Road Trip: Vienna

“What do you want to see?” Matt’s mom has traveled through Europe twice before with her daughter for a high school tour so she has seen a lot already. When thinking about seeing something new, I knew we would need to head east into Austria, Hungary and the Czech Republic.

Our first stop was Vienna! We had just one day and night here so we really had to decide what things mattered the most to us. The bummer was that it was cold and rainy, but we lucked out with some sun creeping through.

We began at Schönbrunn Palace to see some of the rooms and the gardens. The palace was, of course, beautiful. I loved seeing how much was the same and what was different when compared to Versailles. I especially loved that the audio guide included such personal sentiments of the royals that lived there — how they loved each other and their children. It felt more personal. Schönbrunn was the summer palace of Maria Theresa, the mother of Marie Antionette, and much later, the well-known Empress Sisi. I loved seeing their influences in each of the places we visited on our road trip, and it was good to have a touch point that tied so much of the history together.

We were so lucky that the Easter Market was still happening in the large palace courtyard! I loved seeing the painted eggs and goods that were different from the Christmas Market fare I was used to seeing. Maybe it’s because we were so hungry, but the roasted potatoes and the ham and mustard sandwich we shared in the rain were so delicious!

From the palace, we jetted across town to the Belvedere — once a palace, and now a museum that houses masterpieces from Klimt, Monet, Van Gogh, and many others. I loved that there were the works of many women artists, and stories shared about some of the paintings and their significance. I love art museums so this was a big highlight of Vienna for me.

“The Kiss.” Klimt’s most famous work.

Another Klimt that I really loved.

This is an unfinished portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl by Gustav Klimt and shows how working with the face was the starting point of his paintings. Amalie was murdered as a Jew by the Nazis at Belzec extermination camp in 1942. In the 1920s, she sold her portrait to a man who later returned it to Amalie’s daughter in 1941. She then sold it to an art dealer in 1942. This portrait was given to the Belvedere in 1988 and claims for restitution from the families of the man Amalie originally sold the portrait to, as well as her descendants were denied by the Austrian Supreme Court in 2008.

I really loved this work by woman artist, Funke.

From the Belvedere, we walked to Karlskirche and paused for a bit to decide if we wanted to return that night for a classical music concert. I’m a violinist so Vienna is a big deal for me on so many levels, but ultimately…We decided to skip the concerts here. It was all music I have played and performed many times and I was honestly feeling a bit homesick, wanting to be back to performing myself.

We continued exploring the city, stopping by the Opera, seeing monuments to Mozart, slipping into a Steinway Piano gallery (grateful the owner allowed us to see them, they were each hundred of thousands of euros), and walking through the Hoffburg Palace.

Our daylight was dwindling at this point and we were so hungry, again! We really wanted to find a delicious place to eat and as we came through the Hoffburg, I noticed a small queue outside a patisserie shop I recognized from info on our audio tour earlier in the day. Demel was the pastry shop where Empress Sisi preferred to buy her chocolates.

We stood in line for about five minutes not really sure what we were in line for, and then we were seated at a tiny cafe table on the upper level. The menu was perfect for us — small bites and desserts that we could all share. I was so happy to be traveling with people who were adventurous with the foods and just wanted to try everything, and share! We ordered Vienna sausages with goulash juice and a fried egg, a brie, walnut and fig baguette, and traditional Viennese Goulash, with Sacher torte for dessert. All delicious. Sacher torte is good, but dry in my opinion. It’s a chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam in the middle and a ganache topping.

We ended the day with the best experience. As we walked into St. Stephen’s Cathedral with the beautiful tiled roof, there was a Catholic service happening. There was beautiful organ music playing and I was able to see some of the beautiful interior. I always feel like it’s my lucky day if there is music in any church that I visit. I love it!

This altar, finished in 1647, represents the stoning of St. Stephen.

This sculpture is thought to be the main stone mason and designer of St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Stone masons would often carve their own face somewhere in their work because they were never credited as artists when working on Cathedrals. I loved that we got to visit the cathedral at night because so many of the sculptures were lit up. It is something I hadn’t seen before.

The next morning, we headed to Budapest!