Vienna -- Week 1

We arrived in Vienna late on Monday, July 27. Both of us were relieved to finally be here! Four years ago when Scott was working on his masters we were here together for our first over seas data collection trip. Scott was here for 5 weeks. I joined him for the last two since I had to finish my school year first. We both fell in love with the city then, so coming back and getting to spend the next 4 weeks here was almost like coming home. We were also glad to see Scott's parents, Jana and Dave, along with Caroline, Scott's little sister, and Scott's Aunt Sandy. They left Moscow to meet us here in Vienna for a little "vay-cay" with the fam. They had never been to Vienna, so we were excited to show them some of our favorite museums and food. Unfortunately, Scott missed most of the site seeing this week for his work at the Natural History Museum. However, Scott is used to making such sacrifices for science, and he always joined us for dinner and festivities after work.

What makes Vienna so great you ask? Well...For any of you who don't know, Vienna used to be the capital of the Holy Roman Empire. Vienna was where the Hapsburgs lived and ruled for 6 centuries. This means there is an overwhelming amount to learn and see, loads of art, history, and music. In addition, the historic center of Vienna was constructed or reconstructed during the Baroque period which means that it's also a charming. Add clean, safe, and not as expensive as other EU countries to the list and you have one great place to be! Every day I am surrounded by beauty and culture.

We started out on Tuesday morning with the Vienna essentials in the Hofburg Palace complex which is where they lived in the winter. They had a whole different, better one for the summer. You'll see some of that later. Within the Hofburg complex, we toured their silver collection (it's impressive!), the Sisi museum and the royal apartments. Pfew...we were tired.

Wednesday brought a new experience for me in Vienna. We took a bus tour of the Danube Vally. It took all day, and also included boat time on the Danube. This was really a winner for everyone. It was relaxing, interesting and beautiful. What more could you ask for? First we drove through the rolling hills of the Austrian countryside. There were trees and vineyards as far as the eye could see. Only an occasional castle or other beautiful historic building would interrupt the natural landscape. After a couple hours we arrived at the docking point for our boat tour. The boat was a decent size complete with cafe, and bathrooms. It was a little warm, but beautiful outside, so we enjoyed the tour from the top deck where we could watch the scenery go by as we sipped on various drinks and snacks. (The picture I included here was taken on the boat. I hope you will ignore the random guy standing up in my pic, and just look the the scenery. There is a castle above the guy's head.) When the boat again docked we got back on the bus and headed to lunch at our next tour site in Melk. In Melk we toured a Baroque monastery, and then we headed for home...er...I mean Vienna and our hotel rooms (Freudian slip).

Thursday brought a tour of the magnificent Schonbrunn Palace! This is where the Hapsburgs spent the summers. Oh, Schonbrunn is one of my favorite places... amazing Baroque architecture and interior decoration, lavishly furnished, extensive Baroque palace gardens that include a maze, monumental fountain, and a zoo! I have been there a total of 3 times, once in 2005 and twice on this trip (I went back with Scott)! We couldn't take pictures inside, but I've taken plenty on the grounds outside. There is also a small cafe on the edge of the grounds where I had a great melange (roughly an Austrian cappuccino), and apple strudel! I don't have a picture of it because I hadn't had breakfast that morning, so I ate it too fast. When we were done here we stopped there again for ice cream. *wistful sigh*

Friday brought another bus tour and another new Viennese experience. (Mom, I hope you read this because you will appreciate this part more than anyone else) This time our tour was only a half day through the woods. These were the same woods that inspired composers such as Beethoven and Mozart! However, the most interesting part of this tour was visiting an old gypsum mine. It was so much cooler down in the mine that they gave us blankets on our way in to keep us warm. We learned all kinds of things about how it flooded while they were mining gypsum, so they closed it, and then how they opened it back up just for visitors, and then how the Germans took it over during the war. The coolest part for me wasn't any of these things. The coolest part is that they filmed parts of the movie "The Three Musketeers" in that mine! They even left the movie boat down there (that I have a very bad picture of but can't resist including)! When that movie came out when I was in high school I went to see it in the theater 7 times! I had a huge crush on Kiefer Sutherland back then when he had his gut. You may be laughing now, or you may be disgusted at my taste in movies or men at that time, but it was true.

Saturday was our one day to site-see with Scott, so we went to his favorite site the Treasury Museum. This is an amazing museum! The Hapsburgs had loads of treasure. Some of these include: the crown jewels (of course), the largest cut emerald in the world, the "holy grail," and supposed relics from Christ's crucifixion! It was fun to go back.

Too soon after we finished at the Treasury, the Madduxes and Aunt Sandy had to fly back to Moscow, and Scott and I were left to finish out our trip on our own. We had a great time showing them why we like Vienna so much!

Extra pics that wouldn't fit right in the text:

Our tour boat: Prince Eugen

The castle above "that guy's" head

Me and my melange on the boat

Left to right: Aunt Sandy Vinzant, Caroline Maddux, Jana Maddux on the boat

Dave Maddux on the boat

In front of the Schonbrunn Palace gardens

Dave and Jana at Schonbrunn

A little traditional Viennese Sacher Torte and melange