Monday, April 20, 2009

Vienna in a day...

On Friday I went with a class from the University to visit Vienna. I walked from our apartment in the dark to meet the bus in front of the Faculty building. After three hours in the bus, driving through the Austrian countryside, the skyline of Vienna rose before us. We made our way into the city, through a large suburban industrial area, and into the older part of town. The zoo is housed behind the Schloss Schönbrunn palace. The palace is huge with 1441 rooms. Around the palace are “The Gardens”, which are incredibly extensive and manicured, amazing fountains and long groomed tree-lined avenues which radiate in all directions. Behind the gardens is the world’s oldest zoo, Tiergarten. It was founded in 1752 as a menagerie and now houses about 750 different types of animals – thankfully most of the original cramped cages have been replaced, although some of the small cages were on display. We had a great time watching a polar bear play, saw pandas, giraffes, elephants and poison dart frogs, and an amazing aquaria and insectarium. Plus, as with everything Austrian, there were plenty of outdoor coffee shops to relax when your feet got tired.

After the zoo, the class visited the Museum of Natural History. The museum was housed in an amazing Habsburg-era building with incredible statues and ceiling murals, plus impressive displays of stuffed animals, minerals, and some human artifacts.

I was exhausted after the zoo and the museum, but headed out with a few friends to see a little bit of Vienna before heading home. We walked to the central part of Vienna to look around and also to visit the Stephansdom, which would be recognizable to most of you. It is probably the most recognizable structure in Vienna. The cathedral was built in the 12th century and is built in the Gothic style. It was incredible to be there – quietly looking up at the high ceilings, the famous pulpit, the tiled roof and the crucifixes. A marvelous choir was practicing for a concert that evening – the whole scene was magical.

We walked tiredly past the designer stores, beautiful horse-drawn carriages, intricate old Habsburg palaces and buildings, and wiener schnitzel shops to our bus and made our way back to Maribor. A delightful whirlwind of a day.



This is the stairwell of the Natural History Museum

2 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your exciting work, Amy! I am just catching up on all of your adventures via this wonderful blog. Wishing you all the best, Nicole

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  2. oh I visited giant pandas twice as well. they are so lovely as well!
    Here I bought a cuddly panda bag (L) that I can hardly put it down!
    I believe it is a GREAT find for every panda fanatic!
    hkpanda.freetzi.com
    Flor (floreshayes@gmail.com)

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