Sally’s Trip Journal - Chapter II
Monday, December 8, 2003 …. Continued
The first thing Bob did after we got on the train from the airport was to explain jet lag to me again. He said that as he saw it, his job today was to keep me awake till at least 10:00 pm Vienna time. That would solve my jet lag problems. I was just excited to be in Vienna! What did I know about jet lag? He tends to take his ‘jobs’ very seriously, so I agreed, I would not sleep or nap, but would stay up till at least 10:00 pm tonite. I found out, of course, that it would get harder to do as the day went on.
At the Vienna, Austria Schewacht airport, the train station into the city is downstairs under the airport! Bob took his job as tour guide pretty seriously also. He said he had been to the airport hundreds of times to either meet students when they arrived or say goodbye to them for their trip back home. So he not only knew every corner of the airport and the train stations, he knew how to get anywhere from the airport. He knew too that the conductor would ask for our tickets on the airport train, so he had our tickets ready. That would never happened again the entire time we were in Vienna, on any busses, streetcars or underground trains. And we used their public transportation every day we were there.
Interestingly, I learned later, the Vienna public transport system is not only one of the best in the world, but, it’s an honor system. You buy tickets for every day you wish to use a bus, streetcar and underground train. That same ticket is good on all of them. And you ‘stamp’ it (the date and time) in a small machine on the first vehicle you take. Then you are free to travel all day, as much as you choose, making sure to keep your ticket with you, in the (unlikely) event a conductor would ask to see it. I think the monthly ticket would have been 3 euros per day but we got 8 day tickets which were a bit more, but worth every euro.
So my education began on how to travel in Vienna by public transportation. It was very important to Bob too that I learn how to at least find my way back to the hotel from wherever I happened to be in the event we ever got separated. And what we would do if ever we got separated getting on or off a train. The one that missed the train, would take the next one forward, and the one that was on the train would get off at the next stop and wait for other on the next train, getting on at the exact same spot/car they got on the first time. It was all so new to me, I just hoped I would remember one tenth of what he told me.
We were, Bob told me, headed for the “Ring” which is the road that was built over the wall that surrounded the city at one time. It’s shaped like the curved portion of the letter D. The straight portion is the river Danube. Bob has a page on his website on the Ringstrasse
He was so happy to show me his beloved Vienna! We rode on both the #1 and #2 Streetcars (Strassebahn) that travel around in opposite directions on the Ring and so you have a great view of all the beautiful buildings and historical sites.
But strangely enough some places we tried were closed, and we were both surprised to find that Monday, December 8th (a passerby told us) was a holiday! It’s actually a religious holy day and therefore a holiday in Vienna! The banks were closed and some of the offices. Ticket offices too were closed, but Bob knew where we could get bus tickets, and while we were walking the Graben, one of Bob’s favorite places to walk and to sit and people watch, we found an ATM where I got my first euros in Vienna!
As we rode and walked, Bob told me about the buildings and famous sites. We were walking around near the palace of the Habsburgs when he said “Oh, Sally, look across the street, it’s the famous “Building without Eyebrows”!
I looked up to see what he was talking about and at that moment, didn’t see the 2 foot high round stone pillar they placed in the road to keep the vehicles from driving over the curb. I tripped and fell right over one of them. Ouch! I mean I fell down. And was so embarrassed! Here I was on my very first day in Vienna and I fall down! And having the sense of humor we Ryan/Sharamitaro’s have I got up and started to laugh. Bob was so concerned. He kept saying, “Are you alright? Oh Sally, are you alright?” Needless to say, I will remember the Building without Eyebrows for a long, long time. I was looking up! (Lisa will know what I mean by that)
Right after that, because we had been walking and riding the busses and streetcars for a couple of hours, Bob said ‘Let’s see if the Café Weimar is open’ and we can get something hot to drink or eat. Just happened that it was right across the street from where I tripped! We were both getting a bit hungry and tired and it sounded good to sit a while.
It was my very first Vienna Coffeehouse. And it was beautiful. We ordered hot tea and it tasted so good because it was a cold day in Vienna. And then after we drank a little of our tea, and found that it was past lunch time, we decided to have a bowl of goulash too. So we had soup and bread. Oh, it tasted so good. And after that, Bob said,” now we just have to split an apple strudel!” Oh, was it delicious, light pastry and warm apples!! YUM !
