We started off the morning a little late after our late train into Vienna last night, just barely making it to breakfast before it closed at 9am. We are staying at the Huttledord Hostel 20 minutes from down town by metro. It's got a real institutional feel to it that reminds us of the Globetrotter Inn where we stayed at in London. Though at only 13 Euros each for dorms, it's a steal. And the breakfast was surprisingly good: three kinds of whole grain bread, yogurt, cereal, coffee, tea, and hot chocolate. Mmm. Eggs, meat, and cheese were also available for a modest fee.
Our first stop of the day was the big cathedral of Stephensdom. Mass was going on and much of the outside was covered in scaffolding, so it was a kind of disappointing.
We enjoyed a good bit of great romantic outdoor sculpture.
Next we walked to the Hofburg Palace, where we picnicked in one of the courtyards before going inside. The tour was in three parts, with hands-down the best audio tour of the trip. It started with the Silver Collection, where we saw service after royal/state/etc service. None of them were particularly old, however, as they were typically made of solid gold or silver, so were typically melted down and re-purposed as soon as they went out of fashion or the owner fell upon hard times. During the reign of Napoleon, most were converted to coin. Porcelain was not considered fancy enough for anything but dessert, though even this seems to have eventually changed for economic reasons. It was pretty and we joked about being in "the dish room" (as the president jokingly calls the White House China room in "The American President"), though it was really more like a dozen rooms!
Next up was the Sisi Museum, where we learned all about the apparently famous Empress Sisi, wife (and cousin) of Emperor Franz-Josef. She became exceeding popular after her assassination, though apparently the legends about her were not based in reality. It seems she was an exceedingly unhappy woman who hated being the center of attention. She did a lot of traveling (largely to escape court life/responsibilities), spent 3 hours per day having her ankle-length hair done (by servants, she read or studied foreign languages during the process), and had a state-of-the-art bathroom and exercise equipment (she was 5'8" and worked hard to maintain her weight of between 90 and 95 lbs--yikes!).
Next we saw the apartments in the palace where Sisi and Franz-Josef lived and received people. It was in many ways like other palaces we've seen, but the audio-guide really made it come alive with the descriptions of he lives of the people who lived there: Franz-Josef seems to have been a well-loved ruler who took his work and family very seriously. Sisi seems to have taken her health and beauty very seriously.
Next we had the second half of our picnic before hurrying on to the Opera House for a 3pm guided tour.
We were more than a little put-off by the crowds when we arrived, but they broke us into manageable (still large) groups by language for the tours. The tour was excellent. We got the history of the opera house, got to compare the art from different periods, heard about how the curtained windows of Franz-Josef's private room were visible from the entry so people could decide whether or not to buy tickets based on whether his light was on. Actually though, Franz-Josef didn't much like the opera, so he'd sit out in his box before it started so people could see him, then retire back to his private room to take tea and receive important guests after the show started. We also heard about the guy who decided to change the opera from a more social affair where the house lights stayed on and people wandered in and out through the show, to what we now are used to with the house lights off and people expected to stay in there seats. He added intermissions so there would still be the social aspects, and had large rooms for people to mill about in during intermission added to the opera house. We also saw back stage and heard about how the sets are stored in a big warehouse across town and a different set is delivered by truck each day and assembled in an average of around 3 hours. You see, they do a different opera each night. Yeah, seriously! (Repeats, sure, but not on consecutive nights.) We also heard about how the whole orchestra pit can be raises and lowered. Why? Because some operas have more instruments and you want the orchestra further away to keep from drowning out the singers. Others have smaller orchestras and the pit is raised to make them louder. No one is miced, so this is important! Finally we heard about the Opera Ball, and saw the 3 ton chandelier, which is so heavy it cannot be lowered for maintenance and cleaning (normal ones are, that's why the hero can cut a rope to drop it on enemies) and instead a section of the ceiling lowers to allow access for cleaning. I'm glad that's now my job! Anyhow, it was a great tour, best of the trip by far!
After, we got in line for standing tickets to the night's opera, Tannhausen by Wagner. Once we had staked out our spot with Josh's jacket, we went back behind the opera house for some traditional cheap-eats at the hot dog stand. The opera was in 3 segments of approximately 1 hour each with 2 half-hour intermissions. Josh liked it, Mary not so much. Sure wish you could buy standing tickets to the theater in the USA for 4 Euros though!
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