Archive for December, 2010

Sunday July 18th – In Feldkirch, Austria (where?)

We’ll start with my 1000 year old hostel:

The small town of Feldkirch loves their Sunday morning church bells.  Today I decide to travel into the tiny neighboring country of Liechtenstein, which has about 35,000 people and capital is Vaduz.

The weather is nice today. The #36 bus does not run to Liechtenstein on weekends, so I finally work my way to the #13 and travel across the boarder past the city of Schaan to Vaduz.  It’s a small quaint town with a royal castle above on the mountainside. Ruled by Prince Hans-Adam II, there’s no airport because the country’s only 63 sq miles (160km)!  In comparison, Maui is about 720 sq miles. 

I walk through the main area to the tourist info center. On the sidewalk are pictures of old Liechtenstein stamps.   Next door is the national museum, where I watch a video about the country.   With green mountains on one side and the Rhine River on the other, it’s a surprisingly self-aware country, concerned about its balance with nature. It’s also a place where Europeans hide their money (my house is also available).

I explore the town some more and hike uphill to the Royal Castle Vaduz to eat lunch on a bench and enjoy the view of the city, before hopping back on the double-decker bus to Feldkirch and the hostel.

Monday July 19th – Why go around?

After checking out, I walk through the historical part of Feldkirch and up to a small hill reaching Schattenburg Castle overlooking the city. Built in 1265, there’s a nice courtyard and a museum upstairs.
It’s noon and church bells ring as I walk downhill past the mini golf course to find that there’s a 2-lane car tunnel under the castle! They just dug a tunnel for traffic under the castle through the hill instead of going around.

I walk around the historical area some more before walking to the train station for the 1:42pm train to Wein (Vienna). I move to First Class and I’m the only one in my car (nice).  After passing 7 hours of beautiful green countryside and the Austrian Alps, I arrive in wonderful Vienna and take the metro to Hostel Hutteldorf. I’m on the sixth floor and it’s nice like a hotel.

Tuesday July 20th – Vienna – home to Mozart and Beethoven

There’s about 2.2 million people living in Vienna and it’s one of the most livable cities.

I grab tickets at the train station and head into downtown for some exploring.
I discover a long busy street called Mariahilfer with endless shops and cafes on the side, which leads me to the national history museum and into the Hofburg area. This is considered old Vienna and the capital area, where today there’s several Aids events with giant ribbons, stages and large screens. Songs playing, horse drawn carriages
and tour groups are everywhere.  Past the Rathaus is the white marble Parliament building. With white and gold statues all over and bronze chariots on top, it’s truly amazing.  I continue walking around the wonderful capital area. There are so many shops and places to eat. I begin looking for a market and luckily discover the best supermarket I’ve ever seen in my entire life. It’s called “Julius Meinl am Graben” and while walking through it was easy to imagine that I was in a supermarket in Heaven.

In the chocolate section, the variety seemed endless. There were flavors like “Absinth Truffle Chocolate”.
After walking around town some more, I take the metro back to the hostel and play soccer in the back yard with other guests after dinner.   The mosquitoes are gigantic and the shower is push-button operated. Hmmm.

Wednesday July 21st – Welcome to the Country of Schönbrunn.

Today is the sprawling Castle Schönbrunn (“beautiful spring”), a former imperial summer residence, which is so large it has 2 of its own metro stops.  Oh my god this place is huge. It’s larger than a square city block in Phoenix. It’s bigger than two Disneyland’s. Groundskeepers could work their whole lives here and never meet.

I walk past the yellow and white 4 story Main Palace and into the park. It almost feels like the 1800s again.  The property is mostly forest with gravel walking paths and manicured bushes and flower gardens. There are over 200 marble statues on the property.
At the base of Schönbrunn hill is the 150ft wide Neptune Fountain, built in 1770.  You could probably have two rock concerts here at Schönbrunn, at the same time, and they wouldn’t hear each other. It’s that big. Seriously.  It has it’s own Zoo. And Japanese Garden. And Botanical Garden. And maze / hedge labyrinth. And police station. And playground. And public swimming pool. And museum. And bakery. And Orangey.
Ah make it stop. From the top of the hill, there’s another palace called the Gloriette (with cafe) and a sweeping view of Vienna. 

Schönbrunn is so big:

1. The owners should be told that there are thousands of tourists here, they could be on the property and might not know.

2. During the winter, birds migrate from one side of the property to the other.

3. Schönbrunn probably has its own Space program.

It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site.  Everything will be small in comparison for the rest of my life.I sit on the palace steps and plan for the next attraction. I finally leave Schönbrunn Castle and decide to skip the Museum of Contraception and Abortion and take the metro across town over the Danube river to the United Nations Vienna Center and the ACV.

I walk to Donaupark through the Unsere Garten reaching the Donauturm Wien tower. You can bungee at the top.  Built in 1964 and 252m tall, the tower’s elevator travels at 6.2 m/s (22km hr), and the TV monitor inside shows the elevator’s weight capacity – currently at 56% (fatty).

