Sept 14 Exploring Vienna

Wed, Sept 14, Vienna Exploring

We walk across the front walk to the next building where the Marriott serves included self-serve breakfast. It has many choices, both hot and cold, with several kinds of fruits and breads. Quite a spread! We discuss plans for the day over our meal. We stop at the desk to buy a three-day Vienna card, which gives us unlimited access to all forms of public transportation, plus discounts on many museums, restaurants and attractions. Vienna has an extensive public transportation system which includes metro trains, a subway system, trams and trollies, plus a special “ring tram”.  We know where the metro stop is from last night’s outing for dinner, so we just confirm where we want to wind up today, which is in the town center, near St Stephen’s church.  We will need to change from the metro to the subway to get there.

It is very warm today and David zips off the bottom of his hiking pants to turn them into shorts. We pack up our gear for the day and head out. There is a beauty salon near the metro and David suggests I stop for a European cut. I agree if he will get one too. We walk in, but there is not an immediate appointment, so we say we will stop later. At the metro station we consult our map to be sure we are going the right direction, catch the metro and get off at the first stop to transfer to the subway. We get off at the second stop, go up to the street level and emerge at the church. Hooray! While we take photos of the church, we are approached by Lily, a super saleswoman, selling concert tickets. She is a walking kiosk of information with a notebook full of a variety of concerts in a variety of venues. We do want to attend a concert, so talk with her about options and make a decision. She uses her cell phone to confirm availability of seat selection, accepts our payment and fills out information on the tickets. She shows us how to walk to the venue from where we are. So, we have booked a two-hour concert of symphony music by the Vienna Philharmonic, choral music and beautifully costumed ballet dancers all in a lovely Viennese concert hall, lit by chandeliers. When we complained to her about the heat, she did an instant positive reframe and said, “But look at what lovely weather you have to visit Vienna.”  She gave us a tip about a lovely city view from a nearby restaurant, where for the price of a cup of coffee, we see the same view we would pay much more for if we paid admission to go to the top of St.Stephen’s church. We take her up on this suggestion and take the elevator to the restaurant, get a table by the window, order a beer for David and tea for me plus a chocolate mousse and strawberry dessert to share.  We have a leisurely chat, only marginally irritated by the loud group next to us.

It is very warm today, and we decide it is finally time to shop for shorts for me. Of course, this is a high traffic tourist area, so the shops are expensive, but David thought about asking Lily for a suggestion and she mentioned a store which might be less expensive. On our way down the shopping street, we stopped in a couple of other stores, but they said they were only selling “winter collections”—no shorts. We finally came to the store Lily recommended and found a pair of winter shorts. I tried them on to get the right size and while I was doing that, David looked for other options. He found a couple of skirts-one was very short, but the other was a bit longer. It was a gathered skirt-not exactly my style, but it fit and felt cool. We picked out a couple of tops and bought the four items. I wore the skirt and one of the tops out of the store. But by the time we got outside, it had clouded over, the temperature had dropped, and it looked like rain.   Never mind, I now have some warm weather clothes to wear.

Our guide book suggests taking the ring tram, which included an audio city tour. This is a different part of the transportation system, so we ask at the metro info desk how to get to the tram. He gives us directions and says one place to connect is near the opera house. We want opera tickets anyway, so decide to go that direction. We struggle a bit below ground about which subway to take, but finally choose what we hope to be the correct one, get off at the first stop, and we are at the opera house. Whew! We take photos of the huge fountain nearby, then get in a short line at the ticket window. The clerk is friendly and very patient as he helps us find seats. We cannot go tomorrow night,  that is the concert we just bought from Lily. The opera tonight is not one we recognize, so we ask for the night after tomorrow, which is Barber of Seville. He has two great seats that are returned tickets for which we must pay cash-E50 each. This is a bargain for such great seats, and we take them. We are pleased to have the concert and opera tickets under our belt.

We find the stop for the ring tram and get on board. We get to pay at a reduced rate because of having the Vienna card. We ride the tram the full circle, listening to the narration. It is much more thorough than the Hop-on/off buses we took in Warsaw. We learned some history and got oriented to some of the main buildings and tourist attractions. Back at the Opera House stop (called Oper) we got off. It is beginning to lightly sprinkle and David suggests heading back to the hotel. It is after 3:00 and I am ready to call it a day. We have seen and done a lot and have tickets for the next two evenings. Figuring out how to get back to the hotel takes some doing, but we get it sorted out. As we leave the metro, we pass the salon and stop in. They say they can take us if we agree to back-to-back appointments, so we say OK. It is a fun experience in a classy salon-a scalp massage with the shampoo, cut and style. They serve us coffee and tea and delicious chocolate candy they call bon-bons, but they are not what I think bon-bons are. David settles the bill and we walk back to the hotel, catching a lucky break in the rain.

We spend some time in the room. I take things we will wear to the concert down to the ironing room to press. David works on updating our expenses on Quicken. He is trying to keep up with our expenditures each day. We decide to walk to a nearby sandwich shop for a quick dinner. They are closing and will serve us if we will take it out. So we wrap it up and take it back to the hotel. We do not want to eat in the room, so choose a table at the hotel. David gets tea for me. We finish our carry-out and go up to the room. David watches TV while I work on the blog, then time for bed.