December 8 - A full day in Vienna

Posting is one day late because of the power blackout fiasco.......

After a leisurely breakfast, we set out about 10:00 a.m. Lukas was still under the weather, so Angela changed our lunch reservation to a dinner reservation which gave us the whole day to explore.

We are getting quite adept with the transit system. We have 72-hour Vienna Cards which give us easy access to all buses, trams and subways. There is no need to swipe or show tickets. If asked, we just have to show our electronic card and corroborating identification. It allows the system to move thousands of people per hour quickly and efficiently.

Our first stop was at the Karlsplatz metro station where there was a Christmas market, but it wasn’t going to open for another couple of hours. But right beside it was the Karlskirche, a Baroque style church dedicated to St. Charles Borrromeo, one of the great counter-reformers of the 16-the century. Today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception which is a national holiday in Austria. Mass was underway, so we couldn’t tour the whole church, but we could certainly appreciate its beauty. It is widely considered the most outstanding baroque church in Vienna, as well as one of the city's greatest buildings.

Our next objective was to get to the biggest Christmas Market in Vienna at the Rathaus (Town Hall). We could have taken transit, but it was a good day for walking, so off we went. There was plenty of window shopping along the way. We stumbled across another market at the Marie Theresien Platz. What a good market!

Maria Theresa Walburga Amalia Christina who lived 13 May 1717 – 29 November 1780 was ruler of the Habsburg dominions from 1740 until her death in 1780, and the only woman to hold the position suo jure (in her own right). She was the sovereign of Austria, Hungary, Croatia, Bohemia, Transylvania, Mantua, Milan, Lodomeria and Galicia, the Austrian Netherlands, and Parma. By marriage, she was Duchess of Lorraine, Grand Duchess of Tuscany and Holy Roman Empress.

From there, we kept on towards the Rathaus. We stopped briefly at the Volksgarten which is famous for its beautiful rose gardens with over 3,000 rose bushes of about 400 different cultivars of roses. They all seem to have dedication plaques on them, remembering loved ones who have passed on, or milestone birthdays, or major wedding anniversaries. How touching! They were all wrapped in old burlap coffee bean bags for the winter, so the place looked like something from a cult horror movie. It must be a splendid display of colour in the summertime. Guess we will have to come back!

By this time, it was 1:30 p.m. and we were getting peckish. Angela suggested lunch at Café Landtmann, a traditional Viennese café. We had planned on doing a walking tour at 3:00 p.m., but we decided that eating at Freud’s favourite café was going to trump two hours of hearing about architecture and history, so I cancelled our bookings.

In the fall of 1926, Café Landtmann was purchased by Konrad and Angela Zauner. In 1929, the couple had the coffeehouse expanded and completely renovated, hiring famed architect and professor Ernst Meller, who was responsible for designing numerous Viennese coffeehouses of that time. It was during this renovation that Café Landtmann received its extravagant and lavish interior decorations, which are still preserved to this day, including the four wooden columns at the entrance, sculpted by Hans Scheibner. Under the Querfeld family's management, Café Landtmann was completely renovated at significant financial cost in 1982, and then again in 2001 and 2002. During its long history, Café Landtmann has served as a meeting place for many of the leading industrialists, politicians, thinkers, and artists in Austria, and was the preferred coffeehouse of Sigmund Freud, Gustav Mahler, Peter Altenberg, Felix Salten, and Emmerich Kálmán.

The place was oozing with charm and grace and grandeur, manned by waiters in crisp black suits, all perfectly coiffed and schooled in the art of perfect customer service. And to think that this café had the pleasure of hosting the Seven Sisters Loud and Crazy Team! We chortled and giggled our way through the experience. We ordered tea/coffee/hot chocolate and seven of their most decadent desserts. We passed the plates, sampled each offering and decided on our favourite. Oh my gosh, what an experience!

Right across the street from Café Landtmann is the Rathaus with its Christkindlmarkt. This is the biggest market in Vienna, with its hugely popular skating rink, a Ferris wheel, numerous illuminated displays and a very lovely display of nativity scenes. Quite by chance, we saw a group of Krampus. The Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure in the Central and Eastern Alpine folklore of Europe who, during the Advent season, scares children who have misbehaved. The kids all flocked for a photo op, so the whole scaring thing seems to have not affected them.

It was time to eat – again! This time it was at Café Pruckel. They have bamboo sticks to hold newspapers so you can eat and drink and peruse the headlines in style. Tim Hortons needs these sticks! We chortled our way through yet another meal. The schnitzel was given very high marks. The washrooms were given a barely passing grade with their plumbing from the early 1900s. And oddly, the café takes cash only. (Cash is far more prevalent here in Europe than in Canada.

We headed home like pros on the metro. Then the drama began. I plugged in an electrical adaptor which blew a fuse, and we lost all power in the room. The reception desk ladies here are cold and aloof. Two hours later, after two room changes and absolutely no help from the staff, Sue and I finally were able to turn in for the evening. We felt as if we were acting out a scene from the Grapes of Wrath as we trundled through the halls with all our earthly possessions under our wings. It was the worst case of hotel customer service that I have ever experienced in all my years of traveling. We will be providing frank feedback to the travel agent who booked this hotel. Its location near the train station is its only redeeming quality.Read more