For the first time in four years, I got on a plane and left Toronto. Sarah and I looked quite distinctive on the plane in our PrescientX masks: probably quite safe, but it does give you something resembling a pig's snout. This on a plane where about 95% of the people weren't masking at all in the eight-hours-recycled air. The PrescientX masks are mildly annoying to put on and take off, so we've both switched back to N95s for travel around Vienna (and very few people are masking here either). For all these efforts, we both ate and drank on the plane, so our record is far from perfect. I managed to get 2+ hours of sleep on our overnight flight, enough that I got through Sunday without passing out.
I had forgotten how much I love staring out the window of an airplane. There are so many things about it - a sense of freedom from the cares of the ground-dwellers, an incredible view of the geography (and geology, and farming, and the structures of man), of the entire world. And pure amazement at the technology that allows us to get on a plane in Toronto in the evening and off it again the next morning in Europe. Of course when you look back inside from the window, you find you're still in a cramped and noisy seat in a tin can with 200 of your closest ... well, they're not friends ... Such a dichotomy ...
Because of the chaos in my life in the last couple weeks, my planning for this trip stopped completely - so several of the more practical details fell entirely to Sarah. She navigated us from the airport via S-Bahn (commuter train) to Wien Mitte/Landstraße station in Vienna, where we changed to the U-Bahn (subway) and up and out to our hotel near Karlsplatz. Which, by the way, is dead in the historic centre and half a block from the State Opera House. Every time I look at "Karlsplatz" I see, and hear in my head, "Karl-Splats" instead of the more correct "Karl's Plaza." This remains mildly entertaining, and I'm not sure it needs to be fixed.
Our first outing of the day was simply to wander around the immediate area - already packed with guided tour groups (particularly around the Opera House) at 1000 in the morning. Part of this process was to get me a SIM card for his phone (Sarah is making do with the roaming charges from her service). This turned into a mini-epic: the cellphone stores are closed with most everything else on Sundays, but we found a grocery store (got a decent ham and cheese baguette there too) where I purchased a €10 SIM ... but the process of activating it needed not only internet access (umm, I need internet access, that's why I'm buying the SIM?!), but also required I submit a photo of my passport. Thank god for Sarah, Sarah's phone, and her calming influence as I cursed and stuttered my way through that ridiculous process. In the end, I can text Sarah - on her Canadian phone number in Vienna - but I cannot text my brother - on his Canadian phone in Canada. But data works fine, so I can get around with Google maps etc.
As is often mentioned in the guidebooks and by previous visitors, the centre of Vienna is both incredibly beautiful and easily walkable. Three hundred year old sculptures are common - we've been immensely entertained by the grotesques in the fountains engaged in the strangest (and usually indecipherable) of battles.
We passed by Stephansdom, but opted not to go into Vienna's possibly busiest tourist destination as our first major stop. We went instead to the Prunksaal, appropriate for a pair of librarians. This is the main hall of Vienna's National Library, and it dates back several hundred years. It houses one of the biggest medieval book collections in Europe. Four metres of wood bookshelves, then a gallery, then another three metres of bookshelves above that .... And rolling stairs abound on both levels, which suggests this is an active collection even though it's also a massively popular tourist site. The central dome also stars a superb tromp l'oeil ceiling, one of Giles's favourite things ... What a space - any librarian would weep with envy, it's immense and gloriously beautiful.
photo: the Prunksaal tromp l'oeil ceiling
Right next to that is the Augustinerkirche (kirche = church). My guidebook (DK Eyewitness) says "This church has one of the best-preserved 14th-century Gothic interiors in Vienna, only the modern chandeliers strike a jarring note." I enjoyed it, but apparently it wasn't terribly memorable (the Prunksaal on the other hand ...). Further wandering led us to the Michaelerkirche, which we probably would have passed had it not been for the "Flea Market" sign that triggered one of my Pavlovian reactions. To get to the market, we walked through an active church (not a service though), through the associated out-buildings, through a building-locked courtyard, and finally into the sale. Or three separate sales: one of vaguely religious paintings and prints, one an all purpose flea market, and one a large room full of books (all, strangely enough, in German). It was a surreal experience.
Back to the church itself, which was most memorable for the young guy who had let himself into the choir where he wasn't supposed to be so he could listen to his music and dance around striking poses in front of the entire church's seating.
I think we stopped at the hotel then, after which we headed for the Danube Tower. I'd put it on our shared map, with the comment "Giles likes high places." Sarah had noticed that the Danube Tower was closing for renovations on Monday the 2nd of October, so she thought we ought to get there while we could. It's an aesthetically unpleasing tower on the edge of a park beside the Danube River, its other side looming immediately over a residential neighbourhood. The lower observation deck is open air (and half closed as some construction has already begun - we got a reduced price of admission). We spent some time admiring the very fine views, then decided to await sunset in the (formerly rotating) café a couple levels up. This turned out to be a far better idea than I'd imagined (not that I thought it was a bad idea ... I assumed everything would be overpriced, and it was, but ... so worth it). We got to watch the sun setting over Vienna from probably the best seats in the house, while eating apple strudel and Sacher Torte (and the pastries were very good when I'd expected them to be mediocre). We visited the restrooms - not normally something I'd mention, but ever since I took a photo in Seoul that I titled "A Urinal with a View" ... This has kind of stuck in my mind. These urinals also had a spectacular view (although only glass from about a metre and up - in Seoul, the urinal was against a solid glass wall). And then back to outside observation deck to catch some photos of Vienna at night - particularly the wildly lit Prater, the local amusement park.
When we arrived at the base of the Danube Tower, we had noticed that they were in the process of assembling a slide tube. While we were up the tower, we discovered why: the planned closure is to install a several storey slide with a transparent top - 170 metres in the air.
Our final stop of the day was the Bitzinger Werstel Stand beside the Albertina. Basically a sausage stand, eternally busy because, well, they're good. We split a "Kasekrainer" in a bun, which is a sausage stuffed with Emmentaler cheese, which we ate on a park bench. It was very good.
Administrivia: Debian Linux has deliberately disabled the ability of the operating system to connect with "captive portal" wifi. This means I was unable to connect to the Pearson Express train's wifi, the Pearson airport's wifi, and now I can't connnect to the wifi at my hotel. So far, this problem remains unsolved.