Last week I came back from my break and I wanted to share a recap of where we went and what we did. This post ended up growing a lot longer than intended, so you’ve been notified.
Austria was on my bucket list for years. My grandfather grew up in Vienna, and I grew up on The Sound of Music, so I dreamed of combining a trip to both Vienna and Salzburg. A few months ago, a friend and I agreed to lock down time off in August for a trip, and in early July we decided on Austria. I used trusty Rick Steves for most of the planning, and over three 90-minute planning sessions and one final phone call, we scheduled and booked everything.
We landed in Vienna on a Wednesday morning. I had arranged for a frum driver to pick us up from the airport and take us to the kever of my great-grandfather, who passed away in 1933. The driver was familiar with the cemetery and knew where to take me. (I had detailed information that my brother found on a cemetery database). It was incredibly moving to be able to visit. I’m so, so grateful I had the opportunity. This was a highlight for me.
After that we were dropped off at our hotel and walked to the bakery for cheese danishes for breakfast 🙂 . Then we walked to the Inner Stadt (the older part of Vienna where many of the sights are) and went on a tour of the Vienna State Opera house. After that we bought a 48-hour transit pass, which turned out to be so helpful, and took the Ringstrasse tour as outlined in our guidebook for an overview of the main sights along the rim of the Inner Stadt (Parliament, University, etc). We went to the Belvedere Museum (I had seen Woman in Gold) and afterwards my friend was ready to rest a bit so we split up and I went to the Natural History Museum (I had read about it in The Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotson – I should add that I basically worked my way through a Vienna syllabus before this trip, lol).
Afterwards I met up with my friend back at the hotel, we went to Stadtpark (to see the iconic Johann Strauss monument), and out to eat for supper at Novellino. And then we went to bed!
The next morning we went to the Schonbrunn Palace. This was the showstopper. We had bought a Sisi ticket online which allowed us to skip the line – this was a good idea. We did the 40-room tour with audio guide and it was just terrifically interesting.
After we walked around the park outside and did the maze (you can skip the labyrinth). Then we went to Prater Park. I wanted to ride the Giant Ferris Wheel because I had read The Star of Kazan by Eva Ibbotson (I know, a little extra), but it turned out to be underwhelming. We also took a little train ride around the park which might have been embarrassing except it provided a really thorough tour of the park so I liked it.
We still had some time before our classical music concert, so we went to see the Holocaust Memorial and other sights, loosely following the Inner Stadt walk in our guide book. We took the train back to Schonbrunn for a concert, a classic activity to do in Vienna, and it was pretty but also confirmed for me that I only need to do it once (lol).
Friday we did the Hofburg complex – the Imperial Apartments (covered by the Sisi ticket), Treasury, and Spanish Riding School stable tour. All terrific. I especially loved the Spanish Riding School which features in The Star of Kazan. We had time to walk around a bit more and then we headed back to our hotel. I detoured to visit my grandfather’s childhood address, which I had from the Page of Testimony he completed for his mother hy”d.
We ate Friday night and Shabbos day at Alef Alef, which was beautiful and worked out really well b”H. We went to shul Shabbos morning at the large Stadttempel next door to the restaurant (needed to have a passport on us) and walked around in the afternoon.
Motzoei Shabbos we went out for ice cream! And Sunday morning we checked out and began our (long and harrowing, lol) journey to the village of Hallstatt, en route to Salzburg.
To be continued!
