After sleeping at around 1 am, we woke up at 6 am. We got ready and had breakfast at our hotel and took a cab at 7:50 am from our hotel to the Prague train station. Our train was for 8:42 am but we didn't want to take a chance and reached the station a little early. The train was on time and set off for Vienna at exactly 8:42 am. It was a 4 hour train ride so we caught up on sleep and also listened to Rick Steves' audio guide about Prague to get more background information about all the places that we had seen there in the last 3 days. Prague turned out to be an absolutely amazing city and it will be hard to top that experience. There are still three more cities to go so let's see. We love traveling within Europe by trains. Not only are the trains very comfortable and reliable but they enhance the travel experience and in our view, are a better option than taking flights.
We reached Vienna at 12:55 pm and first withdrew some cash in Euros. During our last trip to Europe, all the countries that we had visited were in the Eurozone so we were only dealing with one currency, the Euro. However, in our current trip, most countries are not in the Eurozone so we have to plan our currency management and remain on top of mental conversions. Poland uses the Polish Zloty and Czech Republic uses the Czech Koruna. Austria is the first country in the current trip that uses the Euro.
We took a cab to our hotel and checked-in. After freshening up, we booked tickets for a live performance of the Vienna Mozart Orchestra at the famous and historical Vienna State Opera for tonight. Our hotel's location is again excellent, like our hotel in Prague, and we are opposite the Vienna State Opera and within walking distance of almost all tourist attractions that we want to cover in the next few days.
After booking tickets for the orchestra performance, we walked to a mall about a kilometer away since I had to buy headphones. I forgot mine in Calgary and I needed them for the next thing on our list - doing a walking tour of Vienna using Rick Steves' audio guide. On our way to the mall, we stopped to share a quick egg sandwich since we were really hungry. After buying the headphones at a huge electronics store, we walked back and on our way, stopped again to share a chocolate croissant.
Then we started our walking tour in front of the Vienna State Opera. It was built in 1869 in a grand building where classical musicians like Mozart and Beethoven have performed. Vienna is a city famous for music and the Vienna State Opera is very much the center of the city.
We then walked to the back of the Opera where the famous Sacher hotel and Sacher cafe are located. Franz Sacher created his famous Sacher Torte cake which is essentially two layers of dark chocolate cake with apricot jam between the two layers and topped with whipped cream. Vienna's cafe culture is one of the characteristics of the city and its probably the only city in the world where big coffee chains like Starbucks haven't been able to spread too much since the locals prefer going to their local corner cafes. They say about Vienna that people's living room is in the corner cafe since people love hanging out there and enjoying a good coffee and pastries/cakes to go with it.
Then we saw the Albertina Platz. It's a triangular cobblestone plaza with monuments built as memorial for the almost 70,000 Viennese Jews who died in Nazi concentration camps. The plaza is next to the Albertina Museum which is part of the Hofburg Palace Complex and is a long white neoclassical building which houses art. It's modern entrance is topped by a sleek titanium canopy that resembles a diving board.
We passed by a couple of another famous cafes including the Mozart Cafe and then made our way on the Karntner Strasse which is a pedestrian-only street with shopping stores on both sides, much like the 5th Avenue of New York City. Most shops are now owned by modern brands but one shop has been there since 1823 that has been selling crystal for almost over 190 years now.
We were running short of time so we decided to pause our walking tour, to be resumed tomorrow. We had a late lunch/early dinner at an Italian restaurant recommended by our hotel concierge. We tried an appetizer platter of seafood which was really good but the main entrees - penne pasta with olive oil and garlic and ravioli with cheese and garlic - were really worth the recommendation. After the meal, we realized we still had about 20 minutes before we needed to get to the Opera so we made a quick stop for dessert at Cafe Sacher. We tried their Sacher Torte cake, of course but also tried a coffee caramel cake. We also shared a latte to keep us awake during the orchestra performance. I'm not a fan of dark chocolate cakes so I liked their coffee caramel cake better.
Then we crossed the street and made our way inside the Vienna State Opera. The Opera's interior is very grand. The lobby has carpeted stairs and ornate marble walls and high ceilings. The theater itself has five wraparound balconies, gold and red decor, and a bracelet-like chandelier. The show was a sequence of excerpts from famous symphonies of Mozart. Some of them featured just the orchestra, some included a female Opera singer, some included a male Opera singer, some included both and some included a choir of singers dressed in black. The orchestra consisted of primarily violinists but also had trumpeters, flute players and a drummer. The unique thing about the orchestra was that they were all wearing 18th century style wigs to give it a more authentic feel. The orchestra was amazing but the best performances were the ones that also featured the male singer and the choir. The female singer voice was unable to hit the high pitched notes but to be fair to her, female opera singers have a harder role to perform since the male opera singer's voice just needs to be deep and loud but the female singer also needs to create those shrilly high pitched sounds that don't come naturally to humans. Overall, it was an experience of a lifetime to see talented musicians performing the most famous works of a master in the hall where the master had performed himself. The conductor/director engaged the audience towards the end and made them clap according to his instructions. He was surprisingly very successful at that and it was a good demonstration of the skills he possesses. The show ended with an excerpt from Mozart's symphony 40 which I'm sure everyone has heard in their lifetime, even if they don't realize it. After this exhilarating experience, we walked back to our hotel and are going to bed now. Take care and goodbye!
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