Day 5 - Hallstatt

This day would include a closed attraction, zero museums, and very little other activities.

 

And it still ended up being one of my favorite days of our trip. Yes, Hallstatt is that good.

 

Our Plan A was to visit the Five Fingers Viewpoint, as mentioned in this post and about a 45-minute bus ride from Hallstatt. However, Brendan thankfully and impulsively stopped by the TI on our way to the bus and learned that the cable car was closed due to snow earlier in the week.

 

Major bummer, yes. But also a major save that we learned this before we hopped on the bus. And then we suddenly had a full day ahead of us with very little planned -- a different type of blessing!

 

We were learning that shoulder-season traveling is a little unpredictable, but as we spent the rest of the day enjoying beautiful weather and very little crowds, it was definitely still worth it.

Our Plan A viewpoint might have been closed, but that didn't spoil our hopes for vistas! The funicular ride up to the viewpoint over Hallstatt.

Perfection!

Good coffee, great views. We enjoyed having the café at the top of the funicular over Hallstatt almost entirely to ourselves.

Looking down on Hallstatt. As we hiked down from the viewpoint, the church bells rang their noon concert: a definite trip highlight for me that we wouldn't have experienced if Five Fingers had been opened.

At the viewpoint over Hallstatt.

We took the funicular up but hiked down -- a pleasant 20 minute hike with my favorites: historical sights and interpretive signs! (the signs were thankfully in German AND English)

 

On our way to the bus stop - which we thankfully didn't end up taking to a closed attraction.  
 
 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

 



After we hiked back to town, we grabbed a quick lunch to go and rented an old but quaint motorboat. Trying to soak in as much of the sun - and views! - as possible, we returned to our hotel balcony and enjoyed schnapps and wine for the rest of the afternoon while overlooking the lake.

It might have been a bummer to miss one of our "top sights", but it'll give us a great reason to return.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Day 4 - Vienna/Hallstatt

Another travel lesson we've learned is the need to balance busy cities with smaller villages. In Italy, this mid-trip "refresh" was the Cinque Terre.

In Austria, it was Hallstatt.

You might remember that a photo of Hallstatt was part of the reason we chose to visit Austria in the first place. As we traveled further from Vienna and deeper into the Alps foothills, it became clear that we weren't going to be disappointed. During the direct (!!!) train ride from Vienna to Hallstatt, we were so shocked at the ease of the day's travels that we made the trip more difficult by almost leaving our train when we were just supposed to sit tight.

We were charmed by an Austrian couple with three young daughters who shared our train car for a small portion of the 4 hour ride. As we made small talk, Brendan gave the father sympathetic looks. (Poor guy doesn't stand a chance with that many girls.)

After we exited the train at our destination, we were greeted with our first views of Lake Hallstatt (Halstattsee) and the picturesque town on the opposite side. If you close your eyes and try to imagine a Bavarian village, you're thinking of Hallstatt.

The town - with its rich salt mine - has been settled since the early centuries and was nearly untouched during the war. As we crossed the lake from the train station to the town on the small ferry Stefanie, we felt like we were also crossing back in time.

Still across the lake from Hallstatt and already charmed.  The awful weather from earlier in the week turned into a blessing in disguise as the cold snap killed almost all the bugs that normally take over the lake this time of year.  

We stayed at the Heritage Hotel and snagged one of their top rooms thanks again to my behaving like an 80 year old woman. I was uber-specific as to what building I wanted (there are 3 owned by the hotel in various areas of the town), which floor, and that we insisted on a balcony. Being embarrassingly cranky = totally worth it. In the photo above, you can see the small ferry that carries pedestrians to and from the train station.

View to the left of our room.

View looking to the right of our balcony

 

It was difficult pulling ourselves away from our hotel room's view, but we managed and began exploring the quaint town. Hallstatt is small and easily walkable -- no cars are allowed in the main town during business hours. We managed to squeeze in a short hike to a waterfall viewpoint and enjoyed the extremely well done Hallstatt Museum, where the kind ticketer gave us the "hotel" discount even though we didn't bring our coupon with us. (I can't get enough of my city museums!)