We stayed there and enjoyed our tea, soup, bread and strudel until it was dark. Then we drove around some more on the busses and tried to decide where we would eat dinner. We had already had that nice goulash so we weren’t really hungry for a big meal. After about an hour and a half just sightseeing, riding and walking, Bob said ‘lets just get a Doner Kabob, but not just any Doner Kabob, a Schwedenplatz Doner Kabob! He had missed them so much that he couldn’t wait to try them again. They were more like a Greek gyro than what I thought of as a kabob, but they were huge and delicious. We got three of them and 2 bottles of beer and went back to our hotel. He decided that for this evening we could just rest and relax with one of his favorite ‘fast foods’ in Vienna (the kabobs). I was exhausted and that sounded just fine with me. After we ate one and a half kabobs, which were made of piles of marinated grilled meat, shredded lettuce, tomatoes and onions with a yummy yogurt sauce (passing on the hot peppers), we just kicked off our shoes and turned on the TV, Bob was looking for soccer, I didn’t care much about anything, I was just ready to crash.
Then I remembered I would need to borrow a T shirt from Bob for a nite shirt and wash out my undies for the next day before I went to bed. I hoped that I would be surprised when I went down for breakfast and that my luggage would be there.
Tuesday, December 9, 2003
I slept soundly, and woke up refreshed… I was in Vienna! I showered first while Bob checked the TV for some hint of the weather that day. I got dressed while he was showering and was happy to see that I at least had my toothbrush, toothpaste and some cosmetics for cleansing my face.
Breakfast was a very pleasant surprise. There was a table set with cereals and fruit, juices and milk, and another milky substance that I didn’t recognize. Not as thick as yogurt. But on another wall there was a table with breads, rolls, butters, cream cheeses and slices of ham, salami and other cheeses. I wouldn’t have known where to start, and would likely have had cereal only. But Bob took the lead and said, here Sally, this is what I always have. And he fixed a plate for himself, and I followed him, with just a few things I wanted to try (in addition to what he had).
Semmel rolls are wonderful and what most Europeans have for breakfast. And that’s what we had EVERY DAY. A semmel roll, crispy on the outside and soft inside, and some were still warm. It’s customary to eat them with butter and jam, OR put thin slices of ham, salami and cheeses on them. And if that wasn’t enough, I just had to try the little foil wrapped square cream cheeses too. Yes, on my semmel with the cold cuts! Delicious. Bob had another type of dark bread with jam on it after he ate his semmel with the cold cuts. He ordered coffee for himself and tea for me. And we both had juice.
What a wonderful way to start our day, and our breakfast was included in the price of the room! Several languages were spoken by the hotel staff, so my not speaking German there, wasn’t a problem. Though there were times Bob would speak in German to them when he ordered our coffee and tea. I think that it was his way to refresh his German. He always made sure I knew what he was saying. There were times however when I really did regret not learning more German and French for the trip.
After breakfast we went back to our room and gathered our day bags with things we would need for the day and left to walk to the UBahn to ride the U4 to the Mariahilfastrasse.
When we got off the train and walked up the stairs to the street level we found a Kristkindl there! Bob said “Oh good, lets try their apple punch!” He got no argument from me. And it was spectacular! It was a blend of tea and punch, to which they had added rum and schnapps, and it even had some tiny pieces of apple floating around in it! It was soooooooo good! So good! We did just like the Viennese. We stepped over to one of the tall round tables that are placed in the center of the L-shaped setup of the wooded stalls that were just opening their places for business that day. And we drank our hot apple punch outside on the street with the others, YUM.
After that we walked the very short distance from the tables to an old church in that small square. So amazing, the wood and marble dated from the 1700’s, the pews and alters are still there, so much history and beauty. Then off we went to do a little sightseeing and a little shopping. Bob had told me about a second hand shop called EWA’s. I had packed my warm scarf in my checked bags and because it was so cold and we would be walking and sightseeing, I needed one. But didn’t feel like paying the price for a new wool scarf. So I searched through the scarves there at the second hand store and picked a nice wide, long one. Just what I needed, it was clear and sunny but cold and windy that day.
Our next stop was the T Mobile store to have Bob’s phone activated. We now have 20 euros of time, though with the update and activation, the number was changed. So we will need to give the new number to all ‘our’ kids.
From there we went to the train station for our tickets to Paris. It was a very good day for us because we were able to get the very last 2 train beds for our overnight train to Paris on December 22, 2003. Whew!
