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It’s the middle of the night and the light in the room comes on. I’m thinking, c’mon Marion, you can go to the bathroom without turning on the light can’t you? But it goes off and I try to go back to sleep. Then it comes on again and I look over and Marion is in bed. Hmmm. It goes off and back on again. By this time Marion is awake too. Then a BIG bump. We’ve clearly hit something. Some anxious voices. Then nothing. No alarms, no announcements to abandon ship or anything, so now we’re trying to figure out what’s going on. We’ve bumped a few times going into locks but not like this. I look out the window, and we are by the bank of the river and stopped. But there’s not much to see. Marion suggests turning on the bow camera on the TV. That’s a good idea. But the TV won’t come on. Hmm. And the toilet isn’t flushing. But the room lights seem to be working. So some things have power and some don’t.
It’s 2 in the morning and we’re tired. So now the decision is what to do? Go back to bed and be the idiots that slept through the ship sinking? Or go out into the hallway and be the idiots that ran around in a panic for no reason. I looked back out the window to see if the ship was tilting one way or the other (suggesting we were taking on water). It all seemed fine. Trusting that the good folks at Viking would likely make an announcement if anything bad was happening, or maybe an alarm would sound, in what was a reasonably large act of faith, we went back to bed. In the morning I remembered that when the Korean ferry boat sank recently, the crew just abandoned ship and didn’t tell the passengers there was a problem. So perhaps we should have opted for getting a bit more information.
The discussion around the breakfast table was interesting. Some people slept right through it. Others actually went out to see what happened. The story, such as we could piece it together from the crew, who were reluctant to talk about it, is this. The ship lost all power. It would seem all the systems are tied together and this is not the first time this has happened on one of these ships. With the loss of power, they also lost navigational control and we started drifting. The emergency lights (which must be battery powered) came on in the room when the power failed. Power restored briefly (and the lights went back off), and was lost and recovered again a few more times (hence the flashing in the room). The backup generator, or whatever the system is that’s supposed to maintain the navigation, failed to kick in. And as the crew said, the captain et. al. would very much like to find out why *that* happened.
Ultimately we drifted to the side of the river (and not into oncoming river traffic thankfully) and hit something in the bow. There was a reasonable sized dent there and one of the Plexiglas windows at the front broke. Nothing too serious and it served as a good reminder that the life jacket drill, which everyone pretty much slept-walk through, is something one should actually take pretty seriously.
Today we are visiting Vienna. I’ve been looking forward to this one given how famous Vienna is. We maxed out our experience as well, taking both the optional tours – the Schonbrunn Palace in the afternoon and the Mozart and Strauss concert at night. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast and threatening. But off we went.
Our guide was Marieta. She talked non-stop. Barely taking a breath. But she was entertaining and had a great accent, yes?
After all the 2-street German and Austrian towns, Vienna was huge. And very 18th century looking vs medieval. 3-5 story stone buildings with ‘classical’ architecture with some baroque and what not thrown in for good measure. Because of its size we are docked on the edge of town and are coming in by bus. Which takes us through more ‘traditional’ city views than we’ve seen.
But when we get towards the center of town, it gets better. We pass the Opera House, which is beautiful and the City Hall is a Rathaus to be proud of for sure. Almost cathedral sized. But by now it’s raining and pictures from the bus window aren’t great.
We didn’t get a lot of city history, other than it’s been there a long time (pre-Roman). The Romans had a fort there as the Danube was the northern border of the empire. The Turks tried to invade for 100+ years but never got in. The Danube used to go through the center of town, but it flooded too much. So they turned that part into a canal and redirected the main river channel to the outskirts (which is why we were docked there). The old town is a UNESCO site so nothing over 4 or 5 stories can be built there, which probably annoys the Viennese but it keeps its character that way. Out by the boat there were skyscrapers, including a 60 story very cool looking one.
There was a fairly lame discussion/acknowledgement of the Jews that had lived there. “There was a thriving Jewish community for many years until 1938”. Oh? Interesting. Then what happened? “After the war, many emigrated to Israel but some decided to stay” (said in a way that seemed to imply, see, we’re nice and they like it here). There are now about 1000 Jews in town, which in a city of 1.8 million isn’t saying much. I got a real ‘they’ vibe as the Guide talked about it and a certain sense of guilt feeling from her as well. But I guess that’s understandable. At the same time, there was more discussion of a building where a few hundred people were killed who had been taking shelter from an air raid in a basement that had collapsed after a direct hit. Also tragic, but a typical war time casualty. Not in the same league. But said in a tone that was somewhat accusatory to us Americans I thought. But then again, by now I was pretty much looking for trouble in this area.
Vienna was apparently not bombed until late in the war but about 30% of it was destroyed, 30% damaged (including the opera house) and 40% was ok. Not bad as WWII went for major cities in Germany and Austria.
The city tour took us through the main high street shopping area which could give Rodeo Drive a run for its money. All the usual suspects – Gucci, Louis Vitton, Hermes, Niemen Marcus etc. etc. And ridiculously expensive. The souvenir shops too. The people on the streets were much more upscale in their dress and there was a palatable haughtiness I felt (possibly imagined, but I don’t think so). And while those kind of stores are nice and all, you can find them everywhere. How about some more typical/local Viennese stores?
We ended the tour at St. Stephen’s Cathedral which is large and beautiful on the outside, but we didn’t go in. We’re churched out. Maybe we passed up a wonderful experience but we didn’t care at this point. We had an hour to wander, which is just enough time to feel like you should do something but not enough time to actually do anything. It rained most of that hour anyway. We walked through the shopping area and marveled at the prices. Ducking into stores if the rain got too heavy.
