A Working Vacation in Vienna

It's not very often that J and I spend more than 2 nights at a place on a trip--we usually have a tightly packed agenda in order to do and see as much as possible. For this trip, however, J mostly needed to access materials in the Austrian National Library (and possibly the archive), so we rented an apartment on Kolschitzkygasse and called it home for 6 nights.

many buildings on our street were social housing complexes--it's an interesting system

We started out at the National Library, which is housed in the Imperial Hofburg Palace. Outside, it's quite impressive! We found the quality of the catalog and the service to be much less impressive, but it was pretty to look at. Mostly, it's the go-to study spot for college students in Vienna. Nevertheless, we spent about a good portion of the trip working in the library.

the entry to the Austrian national library...not intimidating at all :)

If I had to choose one word to describe Vienna, I would call it "grand." The multi-story stuccoed buildings, with statues along the roofs and wrought iron or stone window boxes, made me feel like we were walking into history and seeing the height of the Austrian empire, with lavish balls and masked fetes happening around every corner. I can imagine people inventing the waltz or composing classical masterpieces in a city like this.

Vienna is also home to the distinguished Spanish Riding School. Attending a performance has been a dream of mine since I read about the dancing Lipizzaner stallions as a kid. They are really quite magnificent! The bond between the horses and riders was tangible, and the grounds, stables, and performance hall were all beautiful. And the stables were the cleanest (and fanciest) I have ever been in. I could write a whole post just about the stallions and the school, but only limited pictures were allowed so the post would be a bit text-heavy. Suffice to say, it was worth the wait and someday I hope to come back with my mom!

the winter riding school & stallions in the stables

After the performance at the riding school, we caught the subway to Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence of the emperor. The palace was very similar in style and furnishings to other palaces we've visited, but, unlike many German palaces that were bombed, it contained mostly original furnishings. In some ways, the history of the palace was a bit sad since the last people to live there were the last imperial family of Austria. The gardens (including a zoo!) were beautiful, too, with bright fall colors lining the main lawn that leads up to the gorgeous Gloriette overlook.

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clockwise from main image: view of the palace from Gloriette; Gloriette; peaceful benches in the grounds;  the front entry; a friendly Eichhörnchen; another view from the front

In addition to the main branch of the National Library, we also stopped by the historic library, or Prunksaal, which was built in the early 1700s to house the imperial book collection. I nicknamed it the Beauty and the Beast library, because it reminded me of the library in the Disney movie! However, although it is very beautiful, our favorite library is still the incredible Stiftbibliothek in St. Gallen, Switzerland, which we visited in March.

The National Library also oversees the Globe and Esperanto Museums. I mostly wanted to see the big globe collection, but the price included the Esperanto museum...so why not? The Esperanto museum was only two rooms, but we enjoyed hearing recordings of the language (including a hilarious-sounding, very dramatically-read romance novel).

(left) globe museum (right) Esperanto museum text in German, Esperanto, & English

We found the famous Viennese cafes to be expensive (4 Euros or $5.50 for a drink), but just as classy and cozy as expected. J and I spent a couple productive hours chatting, reading, and just thinking over melange (watered down coffee with foamed milk), hot chocolate with cinnamon and vanilla, and cappuccinos (Austrian style, with sugar and chocolate!). Our favorite cafe was Schwarzenburg Cafe, near the opera. And we loved that the coffee was always served with a small cup of water -- this is a tradition that needs to be adopted by coffeehouses everywhere!

Cafe Central

For lunch, we mostly got cheese sausage (Käsekrainer) from the Würstel stand near the library. We think that these cheese-filled sausages should be introduced to the US--they are delicious, and we know they would be a hit at ball games! For dinner, we ate at several recommended places in the city, and of course had some true Wienerschnitzel in Wien.

We didn't spend all 6 days in Vienna, but that's another story (or two) for another post!