"Destinations are only desirable because a journey lies in between," wrote Elizabeth "Sisi" Empress of Austria. She had an unquenchable thirst for adventure and travel, spurred on by her unease at the royal court.
Though we can't complain about life at home, Corey and I have had a similar itch to explore the world--this time in Central and Eastern Europe. Our destinations over the course of two weeks include Vienna, Austria; Ljubljana, capital of Slovenia; and Rovinj and Dubrovnik in Croatia.
We left for Vienna on September 28th. After a delicious dinner and some wine at Surdyk's Flights (my favorite excuse to arrive early to the MSP airport these days), we took off for an evening flight through Amsterdam to Vienna.
Once we arrived, grateful that our bags had made it as well, we took the train to the apartment we were renting near the Belvedere Museum in Vienna. We dropped off our bags and set off to explore the city before dinner. We stumbled upon the botanical gardens where we saw some pretty cool terrariums and learned the German for common garden herbs and spices.
After a short nap, we went for some comfort food at an Italian restaurant. (I was sick much of the flight to Amsterdam, so I figured it would be best to go easy on my stomach with something that was a bit more familiar than sausage this and schnitzel that...) On our way back to the apartment, we stopped at a retro bar called Daniel's for a nightcap. It was here that we discovered Sturm, fresh wine (literally, from grapes picked a week or two ago) that is still in the fermenting process. Our friend Katy, who had spent a semester in Vienna in college, had told us to try the "wine with the tin foil on top," so we did! (They can't seal the bottle it will explode from the CO2 that is produced during fermentation.) It looks like cloudy, unappetizing wine, and it's slightly sweet. Since it isn't all that strong, they serve you a full 1/4 L glass. Not bad at all!
Our first stop on our full day in Vienna, was Karlskirche, named after Blessed Emperor Karl I, the last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He was essentially exiled during WWI.
Then we checked out the Butterfly Garden at the Hofburg Palace, followed by a tour of the palace itself. The Hofburg was the winter residence of the Hapsburg family. It's huge with over 2600 rooms, a beautiful garden, and the Spanish riding school where the famous Lipizzaner stallions are trained. Even though Maria Theresa and Francis I had 16 children, that's still more than 144 rooms per person! It's Downton Abbey on steroids.
Next, we marched over to the Kunsthistorisches Museum, mostly because my dad has a strange obsession with Caravaggio and requested that we check out his works there. We were pleasantly surprised. In addition to a couple of oh-so-dark and dramatic Caravaggios, there were several Rembrants, Rubens, and even a Vermeer. And turns out Gustav Klimt added a little something to the ceiling frescoes above the grand staircase, so that was cool to see, too. For a rest, we had a coffee and some famous Viennese Sacre Torte in the museum cafe, which was an experience in itself. We both decided that the Sacre Torte was really more of just a dry, chocolate cake, and not really worth all the hype...
Later in the evening, we checked out a wine "stube," where we tasted some of the local vintages. Though Austria is much more widely none for its white wines (Gruner Veltliner and Riesling), we had a tasty Zweigelt red, which we found most drinkable. In fact, we enjoyed it so much that we went back tot he apartment and registered for a biking tour through the Wachau wine region for the following day.
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