Vienna 2

Vienna Day 2

Today, after some much needed sleep and oddly feeling wide awake at 4 a.m. here. Brian and I set off to find some breakfast and get our day started.  Our hostel does have breakfast, but we wanted to find some cute Viennese café and try that out.  His harp teacher (oh, by the way Brian plays the harp) recommended us a bunch of cafes.  She lived here for a year and had a lot of advice for him.  We ended up on the Ring at Café Schwarzenberg eating the “Vital Breakfast.” This included wheat bread with avocado spread, vegetables with a dip, yogurt with fruit and granola, coffee, and a vitamin drink.  Everything was amazing and it felt good to get a healthy breakfast.  Plus, the coffee was the most amazing that I have ever had!

With breakfast done, we headed out to do some sightseeing.  First, we found the Musikverein, which is a music venue that Brian really wanted to find.  After that, we got back on the train to go to Brian’s mom’s hotel to meet up with her for the rest of the day.

Once we met up with Brian’s mom, we set off to go to the cemetery where Beethoven and many other composers’ are buried.  This meant taking a train and a tram so that was a new experience!  Everything worked out well and the cemetery was very beautiful.  It was strange to be standing amongst those famous composers and it was really neat to see them. 

After the cemetery, we took the train to Prater to ride the “giant ferris wheel.”  This theme park was really cute and fun!  It was a traditional theme park, but most of the rides were closed for the winter.  That was perfectly fine with me since all I was looking forward to was the wheel.  We walked around and then got on the ride.  This was a great way to see the city! It was fun and provided us with some amazing views of Vienna and it’s surroundings.  After our ferris wheel ride, it was off to see Beethoven’s house!

After a quick train ride, we had to walk around some of the Ring to get to Beethoven’s place.  This walk supplied awesome views of some famous Vienna sites.  We saw the Parliament building. the Burgtheater, and the University just to name a few. 

Parliament

Rathaus 

Burgtheater 

University

Beethoven lived in Vienna for quite some time, and it was really neat to see where he lived.  In the apartment, there were many artifacts about and by Beethoven.  Also, in the apartment building, there was a cute Beethoven shop.  Brian’s mom had a lot of fun here J

Now that we had seen where Beethoven lived and died, it was time to eat! We headed off to find Figlmuller which was recommended as having great, traditional Viennese food and the most famous schnitzel.  I, of course, ordered their specialty and Brian and his mom ordered the vegetarian option.  The schnitzel was HUGE and fantastic, and the potatoes it came with were amazing as well.  IT was a great meal and the perfect way to celebrate Viennese food. 

This restaurant was also near the Mozarthaus and so we walked over to check it out after dinner.  The Mozarthaus was three stories of museum all about Mozart and his life.  The exhibit starts on the top floor and ends with the floor Mozart actually lived on.  We also got an audio recording to listen to as we walked through the house.  There were many neat paintings and artifacts accompanied by Mozart quotes and stories about his life.  I really did not know must about the guy and I learned quite a lot. 

After Mozarthaus, we walked over to St. Anne’s Church where we were to hear a concert of the Four Seasons.  We were a little early, but that worked out well since the Church was right off of a fantastic shopping district.  We checked out shops and walked around until it was time for the concert.  The concert was very beautiful and further enhanced by the beautiful church it was set in.  It was awesome to hear some music which on this trip and I had a lot of fun.  After the concert, Brian’s mom caught a cab back to her hotel and we walked off to find Café Demel, which according to his harp teacher, is the best of the best when it comes to pastries.  Sadly, Café Demel was closed and so we found Café Hawelka nearby and also highly recommended.  We ordered coffee and hot chocolate and got their specialty: cake rolls filled with plum jam.  Woah, I was amazed by how delicious these were and Brian and I couldn’t believe that no one in America makes these.  We decided to open our own restaurant that specializes in Viennese food and serve this for dessert.  I’ll let you know how this works out…

Our night ended perfectly with drinks at Bermuda Brau.  We both ordered Radler, a lemon-y beer, and enjoyed the fun and lively atmosphere before our train ride back to our hostel.  Once again, I am exhausted after an amazing day and it is time to sleep!