Vienna, Day Three

St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, Austria, September, 2012

I'm feeling marginally better today, October 1st, but I'm still really congested.  I didn't let that limit me, however, and I left the hotel reasonably early, after the included breakfast, of course, and walked about 25 minutes to the center of town - to St. Stephen's Cathedral.  An ornate and gorgeous gothic edifice with parts dating back to the 1200s.

I took a good long walk around the massive structure, examining the gargoyles, pictorials, crenellations and superb religious iconography. I ducked the beggars and the guys in powdered wigs who were trying to sell tour packages.  I took refuge in the sanctuary.

The innards of the cathedral are breathtaking, whether you're inspired religiously or whether you appreciate gifted artisans and their beautiful embellishments.

From the cathedral I wandered around the very heart of Vienna, which is also a major tourist and shopping district.  The number of souvenir stands is simply obscene.  There were a couple of newer buildings tucked among the older Grandes Dammes, but I'm not sure how the city allowed them to mar the old town.

 

It's not even a particularly nice modern building, though it seems to have pretensions of grandeur.  Not sure what the building houses, and I don't particularly care.

Surrounding this glass-and-steel curmudgeon are delightful 18th century buildings in a riot of colors, with a rusty yellow seeming to be the most popular.

During the course of my wanderings I spied an interesting weathered copper dome, and I was drawn to it.

It topped a squarish and squat church which looked fairly plain on the outside.

On the inside (and I'm embarrassed to say I didn't take note of the name of the church) it was spectacular, in many ways more impressive than the St. Stephen's Cathedral.

The church's interior was roughly oval, close to circular.  And it was head-to-toe glory-be-to-God in gold and silver.  There was active praying going on in the church, too, so I had to be somewhat circumspect in my picture-taking and gawking.

And gawk I did, for nearly an hour.

 The morning long gone, I had lunch at a so-called English pub and had fish and chips -- overpriced, but I was in a tourist area (the "authentic" Austrian eateries were overpriced here, too).  The meal was decent, but I feel I must mention something about any cafe/bar/establishment you go to over here in Austria (and in Germany, too.) The bars are usually tied to a particular brewery.  There might be two or three beers on tap, at most, and a poor bottle selection.  This particular place had only Zipfer on tap, which is actually a very decent Austrian lager.  You could get Bass in a bottle, for an exorbitant price.

The afternoon was dedicated to the Hofburg Palace complex.  The summer home of the Hapsburg family for a long time.  The place where the royal treasury is housed.  The Lipizzanner stallions be here.

Well, the stallions be here, but they don't perform on Mondays -- I should have researched that, but my stay in Vienna didn't include any performance days in any event, so I didn't miss out by not heading here yesterday.

The palace complex was rife with neo-classical statuary, and every single water fountain had a small sign at the corner informing you not to drink the water.

Half of the palace complex was open, and the other half was closed, because it was Monday.  One attraction open, however, was the treasury -- the Schatzkammer.  What an awesome collection of crowns, gowns, priestly attire, bejeweled everything, and religious relics -- including an alleged piece of the cross on which Christ was crucified, the lance with which He was speared, and the Agate Bowl, a huge, err, bowl, carved from a single piece of agate in the 4th century, which at one time was thought to have been the holy grail.

 

This is the Austrian crown, orb and scepter from about 1600.  The Hapsburgs consolidated many national monarchies during their long history, and the collection includes royal vestments from many of the kingdoms, grand duchies,  and principalities from early medieval times through the 19th century.  Also featured are artifacts from the Holy Roman Empire and an impressive collections of objects which chronicle the Order of the Golden Fleece, the preeminent knightly order in Europe.

The treasury also has a huge collection of religious objects and equipment -- gold crosses and chalices, priestly attire and shepherd staffs.

One cool item is a giant narwhale tusk, which was proffered as a unicorn horn for centuries.  Didn't get a picture, but should have.

 No bull about it, I really enjoyed my time at the Hofburg, and my day in Vienna.  The sun setting, I decided to seek out a traditional Austrian restaurant for my last night in Vienna.  I consulted my TripAdvisor app, which will point you to nearby restaurants and provide you with traveler reviews of them.  I found a great place, not too far from St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is frequented by locals.  The prices were good and the portions were ample.  Reinthaler's Beisl was the name of the place.  I had wienerschnitzel, and it was far superior to the serving I had in Salzburg -- and I thought the schnitzel  dinner in Salzburg was great!  On my way back to the hotel I stopped at a cafe and had dessert --  apfel strudel with vanilla sauce and a tea.  What a great night cap!

Tomorrow I head to the airport, and home.

Sitting outside at a cafe, Wien, Austria.