Two cities in Austria

Our last day in Vienna started with a visit to the University, because it was O-week and that seemed like fun.  The university was beautiful, so we stopped in for a coffee.  One of our dorm-mates had to head in to register for classes, so we had a chat with him about university life in the city.  He described it as "very nice, but still lots of party."

Then a quick train-ride from Vienna to Salzburg.  The Austrian countryside was exactly as I expected; rolling, picturesque hills and tiny villages as far as the eye can see.

We checked into our hostel in Salzburg, and the Liar and I weren't staying in the same room for the first time during the trip.  We had booked one bed in a six-bed dorm, and one in a four-bed dorm.  We scissors-paper-rocked for the rooms, and I celebrated my victory by moving into the four-bed dorm.

A couple of hours later I found out I would be sharing with three lovely girls whom I immediately began referring to as 'the Angels.'  It was like living in a slumber-party.  They invited us to join them for dinner, and we got our first look at Salzburg's old town.

The Salzach is another blue river, and it rips through the heart of Salzburg.  Over the next few days I would spend many hours running by this river.

As night came on, the city lit up.

We had a traditional Austrian dinner, lots of sausage and grilled meats and dumplings and potato.  The Angels tried a wheat-beer, and found it quite agreeable.  Salzburg itself felt very sleepy, very relaxed; the perfect launching pad as we got ready for Oktoberfest.

Walking in Wien

Our last full day in Vienna was mostly spent wandering through the city, trying to get a little lost and get a feel for the place.  We eventually got sick of walking and jumped on a train to the Danube, then had an argument about how blue it was.

I thought it was pretty blue, but the Liar maintains that it's more of a gray.

It did have swans swimming/fishing in it, which was cool.  Even better, you can insult these swans, unlike in Hamburg.  Stupid swans.

The island gave us a different angle of the city.

And an insight into a different part of its culture.  Beach bars, inflatable bridges and amusement centers line the banks of the island.

We walked back to the hostel, eventually.  The next day we left Vienna.

One day in Vienna

Heldenplatz is dominated by two enormous equestrian statues.  The first we saw was of Archduke Charles of Austria.  

Heldenplatz itself was a mess.  We had arrived in time for some kind of food and agricultural festival.  As such, the only photo I could get of the palace features portaloos.

The other equestrian statue is of Prince Eugene.  He was a military-savvy Frenchman, which is not a sentence I get to write often.

As we approached the entrance of the Palace the Liar said; "oh, look, they've put out their flag collection."

I've posted already about the arms and armour museum in the palace, but the building itself is worth visiting.  Everything is finished in marble, the halls and staircases seem to go on forever.

The building itself was an ambitious project, and never actually finished.  I found this hard to believe when I heard it, because it's enormous.

From his horse, Prince Eugene had a good view of the festival, and of Vienna right to the Rathaus.

When we got out of the palace, this happened:

Just around the corner is an impressive statue of Francis II, who was the last Holy Roman Emperor.  He dissolved the Empire after defeat at the hands of Napoleon.  He was also Francis I of Austria, having founded the Austrian Empire.

The afternoon was spent wandering the backstreets of Vienna, eating wurst and drinking coffee.  It was also a very pleasant afternoon, as the old town of Vienna is gorgeous.

We went back to Mafiosi for dinner and had gnocchi. An American couple at the table next to ours struck up a conversation, so we met Stan and Gail who have invited us to visit them in Iowa when we undertake the Great American Road Trip.

That rounds out our 'big day in Vienna' posts.

Labours of Heracles

These statues are all around the Hofburg palace.  We think we missed a couple of them, but here's what we've got.

Heracles vs the Nemean Lion

Heracles captures the Cretan bull.

Heracles captures and brings back Cerberus.

This is interesting: this statue seems to depict Heracles freeing Prometheus, but this isn't one of the traditional labours.  Its presence makes me wonder if I missed statues, of if some architect just decided to commission statues of his favourite Heracles stories.

Heracles obtains the girdle of the Amazon Queen.

Heracles vs the Lernaean Hydra

More photos coming.

Armour and swords and guns, oh my!

On a double recommendation, we hit the Hofburg palace to check the collection of arms and armour therein.  Three hours and 400 photos later, we emerged convince we had seen one of the greatest collections of 16th and 17th century armour in the world.

Most of this armour isn't "Medieval," but from the early renaissance.  Guns had long since rendered plate armour useless on the battlefield, but jousting and other such sports remained very popular.  These harnesses were essentially expensive sporting equipment.

Some of them would have been almost unwearable, and were designed only to be collectors pieces.  As such, the designs frequently mirror the fashions of the time.

I really enjoyed looking at the exchange sets with different visors.  The visors which gave a human expression were amusing.  The ones designed to look like animals were better.

As we moved through the museum, the influence of different fashions and 'designers' became quite apparent in the different styles of armour on display.

There were hundreds of guns on display, and while the many wheel-locks and flint-locks on display were beautiful, it was this revolver which really took my fancy.  If nothing else, it looked more functional than the ivory rifles in the cases.

Some weapons were distinctly designed not to function.  There was a period when designers were looking to be creative, rather than good.  This 'all in one' weapon was designed to hold all of the tools used in fencing, as well as an oil-lantern in the shield.  The oil lantern could be flared during night-fighting to blind an opponent.  Unfortunately it was very difficult to keep alight, and carried the risk of spilling burning oil all over the user.

The tournament and field harnesses were quite different from the parade and formal suits.  They were distinctly functional, brutal in design and function.

At the end of our time in the museum, I found this picture as a 'special display,' showing the Teutonic knights winning a victory over the Ottomans.  In fact, the curator told me, the Teutons were wiped out to a man.  Score one for history.

More photos of Wien coming.

Czech the windows...

We took the train from Berlin to Wienna, which took us the whole way through Czech.  The only photos I have are through the windows of the train, and it wasn't a pretty day.

There was also a little awkwardness on the train when it was discovered our Eurail passes didn't cover us for travel through the Czech Republic.  We didn't know we were going through the Czech Republic, but in retrospect this was something we could have figured out with a map and a ruler, so they earned our 30 euro-squids.

That was about all we managed to do that day.  The train took just under 11 hours, and we arrived at the hostel a bit before midnight.  The next day would be dedicated to exploring Wienna.

No photos today

Staying in one place for a while might be a good idea.  The Liar and I were about to fall apart, so Salzburg is serving as a holiday within a holiday.  Couldn't have picked a more picturesque spot.  We spent the morning up on the fortress, looking out over the surrounding basin.

I'm hoping to catch this blog up before we hit Oktoberfest, but at the moment the wifi in the hostel isn't letting me load photos.  Should sort itself out soon enough.  Now, if we can get enough nights off drinking while we're here we might actually recover for Munich...