With phase 1 of 3 complete, we headed back to the boat for lunch. Marion took a power nap. A short time later we were off to the Schonbrunn Palace
Our next guide is Marcus. He’s an art history guy (they seem to make the best guides). He’s very good and interesting. We take another drive through Vienna. Most of the same areas as before, but then we head more out of town. The palace was the summer palace so it was out in the woods (for hunting). Not so many woods now. Once again though, interesting to see some of the non-tourist areas. We drove by the big food market on the way. Some others on the boat were able to take a tour through there with our head chef Jan.
The palace is huge (multiple buildings, 1000+ rooms). It’s absolutely swarming with people. We didn’t know it when we signed up for the tour, but found out then that it’s the most visited tourist attraction in Austria. I can believe it. Busload after busload is disgorging people. It helps that the grounds are massive but sooner or later, we all have to find our way into the main entrance which is quite the bottleneck.
As palaces go, it’s a decent building. Fairly simple on the outside and despite being on the ‘special group tour of the best rooms’, not overly interesting on the inside. Certainly not as nice as the Prince-Bishop’s Palace in Wurzburg (that guy really must have been something). If it had been the only castle we visited we probably would have found it more appealing.
We were hoping for some historically furnished rooms and what not. And there were some but it was a bit haphazard. Some really nice flooring in the Asian corner of the first room. Some interesting rococo in Maria Theresa’s inner chamber. A nice view out to the gardens from the state rooms. But it pales in comparison to other palaces we’ve seen. Plus a bit hot and muggy because of the weather and the number of people (and no A/C). There was hardly room to turn around without hitting someone.
The guide didn’t like the over draping of one era over the other in the rooms (e.g. putting 19th century furniture in an 18th century room). Or putting furniture in a room that wouldn’t have had it because the curators ‘fear empty space’. He made a passing comment that I thought was funny – “I may be critical but I have the qualifications to do so”.
More Austrian history. Maria Theresa, whose palace this was, was a formidable woman. She had 16 kids, 11 survived and went on to be various leaders of other European countries. One was Marie Antoinette. She built the palace or at least put a major stamp on it. They wouldn’t let her be emperor (at least at first, later they did) so she got her husband elected and ran things via him. But she was the real power and took every opportunity to let people (and her husband) know it. All the paintings in the place have subtle and not so subtle indications that she’s really the one in charge. For example, they typically showed her with the various crowns of the various things she was in charge of (5 or 6) and same for him (1 or 2). She was typically larger or more prominent. She ran the palace, he got to be in charge of the zoo out back.
The Austria-Hungarian Empire grew to be quite large. Much of Europe at its height. But primarily through marriage, not war per Marcus (although later in Hungary it sounded like maybe that wasn’t the case). According to Marcus, the only country they took by force was Austria.
After the tour and forced march through the gift shop to get out, we visited the gardens. Which are huge but not particularly stellar. The best thing about them is the view down to the Neptune Fountain and the building up on the hill behind it. It’s laid out nicely and until you start walking towards the fountain, you don’t realize the scale. It’s probably half a mile or more to the building on the hill. But the flowers and trees themselves are pretty bland. As a backyard it would be nice (assuming 20 or 30 gardeners). We sat on a bench for a while and watched the people as we waited for it to be time to go.
Back to the buses where it’s a major dance to find a spot to pull in. There’s limited space and a thousand people trying to get to their bus. They’re not allowed to park and wait (not that that stopped some). The driver circled a few times before finding a spot. Of course, the people on the tour were griping about it. Everyone expects everything to happen right away these days. They wanted to go stand in the street when an opening appeared to hold a space for the bus. Marcus said the buses would just run them down. We tried to remain calm.
We’re really dragging now. But phase 2 is complete. After a quick rest, a change of clothes, and dinner, it’s time to go to the concert. It was another bus ride. The 5th time down the same streets. It was held at the Auersperg Palais where Mozart played at age 6 but nothing much to look at really. I was a bit worried for a couple of reasons. While walking through town people were handing out fliers for it and it started looking like a tourist trap – come see the Mozart music, 6 times daily. And we were also worried that it will be all opera. It *is* a bit of a touristy thing and there’s a little opera. But in the end it was amazingly good. There’s a 9 piece chamber orchestra – piano, violin, cello, bass, other violin, bassoon, flute, oboe, and clarinet. They played various Mozart and Strauss pieces (plus a few others). The Blue Danube Waltz of course. There were sometimes a male and female dancer who managed to dance and leap and lift in a very small space (beautifully). And some light opera for a few of the pieces. Really fun.
There was only one problem. Very uncomfortable chairs. Very. Seriously hard (even with a small but useless pad on them). Everyone commented on it, so I know it was not just me and my bony behind. We all spent the whole concert (a little under an hour) shifting uncomfortably, trying to find an area of buttock that wasn’t already asleep. My theory is they do this purposely. The show, while very enjoyable, is pretty short and not cheap. And yet, you’re glad when it’s over so you can stand up. Clever. There’s about a 15 minute gap and they do it again (although I think we were the last show of the night) so they keep things moving.
It’s 5 Euro for a program and there’s absolutely nothing that tells you anything if you don’t get it. Not even a single piece of paper with the song list. Then the program is an overview of the group in general and has different people than we saw in the show anyway. Bastards. But still cheaper than a fan which was 7 Euro. The smarter set used the program as a fan.
It finished about 10 and we headed back to the boat on our 6th time down the same road, although this time it was at night, which was a little more interesting. We’re very tired but hey, they’re serving Hungarian goulash as a late night treat. I’d never had it so I needed to try it, despite the fact that hot soup on a hot night is not really what I wanted. But it was really tasty. I only had a sampling and was tempted to have more. But it was time for bed. Phase 3 complete.
7/5/14
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