A very good day too, because our next stop was the Volksoper (Folksopera).
Bob asked if I would like to see if they had any tickets left for two of Bob’s favorite ‘light’ operas, La Boeme and Die Lustige Wit We (The Merry Widow). Bob was so pleased to find that not only did they have a ticket left, but that we could get tickets for both and not break our budgets/banks. The tickets were in a section that is somewhat of a problem because of a column that blocks vision. So they sell those tickets for 6 euros each!! Bob said that the column is no wider than 4-5 inches and he has never had a problem in those same seats before. So off we went after having a great day shopping wondering what we would eat, and where.
I wanted to go back to the hotel to see if my luggage had arrived. So we did that but found that no, it hadn’t arrived. We decided to rest and relax a bit after being out and about in the cold all day. It was 4:00 pm by then, and we hadn’t had anything to eat since breakfast. We were tired and hungry but didn’t know if we had the energy (or if we really wanted) to bundle up again and go out to eat. At about 6:00, we had rested, read and written in our journals, and knew we had to decide what and where to eat. Bob said the hotel manager had recommended a place closeby that had what he termed good but ‘fast food’. We decided to try to find the place. The name he said was Wienerwald (Vienna Woods). It was not as easy to find as we thought, but after taking the long way around, we did find it just a block and a half from our hotel.
We knew it would be the second night in a row for take out, but neither of us cared at that point. Hungry and tired, we just wanted something warm and tasty to eat. We didn’t even care if it was ‘fast food’ at that point. We ordered chicken sandwiches with bacon, lettuce and tomato and two Viennese beers. Were they really surprisingly tasty? Or were we just that hungry? Well, we both agreed that they were good enough that someday we might try them again.
After we ate, we both called one of our kids, and left messages with his new phone number. I called Lisa and he called Bob and John. Gulp, or he tried, because I had transposed the last 2 numbers of his son Bob’s number in my journal. Oops. At least we knew that all of the kids would have the number within the next 24 hours, no matter what time it was in St. Louis. We said “time for a glass of wine”and toasted to another fun but busy day in Vienna and then called it a night.
Wednesday, December 10, 2003
I didn’t sleep as well over night, mostly because all night I kept thinking about my lost luggage, and trying to think what I would say to the Lost and Found person when I called about my bags if they haven’t been delivered by this afternoon. We had another delicious breakfast, and gathered our day bags and our ‘list’ of things we wanted to do today.
The first thing on the list was to stop at the T Mobile store and ask them a few more questions. One was, how many minutes do we have left after making the calls to the kids last night? Bob didn’t know how to check that on the phone itself, and I surely didn’t either. He also wanted to know how much to make a ‘local’ call here in Vienna, as he had several calls to make. He also wondered how much it would cost to add more minutes if we needed more.
Because there was a T Mobile store right inside the Karlsplatz Station, we got those questions answered before we even started our sightseeing that morning. We had a few other errands to run and one of them was to ride to a restaurant that Bob loves. He never mentioned the name of the restaurant, but just calls it by the name of the server there that he and Jeanne had gotten to know so well. Her name is Valet, so he always calls it Valet’s. Because she doesn’t work every evening, he wanted to stop in and see if she was there, if so, we would eat our main meal there today.
Valet was not there. And the server who was there, was not helpful in letting us know when she would be there. So we will have to come back another day to check.
But because the internet café was almost right across the street from Valet’s, we stopped there and checked our email and sent notes back to the kids. It wasn’t as expensive as I thought it would be, it was about 4 euros for an hour, and you can keep a running total, so when we come back we just log on again and we can check to see our time left on the bottom right side of the screen. I liked that.
After our day of errands, we were ready to head back for the hotel, it was already almost 5:00 again and it starts getting dark in Vienna at around 4:30. So on the way back in the U4, we decided we would have dinner at the same Wienerwald restaurant that was close by our hotel. This time we would eat there, and not just get the carry out chicken sandwich.
Dinner was actually very good. Better than we expected. We each had large servings of wiener schnitzel with parsley potatoes (petercillin kartoffin), and a wonderful dessert by the name of mohn in hemd … which turned out to be a tiny chocolate sponge bundt cake filled with warm chocolate sauce. Bob didn’t tell me what it was, he just knew I would love it too, so he just ordered one for each of us. What a nice surprise. Yum.
