Austria: Danube Valley, Melk and Mozart Concert

On the morning of June 27^th we woke up bright and early to start our boat tour of the Danube Valley, along the Danube River. During the tour, and during our whole stay in Austria so far, we saw many castles, and we learned that there are over 2000 castles in Austria. We also learned that over 40% of Austria is covered in forests. The Danube River is the 2^nd longest river in Europe, running over 2000km long, and going through 10 countries.
We were really lucky we picked today for our tour because, with the massive rainfall in the past few days, the river flooded the surrounding towns, and everything was closed and no tours were running. Today was the first day everything was back in operation.
We took the boat from the town of Spitz, north-west of Vienna, to the town of Melk along the area called the Wachau. Wachau, if pronounced badly, means “cow”. A nice waiter corrected our pronunciation while laughing at our descriptions of how beautiful the area of the cow was.
There are many vineyards and hills in that area, and the area is called the “Thousand Buckets Hill”. This is because it produces enough grapes to make 12000 gallons (or 1000 buckets) or wine in a season. The photo below shows a hill with rows of grape vines along it:

The view of the countryside from the boat was just beautiful, so much vegetation!

We passed by the banks of the town of Willendorf. This town is famous because it is the location where the statue “Venus from Willendorf” was found. The figure is 35,000 years old and is only 4.4 inches tall. It was found in 1908 and it is now housed at the natural history museum in Vienna.
We then passed the ruins of the medieval fortress Aggestein, built in the 12^th century. It is said that they made their prisoners jump to their deaths off the high cliffs.

After that we passed by the Schonbuhel Castle. It was originally built in the 12^th century, but then was rebuilt in 1819-21.

We loved the boat ride, it was such a peaceful and relaxing way to view the beautiful country of Austria.

We finally arrived at Melk, our final destination. Melk is a small town along the Danube most famous for its baroque Benedictine abbey, founded in the 11^th century.



Inside the abbey was a museum of paintings, furniture and artifacts. One of the weirdest things we saw in the museum was a reusable wooden coffin. I forget when exactly they were used, but they were not accepted by the Austrian people, so after only a few years they were taken out of use.
They function somewhat like a normal coffin. The dead is put inside, and the funeral takes place. The coffin is then lowered into the ground, and a latch is pressed to open the bottom. The body falls out into the grave and the empty coffin is used for the next funeral. How disturbing!!

The abbey had many beautiful rooms including the Marble Hall:

The library:

It also had a beautiful view of the countryside and town:

That evening we had tickets to a Mozart concert, where all the musicians dress in typical Mozart era clothes.
The concert hall was beautifully decorated, like everything else we’ve seen in Vienna and Austria.


The concert was really good, and it was a great last night in Vienna and a last night with my Mom before she left for Toronto and I left for Rome.

Vienna: The Opera

The opera Aida was scheduled to play at the Staatsoper, Vienna’s Opera House, the evening of Friday June 26. I had tried to buy tickets online a few weeks ago while in Toronto, but all the “cheap” tickets were sold out, and all that was left were tickets 160 Euros each. We decided that 320 Euros was WAY too much money, so we sadly accepted the idea of not attending an opera in Vienna…
…Until I was walking by the opera house a few days ago when a lady approached me asking if I wanted opera tickets for a good deal. She directed me a few blocks away to this shop on the 2^nd floor of another store (yes I was a little skeptical…).
The man at the shop offered me 2 opera tickets for a very cheap price. He showed me a seating chart, and pointed out where the seats were: the 1^st row of the very top balcony on the very left hand side. Without thinking twice I purchased them.
I told my (very excited) mom about the tickets, but warned her we were very very high up on the balcony. I’m not sure she fully believed me when I described the location of our seats until we got there! We were directed up stairs, then more stairs, and then even more stairs! We finally found out seats:



The opera house was beautiful! Just spectacularly decorated, both inside the auditorium and outside in the hallways and staircases.


From our seats we had a wonderful, birds-eye view of the orchestra:

One thing I found just genius was our individual subtitle screens. Each seat had a small screen for subtitles in either English or German. I’ve never seen anything like it! It was amazing! Much better than the large screen of subtitles above the Toronto Opera House stage.

The opera was fantastic. Absolutely beautiful and magnificent. I loved it!! The story of Aida takes place in Egypt, so the sets and costumes resembled Egypt during a beautiful and prosperous time. Memories of my trip to Egypt came out and added to my enjoyment of the performance.
My mom and I watched the entire performance while leaning forward over the balcony, because if we sat back on our chairs we could only see the subtitles and top rows of the balconies directly across from us!! It was then when I really began to miss and appreciate much more our orchestra level seats at the Toronto Opera House!!
Despite our seats, we thoroughly enjoyed the opera! It was the most amazing one I’ve ever seen! A very wonderful and memorable night!

Vienna: The Woods and Subterranean Lake

On the morning of June 26 we went on a prearranged tour of the “Vienna Woods”. We wanted to get a peak at life outside Vienna in Austria. The Vienna “woods”, or more accurately described as the Vienna forests, are on the outskirts of Vienna and consist mainly of coniferous trees, and a lot of hills.

