The first thing I noticed about Vienna is how sedate it is. The people are quieter, the traffic sensible, and people actually wait for traffic lights. It's not as glitzy or outwardly hedonistic as Barcelona or Rome, but it has its fair share of grandeur and classic beauty.
Started with the Hofburg; it was raining and all of its museums and such were very pricey, so I just zipped through. Next, up a nice mall to St Stephen's Cathedral, then down to Naschmarkt. It was a lively, crowded market, but still more orderly than a lot of other cities. An amazing variety of fruit (for Austria in autumn), and a very junky flea market.
Went to Schloss Schonbrunn, intending to just take a cow photo, but the gardens (which, miraculously, are free) have buckets of neat things. I couldn't resist the temptation of the zoo, which had giant pandas (!), giant anteaters (!!!), capybara, reindeer, keas, seriemas, hutias, lammegeiers, serows and coati among other cool things. It's also neat how they've built modern enclosures around the beautiful baroque architecture, rather than replacing it, or having the animals living in concrete.
Took the subway to the other side of Vienna looking for a park mentioned in the LP. Instead, found a completely awesome amusement park, full of rollercoasters, dodgem cars, and crazy fast-spinny-things. Just like the stuff at the Mt Gambier Show, only less shonky. I really wanted to go on some rides; if I ever come to Vienna again, someone better take me there.
No comments:
Post a Comment