Wai's Travels!: Vienna

Showing posts with label Vienna. Show all posts

Friday, May 27, 2016

Past POIs - Belvedere Palace (Schloss Belvedere) [Vienna, Austria]

Belvedere Palace was a quick stop for us but in my mind, still worth the short stop for pictures, especially if you can go before the crowds hit (we arrived in the morning and there was nobody there, by the time we were about finished with photos, tour groups arrived). While we didn't actually go inside the two palaces themselves (called Upper Belvedere and Lower Belvedere), the grounds are open to public and there was no admission cost when we went in 2015.

Construction started in 1712 and both the upper and lower palaces were completed in 1723. It was built for Prince Eugene of Savoy as his summer palace by architect Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt. Now, both palaces are art museums and feature many Austrian paintings.

It is very easy to access Belvedere by public transportation, by Tram, stop at 'Schloss Belvedere' which is how we got here. You can also take the metro as well.

For more information, visit their official website at: https://www.belvedere.at/en

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

Friday, January 22, 2016

Past POIs - Austrian Parliament Building [Vienna, Austria]

During our Europe trip in 2015, we visited the Austrian Parliament Building (which I labelled as Vienna Parliament in prior posts) and it was quite the surprise stop for me in Vienna. We stopped here in time for the public guided tour which at the time was 5,00 € and lasts roughly 55 minutes, available in both German and English. You are given a headset to use and feel free to bring your own headphones because you can use your own headphones with the headset.

Yup, inside parliament!

Construction started in 1874 and was completed in 1883 with the design of almost everything by Theophil Hansen. The building is designed with a Greek style in mind and not only did Hansen design the building, he was also responsible for the statues, paintings, furniture, light fixtures and other items! And yes, the fountain that is out front is also by Hansen as well, although it was built later with construction beginning in 1898 and completion in 1902.

Fountain outside parliament with parliament in the background.

This parliament building is where the President of Austria gets sworn-in and where the state speeches takes place. During World War II, it sustained heavy damage, however it has since been restored to its original state. But, you will notice that some things are not perfect and it is a remainder of what happened in the past. One such area is in the Colonnaded Hall, where you will notice that the columns aren't all of the same stone and they are patched where they were damaged.

Yup, this is inside parliament!

When I did research on the site, I'm glad that we made it when we did. Starting in 2017, they will renovate the parliament building to deal with issues like leaky roofs, ventilation and electrical system upgrades. This also includes removing building damages and repurposing unused spaces which means that the Parliament Building that we saw, may not exist in the future. Looking at the concept images of this makes it look very modern and it loses, in my opinion, what wowed me when I visited. However, it is entirely possible that these modern looks are in separate areas. You can read more about it here: Austrian Parliament renovations.

Yes, this is actually inside the parliament building.

While I could write about all the places that we saw, I will comment about the one that struck me as the most awe inspiring. I think that this is likely due to my expectations (which was, oh, a boring government building), when I walked in and saw the Colonnaded Hall, I felt like I was transported back to Italy where I saw the Pantheon. As you enter, a hall opens up at 40 m by 24 m where you will see 24 Corinthian marble columns which weigh a staggering 16 tons EACH. These columns support the ceiling and the glass roof above. If you come during the day, it is so well light, it was beautiful.

Colonnaded Hall.

If you are here, definitely try to plan to take a tour here. I don't know if there is a space limitation, but when we went, we just walked to the visitor center and just paid for the next available tour. You can check on their website when the tours are. Oh, and oddly, like most places that we visit, this is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Come back next Friday for another Past Point of Interest!

Friday, November 13, 2015

2015 - Eastern Europe Summary

Duration: 18 days (arrived on the morning of Saturday September 12, 2015 and left in the morning on Tuesday September 30, 2015)
Cost: Flight from Toronto to Munich and Prague to Toronto ($1,108.42 CAD), 3 trains ($214.15 for three people), overnight train (67 € I think for private room just three of us) Hotels (819 € + $1,519.45 CAD for two), $342.83 for car rentals, roughly 17 € per meal in Germany and Austria, 4,000 Forint per meal in Hungary, 300 Kč per meal in Czech Republic and local transportation and admission.

Highlights (in no particular order):

BMW Museum in Munich, this museum has given me a greater appreciation for the brand and makes me almost want to get a BMW for my next vehicle. I believe that even if you aren't interested in what BMW makes, you will like the layout, flow, and collection that is housed in the BMW Museum. In my opinion, it is a must see while in Munich.

BMW Museum

Dachau Concentration Camp in Munich, make sure to sign up for the guided tour and jump back to a time where things were different in Germany and learn about what happened here and how things were back then. The guided tour lasted roughly 2.5 hours and well worth the small cost of it.

Dachau

Salt Mine in Salzburg, while I didn't know what to expect nor did I actually know this was part of the plan (I didn't really look at our plan well), this was a surprise and the two slides plus the train out were excellent and worth the day trip here.

Salt mine slide #1

Salt mine slide #2

Linderhof / Neuschwanstein in Munich, while there were cool looking palaces in the other countries that we visited, these two really stand out the most in my mind (outside of the metal bird in Schönbrunn palace). Take a day trip and visit the two to travel back to a time where palaces were built with grand ideas and locations in mind and just wander and enjoy your surroundings. I feel that overall, Linderhof is my preferred palace of the two, but odds are, you will visit both given their proximity to one another. If you visit them, I would suggest Neuschwanstein first since it seems to be the busier one, but in my opinion, Linderhof is more enjoyable.

Neuschwanstein

Linderhof

Lowlights (in no particular order):

Kutna Hora, expectations were too high for me for this one. It is a small room, so much sure to visit the town nearby otherwise you spend a lot of time just to see this location. Make sure to go early because it gets pretty busy by 10:00am.

Kutna Hora

Must try food places:

Humboldt in Salzburg, was quite the surprise restaurant for me. It was the only place that we visited where I enjoyed all of the entrees that we got and unfortunately Humboldt was never topped for me for the rest of the trip.

Humboldt

Wratschko in Vienna, is a restaurant recommended by Anthony Bourdain and I would suggest it as well. Just note that the service was lacking for us but in my opinion, the food makes up for it.

Wratschko

Szazeves Etterem in Budapest, is a restaurant recommended by Allison's brother and worth visiting. Come on a Friday and be entertained by the live music there. Good food, good service, recommended.

Szazeves Etterem

What would I change?

Vienna could have been shortened to 3 days for us versus 3.5 days that we spent there. Budapest could have also been shortened to 2 days versus 3 days. Otherwise, I think the trip worked out well and everything worked out for us even though we were quite worried about the migrant crisis at the time which turned out to be a non-issue by the time we arrived.

I know that this is a common path that tours take and I can see why since it is very convenient to get from place to place. I do feel that we started on a high note and ended on a softer note which made me feel a bit bored by the end. Not so much due to planning, but the variety of things to see disappears after awhile and I think that happens to me a lot during longer trips. Not to fault the countries that we visited.

In hindsight, it may have been better to reverse the order of the cities, but that meant that we would hit Munich during Oktoberfest which is something that we didn't care to visit due to the additional cost.

Until next trip!