During our short hike to a waterfront viewpoint - we took the path less traveled on the way up before finding the correct trailhead for the way down.

 



 The Catholic Church's (interior below) tower dates to the 12th century, the current structure dates to the early 1500s.

Ended the day with schnapps, wine and a view.

Auf Wiedersehen!

Day 3 - Vienna (part 2)

Traveling is made memorable by random acts of kindness and random acts of stupidity. Nobody's operating on full mental capacity while traveling, so "here's your sign" moments are bound to happen.

Rule: Always carry some cash on you. You never know when you'll run into a restaurant or attraction that doesn't take credit cards.

We know this. We KNOW this. We almost NEVER leave the hotel without cash - not a big thick wad of dough with a sign that says "Rob Me," but a reasonable amount of small denominations.

And yet..

For some reason...

After waiting in line at Vienna's star attraction - the opera house - for one of its only tours on our last day in the city, we finally arrived at the vendor and were told those dreaded words:

Cash. Only.

Crushed, we stood there like the clueless tourists we appeared to be (ok- that we were, at least at that moment) until the ticketer took pity on us and lowered the price to meet the small amount of cash we had on hand. Although our pride was tarnished, we were spared a walk to the ATM and a 90 minute wait until the next tour.

The only way to see the inside of the world famous Wiener Staatsoper (or Vienna State Opera House) is through a tour or by seeing an opera. Since neither Brendan or I were about to pretend we liked opera - but we do love architecture! - we opted for the former.

The original building was completed in the mid-1800s and almost entirely destroyed in WWII. Our Austrian guide - a young woman who spoke lightning quick - definitely laid down the guilt trip on our group of mostly elderly men & women. "After the allies bombed us..." was mentioned several times with pointed looks at the older men in the group. Brendan said afterwards that we should have retorted, "You're welcome for us liberating you!"

But I digress.

The current opera house is beautiful with ornate details, marble staircases, and gorgeous rooms throughout.

After our opera adventure, we returned to the hotel for people watching outside St. Stephen's and ran into a bizarre "Save the Dogs" protest/parade that featured one poor terrier that definitely preferred sleeping over marching. 

We turned in early-ish after dinner since we would be catching a 9 a.m. train to Hallstatt the next day.

The Vienna State Opera House:

The view looking up from near the orchestra pit. Does this remind you of somewhere?

 Auf Wiedersehen!

Day 3 - Vienna (part 1)

The first day of travel is usually exhausting, exciting and airports.

The second day is full of new experiences and jet lag.

The third day is when I think we get our travel groove on. Jet lag is a memory (thanks again to Ambien) and we're starting to get the lay of the land and language. Or at least enough to not have our heads buried in maps and pocket translators at all times.

This day started again with our BFF Rick Steves and we plugged into his "city walk" podcast as we walked about 10 minutes from the hotel to the Hofburg Palace.

Statue guarding entrance to the Hofburg Palace.

Dome that we passed under as we entered the complex.

Rain drops didn't dampen our spirits - we had palaces to see!

As we arrived at the Hofburg, we noticed crews setting up for some sort of festival. A bouncy-slide detracted a bit of ambiance, but we were still impressed by the size and architecture of the complex. The Hofburg is the former imperial residence, and its oldest sections originate from the 13th century. Today, it's the seat of the Austrian Federal President, so is very much still living history.

We bought a combo ticket to the Palace's main museum, which was actually three museums in one. The first stop was the silverware museum, which we blazed through because, really, how exciting can fine china be?

Good thing we didn't bother to feign interest, because we ended up leaving the other early bird tourists in our dust and had the much more interesting imperial apartments and Sisi Museum to ourselves! The apartments were gorgeous and included a fascinating audio guide. Highlight: We fumbled out a waltz to the piped-in music in the ballroom. (One of the perks of being the only tourists there!)

The SiSi Museum was one of the best museums we visited in Austria - it told the very engaging story of Empress Elizabeth, a late 1800s version of Princess Diana with a very dramatic life and tragic death.