When we got back to our hotel room after dinner, there was good news!!! My bags had been delivered! I was so happy to see them. Clean clothes, cosmetics, deodorant, a hair curler!! Bob was happy for me, and said we should toast with a glass of wine, so of course we did!!
Thursday, December 11, 2003
This morning we almost overslept for our 9:00 breakfast, and were rushing to get showered and dressed and down to the breakfast room. Then we found out that they serve till 10:00. We wouldn’t need to get up so early any more.
While we ate we planned to make it an easy day so we wouldn’t be so tired for the opera tonight. We took the U4 into the city and did a little shopping, mostly just window shopping. Bob wanted me to see the many different shops they have in the main shopping area. They don’t have many malls there, their stores are mainly individually owned (or 90%) and each one of them has a beautifully decorated shop window. Even the most common stores, kitchen supplies, camping supplies go to great lengths to attract the many passers by. People there it seems, walk everywhere.
For our main meal we ate at a place called The Tunnel. Bob said it was discovered, and introduced to him, by some of his students from the Webster University campus there in Vienna. It was a lot nicer than his description actually. He didn’t want me to think it was anything special I guess. Not a white tablecloth place, but then I didn’t expect that if the students went there. But it was nice and clean and a pleasant tavern atmosphere. There was a lot of light wood paneling, and wood tables and chairs. Bob ordered pizza, I ordered the special. Gnocci, and we split them so we could taste it all.
I think we sat there for a couple of hours talking over a beer or two. Bob got started talking about his years at Cardinal Glennon College at Kenrick Seminary and the events that led up to his leaving. How he went from being the student with the best chance of going to Rome, to the student that was asked by the Archbishop to either change his thesis or leave. He left. Very interesting stories from and about a very interesting man.
It was getting close to 4:00, and we thought the best plan would be to go back to the hotel, rest a bit and change for the opera. It started at 7:00 and we had no problem getting there on time. Bob was right when he said it wasn’t very far to the Volksopera from our hotel. We timed it and walking to the U4 getting off and crossing the street ..we were there in 15 minutes! Amazing!
We saw Die Lustige Wit We (The Merry Widow), which was a very, light and fun type opera. Our seats turned out to be fine, and we could see quite well, and of course hear very well. I couldn’t understand a word anybody said, it was all done in German (and really neither could Bob). But he knew the opera so well he knew what was happening and didn’t need to follow in German. And he would tell me about certain things that were happening or going to happen so I could follow the story along. I did enjoy the Volksopera and the people watching. It was my very first (light or otherwise) opera, it was beautiful and it was Vienna!
Because we were hungry after the opera but didn’t want a big dinner, we stopped on the way home and got more Doner kabobs and beer. We ate in our easy chairs back in our hotel room. That might not sound very classy for a dinner after the opera, but it was very tasty and very relaxing.
Friday, December 12, 2003
Slept till 9:00, but it wasn’t a problem, we knew we had time to shower and dress and get down to breakfast by 10:00. Especially since I “cooked” my hair curler yesterday I would have plenty of time.. darn it. Its wash and wear hair for the rest of the trip, unless I find another hair curler. Oh well, not curling my hair does free more time in the morning.
Our plans for today were to ride to the Vienna Woods and up to Kahlenberg. And it was breathtakingly beautiful. So high up you could look down and see all of Vienna. We could see the Danube and how it crosses Vienna itself and then three ranges of mountains. We took the trains and busses to get there and back, a very enjoyable ride. Long enough that we got some reading time in, too.
There was a souvenir shop there and we bought some postcards there after we walked up to the lookout platform to see the unbelievable view of Vienna. Then we walked through the hotel to the ‘lookout’ restaurant and had tea. A nice break for us, since it was a bit more of a walk from the bus to the lookout area than we had realized.
Dinner was a special treat. We ate a little early because we needed to go back and change for La Boeme. Bob took me to his second favorite restaurant in Vienna. Hatam, a Persian restaurant. It wasn’t long till he was spotted by an old friend and waiter there, we didn’t need to order anything but the drinks. The waiter said “the usual?” And Bob said “yes”. He ordered two Persian beers to drink with the dinner. And they were light and tasty, not at all dark and bitter. The meal was a wonderful grilled marinated chicken and rice. But not just any rice. We each got a dinner plate with white rice, that had a serving of saffron rice over it and then that was sprinkled with some kind of special berries. I have never tasted these types of berries, they were dried like dried cranberries, but they were even smaller than a cranberry and a brighter red. It wasn’t spicy or hot, but so delicious! And the chicken was wonderful too, marinated and grilled on a skewer and we both had half a chicken. It was pretty healthy too! Which made it nice, because we ate the whole thing.
