August 3

Lost in Vienna

I started my day doing something you should never do, I got lost in one of the largest cities in the world. Thankfully, I didn't veer too far away from our apartment and I also did it early in the morning because I had a lot of time to kill until I had to meet up with the rest of our class. I found some pretty interesting stuff about Vienna just from wandering around in our street area. I found a really awesome and massive church (though, not one of the big ones like Stephansdom, Augustinkirche, Capuchin Church, etc). On it was a plaque dedicated to resistance to Nazism during WW2.

Waiting for the bus

Since I got back to my apartment in good time, I noticed I still had lots of time to kill until our bus tour. So I decided to go to where the bus would be picking us up (Volkstheater) and see if I could find anything interesting about the Hofburg, Kunshistoriches Museum, and Naturalisches Museum that I didn't find before. Here's some things that I found...

The bus tour begins

We met up at the bus stop at Volkstheater and our bus tour had begun. The person who was leading the bus tour was not Prof Stuart (though she was present), but rather someone named Gretel, who we would meet time and time again. She's spent a couple of years in Vienna, and thus is pretty knowlegable in everything Viennese.

Our bus tour started around the Ringstraße (lit. "Ring Road"), which was built in the 1800s. Before the Ringstraße, Vienna had these massive walls built initially during the Middle Ages to quell the invading Ottomans at the time. These walls remained for centuries, but then they became obsolete during the 1800s. And so these massive walls were finally torn down. Now there was a lot of space left where the former walls stood, and so the Ringstraße was built over its foundations, as well as numerous buildings called "Ringstraße buildings". These buildings were built by many legendary architects.

The belvedere

One place where our bus had stopped was the legendary Belvedere. From there, we walked around its legendary gardens. The Belvedere was originally the residence of famed war hero Prince Eugene of Savoy.

Now, the Belvedere is one of many legendary art museums in Vienna. Some of the art it houses includes those of legendary Austrian painter Gustav Klimt. We'll come back to this aspect of the Belvedere later when we explore the inside.

For now, I'll talk about the Gardens of the Belvedere. The Gardens are insanely beautiful, and they're extremely symmetrical, you could probably solve trigonometry equations on it, or something. This is because this form of architecture was a type of Baroque architecture, which emphasized mankind's control over nature. The gardens are so big that we couldn't explore them all the way through.

If you wanna know a good place to have a wedding, pick the Belvedere. Apparently, they have weddings there. I should know, because when we went there today, there was a wedding happening.

Prince Eugene Francis of Savoy-Carignano (18 October 1663 – 21 April 1736), better known as Prince Eugene, was a distinguished field marshal in the Army of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Austrian Habsburg dynasty during the 17th and 18th centuries. Renowned as one of the greatest military commanders of his era, Prince Eugene also rose to the highest offices of state at the Imperial court in Vienna spending six decades in the service of three emperors.

Born in Paris, to the son of a French count and a niece of Cardinal Mazarin, Eugene was raised at the court of King Louis XIV. Initially destined for the priesthood as the youngest son of a noble family, he chose to pursue a military career at 19. Due to his poor physique and possibly a scandal involving his mother, Louis XIV denied him a commission in the French Royal Army and forbade him from enlisting elsewhere. Embittered, Eugene fled France and entered the service of Holy Roman Empire's Emperor Leopold I, cousin and rival of Louis XIV, where his elder brother, Louis of Savoy, was already serving.

At 20, Prince Eugene of Savoy distinguished himself during the Ottomans Siege of Vienna in 1683. Commanding troops at Budapest (1686) and Belgrade (1688), he became a field marshal by age 25. In the Nine Years' War, he fought alongside his distant cousin, the Duke of Savoy. As commander-in-chief in Hungary, Eugene's decisive victory at the Battle of Zenta (1697) ended the Ottoman threat for nearly 20 years. During the War of the Spanish Succession (1701–1714), he served Emperor Leopold I, achieving victories in Italy and forming a crucial partnership with the Duke of Marlborough, securing wins at Blenheim (1704), Oudenaarde (1708), and Malplaquet (1709). His success continued in Italy, notably at Turin (1706). Renewed Austro-Turkish conflicts saw Eugene triumph at Petrovaradin (1716) and Belgrade (1717), solidifying his legacy as one of Europe's greatest military commanders and securing peace in 1718.

Vienna from a bird's eyeview

After visiting the Belvedere, we traveled up this mountain to get a bird's eyeview of the City of Vienna. On the way to the top, we learned how Joseph II tried to eliminate Vienna's "Death Cult" by eliminating complex graves and instead creating sloppy mass graves. Among the people buried in this mass grave was Mozart, whose body was never actually found. Despite having a grave in the Central Cemetary, that grave was never actually his real grave because his body to this day has never been found.

Our bus arrived at another cool-looking church at the top of the mountain. There, we saw the entire city of Vienna. My mind was blown away by how big it was. I was even more blown away by the fact that I could actually see the city from this mountain. I saw the Stephansdom and other iconic landmarks.

Heurigen in neustift am walde

After seeing an amazing view of Vienna, we traveled to Heurigen in Neustift am Walde, a massive wine garden in the rustic countryside of Vienna, right near the border between Vienna and Lower Austria. There, we had some amazing Riesling, schnitzel, and other stuff. Interestingly for historical reasons, wine and food are served separately (different times and different bills lol), despite being served in the same place. Prof Stuart had already paid for our food, but we had to pay for our drinks.

and now we're stuck and lost.....

Finally, we ended the day with our class intentionally getting stuck in the rustic neighborhood and embarked on a lengthy hike through the rustic areas of Vienna and somehow we managed to reach the outer edges of where the trolley system started. I don’t even know how many steps I got, but it definitely will be less than that which we’ll get when we’re in the Alps later on. Enjoy some quality pictures of our journey back.

Holy crap, this is a long one! I started my day by intentionally getting lost in the city of Vienna to see what I could find (our prof literally told us we should get lost in the city and explore). Man, did I find a lot of interesting stuff even near our apartment.

After, I took the trolleys to the Kunsthistorisches Museum and explored parts of the Hofburg that I didn’t really get to explore yesterday as I waited for our class’s next adventure.

I also talk about the Stolpersteine (stumbling stones) that are scattered throughout Vienna (and Europe), partly because I thought I found some (but in reality I didn’t). The stolpersteine document the darker aspects of history, as they serve as one of many memorials to the horrors of the Holocaust. The Stolpersteine were placed in spots where Holocaust victims/survivors were right before they were deported to concentration camps. They really make you stop and think about where you are, and what happened to people who could’ve been in your own neighborhood in those days.

Then I met up with my class and we began today’s class: a bus tour. We toured the entire city via bus and eventually reached the more rustic and mountainous areas of Vienna that are right next to the border with the state of Lower Austria.

Then we had dinner at a local winery. Interestingly for historical reasons, wine and food are served separately (different times and different bills lol), despite being served in the same place.

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