We left Hungary and headed for Austria with two stops at Győr and the Schönbrunn Palace on the way. Győr was originally founded by the celts and for eight centuries was called Arrabona and received its the name Győr from the ancient Magyar army commander Árpád; it was so called since the city was surrounded by a round fortress or gyûrû meaning ring in Hungarian. We were let off the coach opposite the town hall and had a leisurely walk through the town down to the river; Győr was known by the Romans as the 'City of Four Rivers' because it is bounded by the Danube, Rábca, Rába and Marcal Rivers. Jane practised her photography skills by composing a photo of Nick holding Olwen in the palm of his hand; passers by could be heard muttering "the mad English" None of us had any idea what she was doing until we saw the resultant photo (LOL).
We continued on the Schönbrunn Palace which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and Austria’s most visited tourist attraction. For centuries, the palace served as the summer home of the Habsburgs, and to this day reflects the interests and tastes of the Habsburg monarchs. Schönbrunn is considered to be one of Europe’s most impressive Baroque palace complexes and Austria’s most significant cultural monument. The garden boasts a Gloriette, which is derived from the 12th century French word gloire meaning "little room" (a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings). Even in grandiose Vienna it would be hard to describe this as a little room; during the 19th century the glazed inner hall of the Gloriette was frequently used as a dining room and included a kitchen built nearby so that food could be freshly prepared. Partially bombed during the last war, it has now been fully restored; unfortunately it was a little too far away to walk to so we had to make do with some photos. The weather was kind to us all afternoon and we enjoyed lunch and our visit to the Schönbrunn Palace.
In the evening Leger had organised a trip to the Kursalon to see and hear a typical Viennese opera; John and Tony took us into the city center where, dressed in our smart casual clothes, we enjoyed a piece of Viennese culture (well you couldn't go to Vienna and not do so). I have to admit this is not my sort of music (more Meatloaf and Genesis) but it was certainly a great spectacle and I enjoyed it just the same. The Kursalon was built in 1857 by Emperor Franz Josef as a place where visitors could get mineral waters to drink in a revamped Vienna but after only a few years in 1868 the first concerts by Johann Strauss were performed here and it has been used for this purpose more or less ever since. After the opera John and Tony took us for a spin round the Ringstrasse to see Vienna at night - fantastic evening.
The following day we met up with our guide (who had a very dry sense of humour) and our first stop was at the Hundertwasser House which is a very unusual and colourful house designed by Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser, who had some very unusual views about how houses should look incuding undulating floors ("an uneven floor is a melody to the feet"), a roof covered with earth and grass, and large trees growing from inside the rooms, with limbs extending from windows.
The mayor of Vienna at the time (1977) invited Hundertwasser to create an apartment building according to his own ideas; his purpose was to avoid straight lines and even square windows were deliberately out of alignment and decorated to appear out of shape. He was helped with the practical details by the architect Joseph Krawina which led to considerable conflict with Krawina eventually leaving the project. However, in a court ruling over 20 years later, although Hundertwasser was identified as thesole spiritual creator of the building , Krawina must be "recognized as a co-creator of equal standing and must be paid an equal share in royalty receipts"; despite this ruling it will be forever known as the Hundertwasser House. Hundertwasser took no payment for the design of the house, declaring that it was worth it, to prevent something ugly from going up in its place; depending on your artistic preferences you might think he achieved the opposite of this intent!
Our next stop was the Belvedere Palace which wasn't on our itinery but well worth the visit; we strolled around the beautiful gardens and took some photos but lack of time prevented us from going inside which as you can see from the image is equally beautiful. We joined the coach again and carried on into Vienna; John and Tony took us along the Imperial Boulevade, also known as the Ringstrasse (ringroad) where we glimpsed the Parliament Building, Opera House, National Theatre and City Hall sufficiently to get a few snaps; the distances involved in seeing all these places prevented us from walking it unfortunately. Our guide then took us into the center of Vienna where we sort of went our own way.
Anyone who reads my holiday blogs (I know there aren't many) know that I like to research the places we've been and Vienna was no exception. We took quite a few photos that research has revealed some very interesting facts. For example we went to Graben Street which is well known for some very nice shops, but also right in the center there is a statue which I found out is called a plague column and was originally built by Leopold as a mercy if the plague (a real killer in those days) would end. The first plague column was built in the year 1679 at the peak of the pest and was made of wood. Only after the plague and the Turkish siege was the plague column rebuilt out of marble (1694) and is what we see now; I always find it incredible that these monuments have been in existence for so long, over 300 years in this case.
One other very interesting photo taken was of the Ankeruhr Clock. The Ankeruhr Vienna is a beautiful clock in the northern part of the inner city, the Hoher Markt; the origin of this name is based on the important role which it played in the past - Hoher Markt- means a high (important) market. The clock, built just before WW1, is a tribute to popular historical personalities with figures made of copper in the clock. Over the head of these figures you can see the current hour in Roman numerals; above this there is a horizontal scale to show the minutes. At every full hour you can see another personality passing the bridge escorted by suitable background music. The highlight is at 12 o'clock noon. At this time you see a parade of the famous characters from the history.
The journey home started with an overnight stop in the Stockerau area of Vienna Woods followed the next day by a visit to Mondsee to see the church that Julie Andrews married Christopher Plummer and then onwards to Saltzburg where we spent the rest of the day in the old town. The Hohensalzburg Fortress in an imposing position high above Saltzburg was used in the filming of the Sound of Music; the convent scenes were filmed in the Nonnberg Abbey which is in the fortress grounds. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the fortress especially using the funicular railway up to it. We visited St Peter's Abbey and also a real delight was the cemetary behind the abbey, with some very ornate metal grave markers rather than headstones. We also saw the monument to a famous inhabitant of Salzburg–the confectioner, Paul Fuerst, the creator of the rounded chocolates called “Mozartkugel” (never heard of them) which seemed somewhat out of place with the character and antiquity of the city; maybe in a few hundred years time people will marvel at it!!
A far more important historical monument is the Mozart statue in Mozartplatz which is somewhat overlooked but was erected in memory of their most famous inhabitant in 1842 in the presence of his sons. We walked to the Domplatz and saw the Salzburg Residenz or palace which for centuries was the home of the the Archbishops of Salzburg and represented their political status; today the Salzburg Residenz palace is a museum. An observation you might also have spotted, all these 'imperial cities' we visited had horse and carriage rides.
As with all holidays ours was nearing an end and the next couple of days involved travel back through Germany, Belgium and France and over to England on the ferry; although not quite as exciting as the journey out, we always relish every minute we are away with our friends. Another fantastic holiday with Leger (we have yet to be disappointed) and our best friends Nick and Olwen and of course our wonderful drivers John and Tony who we now count as family friends.
Prague
Budapest
Vienna