Then after having an after dinner pot of Persian tea, we left for home and a short rest before dressing for the opera. La Boeme. Bob told me the story on the way there, so I knew a bit about what he says is his favorite opera. La Boeme is not a bright and happy story like Die Lustige Wit We (The Merry Widow) was, but I enjoyed just being there, the Volksopera in Vienna and the music. Bob loved it.
Tomorrow is Saturday and we plan to go to Nachtmarkt, Vienna’s large outdoor market. If I had taken the time to learn how to use the outlet set that Anja lent me, I would take my camera.
Saturday, December 13, 2003
After breakfast, where a German man struck up a short conversation with us right after he did the same thing with three young student types from Slovenia (couldn’t help overhearing their conversation), we packed up and off we went to the Naschmarkt. It was cold, but we were determined to enjoy the day and the shopping. Bob suggested we walk through the flea market section first. Mostly because they begin to pack up and leave around 1:00pm and too, we didn’t have to carry our purchases from the food market with us as we shopped the flea market.
It was a great idea because the flea market section alone was blocks long. And a block wide. There were at least three rows of portable ‘booths’ or ‘tables’ if they actually had a table to set up. Some had just a tablecloth or the ground to put their ‘wares’ on.
Very interesting booths too, and many nationalities bring their wares to sell. Bob told me it used to be only Viennese, but now there are many, many other nationalities. We didn’t buy anything at the flea market, but enjoyed just walking and ‘window shopping’.
Then we walked through the food shops and booths which covered at least three more blocks, and included; breads, fruits, veggies, herbs, cheeses, sausages and meats, wine and pastry shops. We did buy some flat bread, two spreads (one that sounded like terra missoo), red peppers, wine, cookies and sliced meats for a spectacular meal (picnic) in our room later.
And we then found a booth that was selling homemade honey wine, at least three or four different kinds. We stopped and the man at the booth offered us a sample of two of them. We knew right away which one we wanted. It was sooooooooo good. And would make a nice dessert wine we thought. Yum. Then as we were leaving, another booth caught our eye, and we stopped to see what they had. We didn’t buy any wine there, but did buy some homemade poppy seed and nut cake. Dessert for tonite!!
We arranged our packages in several bags, the cloth bag really came in handy for our wine bottles, and the other food could easily be carried in the plastic bag we got at the BILA store. Got them all home on the bus and then the Ubahn, and had a wonderful picnic as we rested and talked about our fun day at the Naschmarkt. And I wrote all about it in my journal.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
After we ate our breakfast the little German man wanted to talk to us again. But we were ready to go back to our room and get dressed for our day out and about. We decided to take a different route when we got to the door of the hotel, and so we turned left instead of right. We walked down the street and around the corner, and at the end of that street we found a widened street that had been turned into a ‘walking mall’. The streets were closed off to cars and buses. There were stores on both sides of the ‘street’. Of course it was Sunday in Vienna so all the stores were closed. But it was a pleasant walk and we enjoyed seeing another part of ‘our’ neighborhood.
We found a bus stop for the bus (each is numbered) that Bob knew would take us to the Prukel Coffee Shop. We planned to spend some time reading there, and then find the movie theatre that was showing The Third Man. When we got to the theater it was very, very small. The room that was designated to show The Third Man was hardly bigger than my family room. We walked maybe ¾ way up the isle and found seats that we thought were close enough and at the same time back far enough. We were still pretty close to the screen. But watching the movie again was fun. Some things I remembered, some I didn’t. I guess every time you watch it you see something more. I am looking forward to the Third Man Tour on Friday.
After the movie we were going to stop at the Rathous for the Kristkindl"
But Bob was hungry for Indian food. I was hungry too, so we went in search of RANI, the Indian restaurant that Bob liked so much. The place was small and cozy. But the servers were very nice, and the food was delicious. We started with a wonderful appetizer of stuffed grape leaves which were wonderful. I noticed that some of the sauces were quite (hot) spicy, but my chicken with spinach main dish was very good. And Bob of course loved his Curry Chicken. (I didn’t know it, but I had left my white scarf at either the movie theater or the Indian restaurant. We searched for it at both places but never found it)
Sally Ryan Sharamitaro sally@sharamitaro.com