It’s probably not possible to travel for a month and have everything go perfectly, and yesterday, I had “one of those days”. It was supposed to be a free day for us to enjoy Vienna, which like New York, one could spend a lifetime exploring. But because of the Icelandic volcano’s disruption of European air travel, we were concerned that our flight to Berlin for the following day would be cancelled. So, we started out the day by spending 2 hours on line at the train station to get reservations for a train instead (my fatal mistake was not bringing my Kindle!) Our flight was indeed cancelled, so it was time well-spent, but still, not so much fun.
Then , we backtracked to the 1st district, and made a quick visit to the famous St. Stephan’s Cathedral, but I was all out of sorts, even though the weather had finally turned sunny. I didn’t feel like waiting a half hour for a tour of the catacombs, and I didn’t even feel like climbing the bell tower for the view of the city. We were hungry, so we made our way to the Naschmarkt (literally, “nosh market”), an open air market filled with food stalls and restaurants. Normally, this is the kind of thing I love, but even an outdoor lunch of crispy duck in spicy mango sauce with rice and vegetables didn’t cheer me up.
Our next stop was the Vienna Staatsoper (State Opera House) for a guided tour. They give tours once a day, with multiple different language groups , all proceeding at the same time. I love a good guided tour. And I love opera. But I was in a bad mood. And though the building is beautiful, and the tour was interesting, it was way too crowded and noisy, and the whole thing was just a cluster. In fact, the only thing that made me happy all day was the perfect cappuccino we had at an outdoor café, before heading (thankfully!) back to the hotel.
Then , we backtracked to the 1st district, and made a quick visit to the famous St. Stephan’s Cathedral, but I was all out of sorts, even though the weather had finally turned sunny. I didn’t feel like waiting a half hour for a tour of the catacombs, and I didn’t even feel like climbing the bell tower for the view of the city. We were hungry, so we made our way to the Naschmarkt (literally, “nosh market”), an open air market filled with food stalls and restaurants. Normally, this is the kind of thing I love, but even an outdoor lunch of crispy duck in spicy mango sauce with rice and vegetables didn’t cheer me up.
Our next stop was the Vienna Staatsoper (State Opera House) for a guided tour. They give tours once a day, with multiple different language groups , all proceeding at the same time. I love a good guided tour. And I love opera. But I was in a bad mood. And though the building is beautiful, and the tour was interesting, it was way too crowded and noisy, and the whole thing was just a cluster. In fact, the only thing that made me happy all day was the perfect cappuccino we had at an outdoor café, before heading (thankfully!) back to the hotel.
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