Luke is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature. Just one of the nerdy things he 'gets' to participate in as an academic. Every year (on my birthday) there is an annual meeting somewhere in the US. And they also have an international meeting every summer. Last year was in St. Andrews - super convenient since we were living in Edinburgh. This year it was held in Vienna, Austria. When we realized where it would be this summer, I made the executive decision that I would be tagging along.
Neither of us really knew much about Vienna before we booked our flights. I did a bit of research online, read a few travel blogs, found interesting photos on Pinterest and checked out a couple of travel guides from the library. As the date got closer, I started getting really excited. The photos looked beautiful and we were definitely in need of a holiday.
Unfortunately for us, the absence of a car forces us to use public transportation. For the most part, we love this - no car payment, no insurance payment, no petrol costs. But when it takes 2 buses, 2 trains and a tube ride to get to the airport - we really miss having a car. After an hour long ride in a ridiculously overcrowded train car, we made it to the airport and then had to sit on the tarmac for over an hour because we missed our departure window.
We have a history of planning holidays without planning exactly how we're supposed to get to where we're staying. This time I didn't make that mistake. Colour maps, train information, flat address - all planned out and available.
We booked our flat through Airbnb. If you've never heard of this site or used it - you definitely should. We book pretty much all our holiday accommodation through it. The site allows owners to list houses, flats, cottages, rooms, etc. that they have for rent. I like it because we like self-catering places that allow us to at least cook our own breakfast and usually a dinner or two. And it's usually cheaper (or at least a better value) than a hotel.
I contacted the owner of the flat before we left Cambridge to find out about getting the key. He was planning to attend a concert that would be going on that night so he said that he'd leave the keys with the bartenders at the pub across the street. Luke headed in with our booking confirmation - but unfortunately the Chinese bartenders working in the Irish pub in the German speaking country of Austria didn't speak a bit of English. Luckily there was a girl sitting at the bar who was able to translate. We got our key and headed to the flat. Which was great.
After a good nights sleep, we spent two days exploring the city before the conference began. Vienna is stunning. The architecture is amazing. You can easily see that Austria was a pretty powerful country in the not so distant past. We took so many pictures.
Our first day was spent exploring the city via foot and tram. Public transportation in Vienna is fantastic (especially when compared to the UK). A great way to see much of Vienna is to hop on the #1 tram, go half way around the Ringstrasse and then switch to the #2 tram to bring you back to your starting point. The Ringstrasse is a road that goes around the Innere Stradt district of the city. From here, you can see a lot of the main architectural sites. And you can hop off to get a closer look before carrying on to the next.
We stopped at the Parliament Building, town hall, Votivkirche and the National Library.
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| Statue of Mozart and a lovely musical flower bed |
The following day we took our time wandering through the museum quarter, parts of the Hofburg Palace and Volksgarten on our way to pick up Luke's registration pack for the conference.
After we were done there, we took a bus to the top of Kahlenberg - a hill just outside of Vienna that provides panoramic views of the city. From there you can walk down the hill through a number of the vineyards that lie just outside the city. We were able to stop in at one of the heurigen for a glass of wine and a snack. Beautiful scenery, good food, excellent wine - what more could you want?
Monday morning was the start of the conference. Unfortunately for Luke but fortunately for me, there weren't any presentations that Luke was interested in attending until the afternoon, so we headed to the centre of town to see St. Stephens cathedral. The church is known for it's tile roof which includes the Austrian crest.
You need a bit of height to be able to get a really good picture of it. And while you can climb the 343 stairs to the top of the south tower, the angle isn't the best. However, it is still pretty spectacular to behold.
That afternoon after lunch, Luke headed off to the conference and I headed back towards the flat with a stop at the market. The one perk of the conference was that we got to see a few of our friends from Edinburgh. I decided to cook dinner and have everyone over to spend the evening. It was nice and relaxing. The one downside was that it was pretty warm in Vienna that day (upper 80's) and the flat did not have AC. Fortunately we've all lived in Europe long enough that we're relatively used to it.
The following day Luke had sessions all day, so I took off on my own to check out the southern part of the city. First stop was Karlskirche, then over to the Belvedere Palace with a stop at the Hochstrahlbrunnen on the way.
From there I hopped on a tram and headed for Hundertwasser Village.
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| Where I saw a very nice British phone booth. |
With all that seen and photographed, I headed to the university to meet Luke for lunch. The building is beautiful so I couldn't resist snapping a few iPhone photos.
For our final full day in Vienna, we hopped on the U-Bahn and headed to Schönbrunn Palace - the former imperial summer home. We bought the Classic Plus Pass which was a bit pricey but allowed us to see pretty much everything, watch an apple strudel demonstration and try our hand at solving a hedge maze. We couldn't take pictures of the interior of the palace, unfortunately, but it was beautiful. Mozart gave his first concert to the Empress in the palace at the age of 6.
That's pretty much it. We really enjoyed everything we did there. We've heard multiple people compare the city to Paris - only cleaner and without so many people. I would definitely recommend a holiday to Vienna and I would definitely go back if we had the chance.
Love you & miss you!
Aubs, Luke & Luther
