Fancy Vienna

Capital City #10

Our first general impression of Vienna was that it was flasher, glitzier and more expensive than all the places we'd just been. All to be expected, of course, but we didn't anticipate how pronounced the difference would be!

some fancy church

One area where this was driven home was in our search for another new suitcase for John. This was our first significant undertaking in the city, and it proved to be fruitless. The cheapest appropriate option in every bag shop was still about 150 euros, maybe 120. With our trusty currency conversion apps out, we decided fairly quickly that John would be able to continue carrying/pulling his suitcase along with the broken wheel loudly protesting until we got back to the inexpensiveness of Eastern Europe.

Another noticeable aspect of Vienna was the number of people dressed up, trying to sell concert tickets. It was the city of music! We enquired into a performance at the opera house, and decided to “think about it” when the cheapest ticket was 45 euros. When another guy accosted us outside a subway station for a different concert, though, for two thirds the price (again, the cheapest seats – of course), we decided to splash out. If there's any appropriate place to go and listen to music by Mozart and Strauss, it's Vienna!

Also appropriate was that we bought these tickets, as it happens, on the way to see the Mozart House. There we learned a lot about Antonio Salieri, weirdly enough. I think there wasn't all that much info on Mozart, so they provided a bunch of information about this acquaintance of Mozart's. It was okay, but neither of us had heard of him before and we didn't particularly care about his life. That was just the first few rooms, though, and then we got on to Mozart himself. One of the most interesting parts was seeing his prodigious output – they estimate an average of six full sheets per day with twelve lines per page, and yet he also gave lessons, socialised and had a family. Another point of interest was the conjecture that Mozart was a big gambler who got enormous illegal gambling debts, due to his requests for loans of enormous sums of money from a patron/friend, despite Mozart's own hefty income.

Next we explored some of the Old Town, including the ornate Plague Column and the Holocaust Memorial in Judenplatz.

ornate Plague Column

appropriately bleak Holocaust Memorial

The next day was a lesson in luxury and elegance from start to finish.

We began with a visit to Schonbrunn Palace and its Grounds. The latter gets a capital initial letter because it's an attraction in its own right. We thought previous places we'd seen were opulent; this magnificent imperial palace threw them into the shade. Like many fancy buildings we've seen, no photos were permitted inside, but it was lavish, trust me. It was also heavily populated – a very popular tourist destination, with good reason.

part of the palace and grounds

As for the surrounds, they were rather vast and impeccably manicured. We easily spent two and a half hours going round the loftily titled Gloriette, Neptune fountain, Obelisk fountain, so-called Roman Ruin and Privy Garden. We also conquered the labyrinth, sadly finding only tourists at the centre on an elevated platform, and saw a couple of bisons on our travels, in the imperial zoo also located in the grounds.

the view from the palace to the Gloriette

guess which fountain!

That afternoon, as per our tourist book's instructions, we found a cafe, Mozart's apparently, and ordered a piece of cake and drink each (or, in John's case, apple strudel). The waiters were all in suits and ties, and I got three complimentary wafers with my iced chocolate, discovering a delicious brand of luxury wafer in the process! Again, fancy. And it was this song, Fancy, by Iggy Azalea, we actually had stuck in our heads all day. And yes, it's one of those songs where I only know about three lines plus the chorus.

We don't normally sink to the level of taking food shots, but this was - you know it - fancy.

During our travels in Vienna, we had noticed a big crowd that was constantly standing around outside the Opera House. Between our cafe date and getting home, we finally figured out what it was about - apparently Tom Cruise was in town filming Mission Impossible 5 at that building.

The film set, with possibly Tom Cruise or, more likely, his double.

That evening we hurried off to our concert at some palace somewhere (honestly, all the different concerts taking place in all these different fancy buildings was bewildering). The room itself was lovely, with beautiful chandeliers and many audience members dressed up (not us – but that's okay, we were in the cheap seats at the back).

The concert itself was all elegance and refinement! As promised by the guy on the street, this was a Concert Plus; not just a chamber orchestra, they also had a couple of opera soloists come out for some pieces, and a male and female ballet dancer for others. The singers were amazing; I actually looked at the chandeliers when the lady first hit a super high note, half-expecting it to explode. The dancers were also great, so graceful and beautiful, with the woman's long flowing dresses matching the evening's elegance; no tutus in sight. Perversely, John enjoyed the instrumental-only pieces best, as the dancers and singers distracted from the music behind.

The lovely venue pre-performance.

If you don't care about classical music, I recommend you skip this paragraph and the next. The chamber orchestra was comprised of 13 people; one on the grand piano, 5 violins, a cello, a double bass, a flute/piccolo, a clarinet, percussion, and two brass instruments (a French horn, we think, and a trumpet or cornet). There was no conductor; the orchestra was led by the first violin. It was interesting to watch, as I've never seen such a small orchestra in action, or one led without a conductor. The first violin was definitely the most dynamic to watch, of course, as he played his own part with great panache and somehow guided the rest of the group too.

It was a really audience-friendly performance; the first piece had some gun cracks go off from the percussionist, which definitely woke the audience up – not that we needed it, given the exuberant pace of most of the pieces. The opera numbers included a duet from Figaro, a duet from Don Giovanni, as well as solo songs; instrumental pieces we recognised were Rondo alla Turca and Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. They were all designed to be crowd-pleasers, of course, and the crowd was pleased. I had a big smile on my face most of the night, I was just enjoying myself so much, and we gave them an encore and a standing ovation at the end. For the last piece in the encore, the first violin motioned to us to join in and clap along in certain parts. Each time, predictably, the (rest of the) crowd enthusiastically got faster and faster, while the percussionist and orchestra grimly carried on at the proper pace. Ah, poor unwashed and rhythmically-challenged masses. Still, it was great fun, and a perfect completion of our time in Vienna!

We felt we got a wonderful taste of the delights on offer in Vienna, and were so glad we actually indulged in some of the experiences there. We came away with stars in our eyes – and with that song stuck back in our heads, unfortunately.

For a better version of the song to get stuck in your head, listen to this superior one instead: "Handy".