I love towers. You get to see so much of the city: everyone’s backyard, the entire park and gardens, sailboats on the river, the farmers’ fields leading off into the horizon on edge of the city.

In the gift shop, there’s a t-shirt that says “there are no kangaroos in Austria”. It’s 3pm.
Down below, I sit on a park bench in the middle of a large grass area. The park’s small train passes by and some people are getting ready to play badminton. I walk through the grass barefoot and realize this moment is perfect.  After a while I walk along the river, past a tempting trampoline park, into the metro to Stadtpark.
Next I arrive at another nice park with a WWII memorial commemorating Austrian liberation by the Russians in August of 1945. It’s a large round fountain with a tall statue behind it. The statue is bronze green holding a golden soviet shield in one hand and a golden flag in the other. All of the writing is in Russian.

Up the road is the Belvedere (a castle and property similar to Schönbrunn – now an art museum) with manicured landscaping and a botanical garden.
An AIDS conference is going on in Vienna for 2 weeks called Life Ball and there are hundreds of people here right now dressed in red and white t-shirts getting ready for a giant group photo.(why won’t you wear da ribbon!)

Back to the metro and train station to book a ticket to Salzburg. At the hostel, things are quiet.

Thursday July 22nd – Why are there two handles?

I take the metro into town and emerge by St. Stephen’s Cathedral, still under construction since 1147 (what’s the rush?).
Today is the Albertina Art Museum near old Vienna, showcasing the works of Monet, Renoir, Picasso, Katz, Walton Ford, Heinrich Kuhn, Albrecht Durer and collections from the uber rich Habsburgs.   Something that really stands out is how in one room there are two door handles, but only one door – and it’s not part of the art. There’s just a random door knob on the wall. It’s actually really fascinating. The art work covers many styles and periods. Some of it is truly remarkable, really astounding, and other pieces appear to be from kindergarteners.
Over to the National Treasury but the entrance fee is expensive (ironic) so I walk around downtown through Resselpark to the Karlskirch.

After eating way too much, I was thinking about seeing a movie but I notice a guy shooting around a basketball in the park and ask to join. Next thing I know I’m playing 3-on-3 in my $2 flip-flops. My stomach is so full of food and I can’t remember the last time I played.   Anyways, me and two Dutch guys easily defeated the Serbians 3 games in a row. It was really nice to play basketball again.  Now I’m sweaty and ready to head back to the hostel.

Friday July 23rd – Hey, where IS Arnold Schwarzenegger’s house?

I check out and drop my bag of in a locker at the train station on the way to Praterstern.
The Prater is a carnival/ amusement park with roller coasters, Ferris wheels, games, and so forth. The tallest ride in the park is called the Prater Turn, a ride that has you suspended in a chair spinning around at the top.  The top of the ride is really tall and the chains holding the chairs are pretty thin, so it looks like a decent scary ride.  It’s 383ft (117m) high so I buy a ticket. As soon as the chair starts to lift, a little voice in my head says, “why did you get on this?!”  The wind is really blowing and the view of the city is great. My adrenaline is flowing- yahoo!

Towards the bottom, they spin the ride really fast with your feet just above the tree tops.
Back on the ground (yah! didn’t die!), I look for a basketball shooting game but there are none, so I leave and visit the nearby Prater Garden Park. Whew.

Past a skate park, over the bridge to the cinema. Knight and Day is in German, so I skip it and walk to Stadtpark.   In the park is beautiful monument with a gold colored statue of Johann Strauss playing the violin.
Next I pass a row of manhole covers from each European country and walk through downtown up the Mariahilfer shopping street, to Billa grocery store, then to the Westbahnhof Station for the 3 hour 7:20pm train to Salzburg. Goodbye Vienna!
It just finishes raining very hard when I arrive in Salzburg at 10pm and I walk 1/2 mile to the hostel.  The place is a real party hostel: tons of people, 3 lounges, a bar, 4 TVs, and 4 floors.

Saturday July 24th – “The hills are alive, with the sound of….”

Rain. It’s pouring in Salzburg this morning.
After getting drenched running to the store, I decide to go to the movie theater, but another movie is just beginning at the hostel – The Sound of Music (they play it everyday – the agony). The Salzburg area of Austria is famous because it’s where the movie was filmed in 1965.
I figure watching the movie is a good way to see Austria while it’s raining, so I join 20 other guests and try not to laugh at some scenes (to no avail). I just hope the songs don’t get stuck in my head.

You can even take the Sound of Music tour in Salzburg.
There’s a poster in the hallway showing various attractions around Salzburg with a caption that says “you cannot see all this in just one day”.   And they’re right, because I ended up not seeing anything. Ha-ha.
It’s still raining as I walk to the train station for the 3:08pm train to Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. It’s a 7 hour ride, but it will take longer because someone’s dead. (what?!)  “Doe, a deer, a female deer.”