Vienna - Kärntner Straße (German for Carinthia Street)

Kaerntner Strasse is the street spelling if the special characters aren't available.

We discovered this pedestrian street as we headed from the Vienna Opera at Karlsplatz to the church at Stephansplatz.  It was very active with visual delights.

Pedestrians Only!

Vienna - Vienna Opera (Staadtoper) Tapestry and inlayed stone in Tea Rooms

During World War II, the stage was destroyed by Allied bombs and the building gutted by fire on March 12, 1945. The foyer, with frescoes by Moritz von Schwind, the main stairways, the vestibule and the tea room were spared. There are two tearooms in the Vienna Opera.  One displays the original tapestries by Schwind, and the other has more modern pictures made of inlaid stone.  I am researching to learn more about the inlaid stone.  Do you know?

The first four photographs show the beautiful tapestries.  The scenes represent scenes from operas.

These photos are of the inlaid stone pictures. They represent drama, dance, and music.

Vienna - Cafe Mozart

Time for a snack and what better place to get out of the threatening rain than a sidewalk cafe in Vienna called Cafe Mozart.

Very elegant logo

Vienna – Staatsoper (Vienna Opera)

Tram #2 was the direct route from the apartment to the StaatsOper (Vienna Opera).  The outside of the building was nice, but did not tell about the beauty that was to be found inside.  I saw the place where you line up to by the standing room only tickets, which are quite a deal at 3 euro.  You can go for one act, or as long as you want to stay.  As luck would have it, there was a tour in English in 15 minutes. Tours (6.50 euros) are the only way that you can get in the building further than the lobby.  The tour was a great idea, very informative, moved at a great pace to be able to take photos and hear all of the details.  I sometimes came up to the back of the group after lagging behind to take pictures.  There was another American woman in the same boat…we agreed that we would take the photos now and look up the details on the internet.  Great plan!

Statue of Goethe in nearby park

Vienna - Cafe Opernring

Cafe Opernring is located across the street from the Vienna Opera House. It is an English friendly place with reasonably priced good food.  This was the first exposure to Sacher Torte, although the waiter simply called it chocolate cake.

Fresh local beer
Large one was 3.90 euro, smaller one was 3.10 euro

Vienna - What is in a neighborhood Bipa store?

Walked in to the local BIPA store to get a few things, and walked out with lipstick and some hairbands.  Take a look at what I saw in there. Same? Different?  It is like a Walgreens or CVS.

Vienna - Apartment via airbnb.com

Train travel from Olomouc to Vienna was uneventful and smooth. We had to change trains one time, but the systems are all similar so it was not hard to figure out the connection.  Wein.  Oh yea, that is Vienna.

Olomouc - St. Vaclava Cathedral

I was very impressed with this cathedral. Either the original painted walls remain, or a lot of time has been invested to recreate the wall and ceiling effects. Most churches cleaned the painting off of the wall. This is a great example of painted walls.  I've added some close ups and details.

Olomouc - Czech Hockey Game

Shawna called Mike and we arranged to meet the group to watch the Czech hockey game against the Swedes.  The travelers all converged, the waitress discovered that we were better at English than Czech, and sent in the English waiter.  We had “Pepsi Light” (diet Pepsi), local brew, local wine, local food.  Fun time, we were disappointed that the Czech team lost, found the bathrooms marked “Toilety”, exchanaged stories and laughs, discussed how awesome the Pittsburgh teams were (GO STEELERS!!  STEELER NATION - ALIVE IN OLOMOUC!), and had a fun time. The evening ended too soon, but new friendships were formed and we will all need to have a reunion in Phoenix when the expats return.

Luckily, Mike helped us to figure out the train route to Vienna for the next day.  We took notes and then made sure that he was going with us to the train station in the morning. 

Many thanks to Shawna, Mike and Cameron for a lovely weekend.  I’m very happy to share in your life adventure and look forward to your return to our little Phoenix neighborhood.  We will need to set up tables and chairs in the front yard and make our own café.  I have several boxes of lights that we can string up for a café appearance.

Notes:

There are no self laundry businesses in the town.  They have the small washer, dryer combo machines which don’t completely dry. The entire wash and partially dry cycle takes about 2.5 hours, so plan accordingly.  I put a load in and hung shirts to fully dry.

Area is slightly hilly and streets are cobblestone.  The bigger stones are quite level and easy to walk on, but the narrow black ones were difficult for me.


The modernized apartment:

Olomouc - Favorite Cafe

This is a family favorite so we stopped for a snack.  Note that the water glass matches the product poured.  This must be a rule, as it was in effect throughout the trip.