Driving through Austria is absolutely beautiful. Wherever we were driving we would always see old ruins or castles:

We first drove through the town of Baden, famous for their thermal baths. Unfortunately we were unable to stop and try them out.
We then went to the Mayerling Chapel. This was the site of a tragedy in 1889. Mayerling used to be the location of the Crown Prince Rudolf’s (son of Emperor Franz Joseph 1830-1916) hunting lodge. He was unhappily married, so he had a lover: Baroness Mary Vetsera, who was only 17 at the time (I think he was in his late 30s). On January 30, 1889, at approximately 6:10am the Crown Prince shot his lover, and then himself.
There have been many speculations over the years as to why he would do such a shocking thing. The Crown Prince had very liberal ideas, very ahead of his time, thus creating a lot of political conflict, as well as conflict with his father. It is suspected that these conflicts, in addition to his unhappy marriage and his family life led him to this fate. The Imperial family ordered all documents or evidence surrounding his death be destroyed. When the autopsy revealed his cause of death (suicide), the doctors were ordered to proclaim him mentally unfit or out of his mind at the time of his death so he would be granted burial in the Imperial vault. His father ordered the rooms where the tragedy took place to be destroyed, and thus a chapel was built in their place.
Photos of this chapel are shown below:

Our next stop was the Holy Cross Monastery, a beautiful monastery still in use today by 75 monks. We had a chance to walk through the medieval building.

I really enjoyed the wood carvings and stained glass windows.
We then went to Lake Grotto in the Hinterbruhl (Lower Austria), near Molding. This lake is exceptionally unique, as it is the largest subterranean lake in all of Europe, and it is all manmade. It used to be a gypsum mine, which took 60 years to build, until in 1912 an explosion caused 20 million liters of water to flow into the passages and tunnels, creating the lake. During the 2^nd world war it was used as a protected area to build the world’s first jets.
When we arrived we were told we would have a guide to take us down for a boat ride. We were also warned about the 9 degree Celsius temperatures in the former mine.
The guide walked us down the long, cold, dark and damp passageways and tunnels with a little boom box CD player. It was used to play descriptions of the mine in different languages (Spanish and Italian), for our listening pleasure.

The boat ride was beautiful and peaceful. It was really dark, but was illuminated by some lights, strategically placed to maximize the beauty of the lake.

I met a really nice couple at the lake, the girl was wearing a sweater and was wrapped in a blanked (which can be rented for 50 cents), while her boyfriend was in a T-shirt. When I asked if he was cold, his response was “Oh no, I’m Canadian!”. Oh how I love my fellow Canadians!!
Later that day, we decided to go shopping!! I realized this was probably my only chance to shop on the whole trip because of my strict backpack weight restrictions. Whatever I buy I must carry with me for the next 2 months. Except, since my mom was going back to Toronto on June 28, she could carry all my purchases back with her!! So we hit the shops and both came out successful with some clothing and jewelry.

Vienna: Schonbrunn, Belvedere, Freud and Prater

On June 25, we awoke to sun! For the first time since our arrival! We were thrilled not to need our rain jackets and umbrellas!! We met up with my cousin Sue and her boyfriend Jakob so they could show us around the city.
Our first stop was Schonbrunn Palace, a magnificent palace on the outskirts of Vienna. It was the former summer residence of the imperial family (The Hofburgs). The construction on the palace began in 1695 and was fully completed in the mid 18^th century. The palace grounds contain numerous fountains and statues, in addition to flowers and trees, all arranged according to French patterns. In 1695, when the palace was commissioned by Leopold I, he asked for it to surpass the Palace of Versailles (Paris, France) in glory.
Below is a picture of the front of the palace:

There were horse carriages lined up outside the castle to take people on rides:

The gardens behind the palace were beautiful, as they were all framed along a path leading up to the major fountain.


Sue, my Mom and I in front of the fountain:

After Shonbrunn Palace, we made our way over to Belvedere Palace, which is a smaller, but beautiful palace used as the summer residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, a military commander. It consists of two palaces, which are linked together by a long garden. Unfortunately the garden area was under construction, so it was difficult to take a good photo of it.
Here is a photo of me and Sue in the back area of the palace:

The front of the Palace:

The gardens of the palace (which were under construction):

The palace serves as an art gallery, housing 19^th and 20^th century paintings, mainly by Austrian painters. Some of the painters include: Monet, Renoir, Romako, Markart, Von Amerling, Petter, Von Schwind, Cornith, Schindler, Moll, Egon Schiele, Kockoschka, Klimt, Khnopff, Lieberman, Von Hofman and Hirschl.
We went inside and explored the palace and the artwork (unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take photos of the artwork, only the building itself).


After spending hours walking around, my mom and I rested on some bouncy balls in one of the gallery rooms.

From there we went to eat a late lunch at a Greek restaurant to gain a bit more energy for the rest of the day’s activities!
Our next stop was the Sigmund Freud Museum. It is located at Berggasse 19, in the apartment where Freud established his medical practice in 1891, and continued to receive patients and develop scientific principals about the human psyche until 1938, when he was exiled to England. It contains documents, photos and objects from Freud’s possessions. Unfortunately the main furniture (including the couch which he saw patients on) has been moved to London, England. The museum was small, and a little disappointing, as it is only contains one small room of photographs and documents, and one room decorated with the original furnishings (the waiting room, shown in a photo below).


From there we went to the Neo-Gothic Votive Church of “Christ the Savior”, which was built in 1856-1879. The towers at the top of the church remind me a tiny bit of the towers on La Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, Spain.


Our last stop for the day was the Prater Amusement Park, containing the famous Wiener Riesenrad, Vienna’s Giant Ferris Wheel. It was built in 1897 by the English engineer Walter B. Basset. It has a total height 64.75 meters, and the total weight of all the iron structures is 430 tones. It has 15 cabins in total, and each cabin can easily fit about 10 people. From it, you get a view of the entire city of Vienna, as well as the rest of the amusement park.



A view of St. Stephan’s church:


After the amusement park we stopped quickly at the grocery store to buy some wine and snacks. We were pleasantly surprised with how cheap the wine is here!! We found wine for 1.49 Euros!! (We decided not to buy the cheapest wine and we went for a more expensive bottle at 2.49 Euros)

We then went back to our hotel with our wine to rest.

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