The  Glory of the Hapsburgs Revealed

Arriving in Vienna late at night, Llew, Chriselle and I made our home on Schulgasse, in a hundred-year old apartment building, with our friend Sabine Poelzl, Llew’s former Bank Austria colleague, who proved to be a very generous host. Awakening to bright sunshine the next morning was a treat and, somewhat unexpectedly, Vienna quite dazzled us all.

Indeed, in the course of the next three days, we discovered the glory of the Hapsburgs in their splendid palaces, their exquisite churches, their vast treasury of royal jewels, clothing, arms and armor, their scintillating National Library and their lovely public gardens. To see the Hofburg Palace, seat of the mighty Austro-Hungarian empire in its entirety, would take months and so we contented ourselves with visiting the impressive Schartzkammer (Treasury) with its sacred relics including pieces of the True Cross, and a nail from the Crucifixion. After touring the stunning National Library, we walked through the enormous squares reminiscent of the majesty of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his beloved consort, Elizabeth (Sisi), and of powerful Empress Maria-Theresia whose fourteen children included Marie-Antoinette of “Let them eat cake” fame.

Of course, we could not possibly leave Vienna without seeing the highlights of the Kuntshistoriches Museum, one of the worlds’ great art collections, where Rafael’s exquisite Madonna in the Meadow, works by Reubens, Rembrandt, Titian, Breughel, Durer, Lucius Cranach and particularly the portraits by Velasquez of the child Margarita-Teresa, the future wife of Leopold I, were entirely enchanting. Best of all, however, was the interior of the Museum itself whose grandeur is impossible to describe. Never has eye seen such extraordinary attention to detail in the sumptuous adornment of carvings, paintings, carpeting, etc. on the stunning central stairway, foyer and landings.
Our visit to Vienna was made profoundly more enjoyable by the company of Ronald Sturm and his wife Karin and by Ronni’s brother Deiter, all long-time friends of ours. They went out of their way to give us a good time and to show us a side of Austria that only the locals can know. Ronni, a diplomat with the Austrian government, now on loan to the International Atomic Energy Commission, gave us a tour of the unique Vienna International Center.

The previous evening, the Strums had taken us for a long walk through the vineyards of Nussdorf from where we had sweeping views of the Danube and of the neighboring country of Hungary (right).

(Posing at Schoenbrunn Palace with the Gloriette in the Background–Left–and at the entrance to the Palace with Ronni and Deiter–right)

Ronni’s brother Deiter, a gynecologist and a one-time guide at the Schoenbrunn Palace gave us a private guided tour of this gorgeous Rococo palace with its immense collections of decorative arts. My favorite rooms were the Blue and White room, reminiscent of the fabric called Toile de Jouy and of the Indo-Persian room where the walls were decorated with Moghul miniature paintings inlaid with Chinese lacquer work. Taking the Grand Tour of the Palace left us gasping at the sheer wealth of Austro-Hungarian imperialism, its wide reach and its tremendous influence in an erstwhile era as seen in the Long Gallery and in the assortment of glorious furniture, wall-length paintings by Martin van Meytens, court painter to Maria-Theresia, and other treasures that cram the spacious rooms and galleries of this building. The Gloriette makes a lovely statement at the far end of the symmetrically laid-out formal gardens.  After coffee and apple strudel in Café Dommayer near the Palace (left), Ronni, Karin and Deiter drove us to the south of Vienna through the most charming villages scattered all over with names like Perchtoldsdorf, and Modling until we arrived at the chic, upscale town of Baden with its casino, opera house, spas, gardens and quaint cobbled streets crammed with designer boutiques (see section on Baden).

No visit to Vienna would be complete without a guided tour of its stately Staatsoper or Opera House.

The tour took us into the lavish heart of one of Vienna’s most beloved buildings, decorated in Baroque excess with gilded moldings, graceful statuettes, glittering crystal chandeliers and solid marble staircases. Our visit backstage introduced us to the elaborate machinery underground that permits the changing of scenes and sets several times during the most spectacular of operas. Again, not surprisingly, Mozart is a particular favorite.  

In the same vicinity as the Opera House is the elegant Hotel Sacher where the famous Sachertorte was created. We brought one home as a souvenir and continued our rambles making sure to stop for hot chocolate and pastries at Demel’s, pastry-makers to the Hapsburgs. Austria’s konditorei (coffee houses) are worth visiting just for the sophistication of their settings, the style with which the most mouth watering pastries are displayed and presented and the quality of the service. Indeed, the crème schnitte that I ordered at Demel’s was worthy of the palates of royalty.

 For Chriselle, who declined to accompany us to Stephansdom as the Cathedral of St. Steven’s is called, as she had been there only four years ago, shopping in the Graben was more enticing as she found Europe’s young designers well represented on this snazzy pedestrian plaza. Llew and I, however, undertook the challenge of climbing all 350 steps up to the South Spire of the Gothic Basilica to get graphic views of Vienna as far away as the Belvedere Palace on a lovely sunny day. Later that day, we feasted on gigantic ice-cream sundaes at Café de L’Europe in the Graben before enjoying Austria’s best-known culinary invention, the Wiener Schnitzel at Grunspan, a restaurant to which Sabine, our wonderful hostess, took us and where we also tried Ottaringer beer for which Austria is renowned.

Vienna’s beautiful broad boulevards, its superb public transport system especially the trams.

Bon Voyage!