23rd March 2006 - Day 157

From the information I've gathered from the Internet and the guidebooks which I borrowed from the hostel, I went about my itinerary for the day.

I left the hostel at 0805 and went to buy a tram ticket at the Westbahnhof. Since I predict that I would not stay out later than 2000, I bought the cheaper Einkaufskarte.

The first stop is St. Stephans Dom. I made a quick tour of the cathedral and wanted to climb up the south tower. However, it was only 0840 and the tower will only open at 0900.

Entrance fee for the tower was 3€. I was rather disappointed when I climbed the 343 steps up (I counted. There were only 334 steps), only to be surrounded by walls. I could only see a pathetic view of the Wien through the window. I highly recommend everyone to skip this tower. But of course, climb up anyway so that you can agree with my recommendation.

Horse Carriages can be found everywhere, but this one has no horsemen.

Next stop, the Hofburg consisting of the Silberkammer, Kaiserapartment and Sisi Museum. The ticket was 7€. I gave the man 20€ and he returned me only 3€. When I told him that the mistake, he said he didn't notice but "ich vertraue Ihnen". What nonsense.

The main entrance to the Hofburg

The Silberkammer displayed the silver and porcelain wares used by the Hapsburgs. All the gold and silver did not interest thelonetraveller. He was more interested to find out how the napkin was folded. According to the audio guide, only 2 people at any one time knew about this closely guarded secret.

The Sisi Museum was a small museum of a few rooms dedicated to Kaiserin Elisabeth, who was affectionately called Sisi by the people. Depressed, obsessed with maintaining her 51cm waist, liked to travel a lot to get away from the constraints of court life, and assasinated by an Italian arnachist who actually had another target. That was her life.

The Kaiserappartment basically showed how the living chambers of the Hapsburgs were like. How they lived and where they did what.

After lunch, I continued my tour with the Schatzkammer for a fee of 6€. Nothing impressive inside except for an gigantic unicorn horm (actually, it's from a Narwhale). No big green diamonds to gwak at. I expected something better for the 6euro entrance price.

The Swiss Guards Entrance to the Schatzkammer

I wanted to visit another church, but it'll cost me another 4€. From the picture in the guidebook, I decided that I shall not pay any more tribute to churches today.

Art musuems were out of my itinerary. I believe a visit would bestow upon me the power of falling asleep immediately though.

I went in search of the Hundertwasser Haus at Löwegasse instead. But it's a bit difficult to find, I had to ask the concierge in Hilton Vienna for help.

Hunderwasser Haus...

This Hundertwasser Haus was pretty run down. It looks very dirty compared to the one in Darmstadt. There were actually quite a number of tourists there, even though the place is quite out of reach.

...in its' run-down state

I've heard about cheap tickets at the Staatsoper and decided to give it a try. The rest of my evening was then spent in the opera house watching Aida with German and English subtitles. Since the audience were clapping wildly after the end of the performance, I conclude that such cultural activity is beyond my current level of comprehension - I hardly felt stirred by the performance, though I remember calling the characters stupid at some point.

So, Wien would be a great place to visit if one has some background in music or arts.