Next stop was the Treasury (photos below), also housed in the Hofburg Palace.

 

Is that a unicorn horn? Unfortunately, no. But it's a narwhal tusk!

 

After a morning of museum-ing, we decompressed with a little wallet damage and shopped before grabbing a light lunch at Trzesniewski, a very traditional Austrian sandwich shop. There are eight outlets in the city, with the chain (founded by a Pole - Polish pride!) being more than 100 years old.



The sandwich shop is the building with the middle sign -- white with black letters.

As with most "local" experiences, it was fumbling but fulfilling.

We were likely the only tourists in the shop, and I let a local enter ahead of us so we could basically mirrored his order. Pointing sufficed in lieu of translating, and I chose a few of the open-faced tea sandwiches that looked the most appetizing. We miraculously scored a just-vacated table and were able to bypass eating at the counters in the cramped space. Eating a delicious new dish and surrounded by German-speaking locals, we felt like real Austrians and the visit was totally worth the risk.

Auf Wiedersehen!

 

Day 2 - Vienna (part 2)

The original plan was to leisurely head to St. Peter's (near our hotel) for a choir concert by 3 p.m. However, our little side trip to Salm Brau took us farther from St. Peter's, but very much closer to Belvedere Palace.

Of course, upon realizing this, I convinced (told) Brendan that we could squeeze in JustOneMoreThing. (Hey, we can be leisurely when we're back home!)

The palace's museum houses a couple of the most well known artworks of Vienna, including "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt and "Laughing Man" by Richard Gerstl. The latter is literally a self-portrait of the artist laughing - which sounds adorable until you learn that it was completed shortly before he committed suicide. Brendan was unimpressed by "The Kiss" (and anything else Art Nouveau) and both of us deemed "Laughing Man" as one of the creepiest paintings ever.

The Belvedere complex includes both upper and lower palaces, and is surrounded by gardens. It was built in the early 1700s as a prince's summer residence. The rain let up (thankfully) for our walk from the lower palace to the upper palace/museum through the gardens.

Since we were now officially far from St. Peter's, we had a bit of a walk back to the underground and caught a train to our home base, St. Stephen's Square. We passed a few interesting things on the way: a pharmacy, where we scored another free toothbrush - our third free toothbrush of the trip after the two complimentary ones at the hotel ("I thought you had packed that!"); a man peeing against the Belvedere Palace wall after parking his brand new BMW (wtf); and a late-1600s statue or "mercy column" (below) created at the end of the last plague epidemic.

Even though it was still early afternoon, we were both a little tired from jet lag and sightseeing and needed a dry place to rest before taking on the rest of the evening. Luckily, I had noticed the Northwestern University International Choir was performing at an organ concert at St. Peter's. We entered the beautiful early-1700s Baroque cathedral and chose a pew near the alter as our concert seats.

The concert was free with a donation, and the church was packed as the music began. My favorite thing about music is that it's definitely a universal language -- you could sense the peacefulness and beauty of the music being experienced by everyone in the church, no matter where we had traveled from.

Fun facts: In 1970, Peterskirche (St. Peter's Church, interior photos below) was transferred to the priests of Opus Dei (of da Vinci code fame). And the earliest church building (none of which exists today, other than by name) dates to the 12th century.

Exterior of St. Peter's Church

 



Loved the city streets - quintessential European pedestrian throughways (only permitted vehicles allowed), lined with shops and pretty post-war rebuilt architecture.

After the concert, we walked (less than 5 minutes, thankfully) back to the hotel to rest a bit before grabbing pre-dinner drinks at the hotel bar, which included a great view of St. Stephen's and the pedestrian & shop-lined streets surrounding it. While at the bar, Brendan tasted his first schnapps of the trip (too strong for me!).

 

Drinks with a view, only an elevator ride away from our room!

Couldn't enough of the view from our hotel bar.

Then, we enjoyed another traditional Austrian meal for dinner, and while I loved the taste of the local food, I was starting to become concerned that I would soon no longer fit into my clothes.

 

Eh. We can worry more about that while we're being leisurely at home...

 

Auf Wiedersehen!