 trying to capture the crown? hmm...

 Lyn: am I really that tall?

relaxing at the Museum Quartier complex ...

We strolled home afterwards, enjoying the statuary and monument in the plaza across the street from our dining spot - the Maria Theresa Monument, and then onward, passing the white cubic Secession Building with its ornate dome - built in the late 19th century as a statement against the art traditions of the time, before eventually turning back onto Karntner Strasse and to the Astoria for bed!

 

 one more pose before heading back to the hotel...

 

 what a great day ...