The sun rose up on our last day in Vienna. If you’re thinking that seems quick, well yeah – the whole point of the trip was just to take nibbles of new places; if we love either of them, we can always go back for more. That is, after all, the whole point of moving over here. Good news / bad news situation: we have indeed loved our time in Vienna, which means we’re also a little sad that it’s coming to an end. Alas, alack. Our last day is jam-packed, however, including an actual, honest-to-goodness bucket list item for Lisa. By the time the sun sets on this day, we’ll actually be in transit to our next destination. But that’s then, and this is now. Well, kinda. Verb tenses are complicated for a reason. In any case, let’s finish up Vienna!
It may surprise some of you to know that Lisa was horse-mad as a young girl. Lacking money, she had no choice but to grow out of it, but seeing the Lipizzaner stallions has been a bucket list item for decades. (Even John knew what they were and thought they were cool, he just never put two and two together that they were in Vienna.) So, of course this was a tent-pole event for this trip and Lisa booked tickets about as soon as the flights…. which was good, as it seems the daily practices sell out almost immediately — even in the off-off-season. They were the first thing on our agenda for the day, so we’re up and out and show up (at a palace, mind you, which really threw us off for a moment) about 15 mins before the show begins. A woman in charge of the queue checks everyone’s’ tickets and, seeing ours, waves us to the front of the line – she doesn’t stay with us, though, so now it’s just a couple of Americans banging their way through the crowded queue for no obvious reason, truly irritating a few folks including one woman who would NOT let us by until an employee made her — we kept apologizing and explaining that we were just doing what they told us to do). It seemed to be because our seats were on the ground just behind the low wall around the arena, as opposed to up in the galleries where most people were.
It was carefully and repeatedly explained to everyone that once the stallions came out, all film and photography was forbidden. No explanation was given, although John’s theory is that the management doesn’t want the magic dulled at all by footage of stallions- and riders-in-training not being at their best. In any case, we have no pictures or video of the horses to show you except from the interwebs.
And, it turns out that what we saw was not a performance, but literally a practice session. Five stallions came out with riders in the classic uniform and proceeded to ride around the arena, seemingly aimlessly. From time to time we’d notice one trotting in place, or doing one of the many “dance” steps they are known for, or drifting elegantly in a diagonal across the arena. It was lovely, but random, and not explained. The first group finished and left, and a second group came out, this time with a trainee (notable for their distinctive not-uniform and hardhat). And more of the same occurred, although we could see how the instructor guided the trainee, so that was a bit of insight. No acrobatics. No kicks. Nothing choreographed.
It turns out that PERFORMANCES only happen on Sundays (or on tour) and that is where you want to place your tent pole. Was it interesting? Yes, if you have some knowledge of horses, dressage, or the Lipizzaners. We weren’t exactly disappointed, but definitely felt our appetites more whetted than sated. Our next visit will absolutely be planned around a performance of these magnificent critters.
The arena itself is lovely and everything is oriented around the horses and their personalities. The arena actually is kind of crazy – if you removed the sand and put in a marble floor (and probably some more insulation) you’d have a ballroom as grand as any. To this day when riders first enter the space, they doff their hats in salute to their long-dead patron as thanks for the facilities. Kitschy or not, it’s not surprising. The horses are stabled not far from this practice and performance space, and a set of horse boxes look through a courtyard to the street bisecting the two areas; the keepers call them the “TV boxes”. It turns out that the horses here are particularly interested in watching the world go by and spend long hours just checking things out.
Afterwards, we met up with Robert, the walking tour guide included with our bus tickets. (To put a final answer to the question “are the tickets for the hop on hop off worth it?”, we’d say it depends on if you’re going to use it all. We got bus access for two days, the boat cruise, and a guided walking tour of downtown. We were very satisfied.) For the next 90 minutes he took us through the center of Old Town, explaining architecture, art, and typical lifestyle of the Viennese throughout history. It was thoroughly engaging and interesting, placing much of what we’d seen in passing over previous days into context, and whetting our appetite for future visits. It was particularly interesting to us that, for all that we felt charmed by the “old World” vibe, he pointed out numerous examples of modern living forcing out the old ways. Numerous bespoke businesses that had been owned by families for generations were being forced out by the typical encroachers – H&M, Gap, Target and so on. For the life of him John can’t find a photo that we took, but – there was an H&M on a main street that our guide pointed out. He had to point it out because it was a gorgeous, art deco structure with inlaid wood everywhere and almost no modern signage. Even the interior, visible through the beautifully huge windows, had that charming craftsmanship. The signage was modest all things considered. It turns out that the building had been sold at firesale prices in the 1930s by a Jewish family business that had to get out of town. By city decree the building has to be kept up as it was as a memorial, there apparently having been no remaining family to initiate a claim. We were given his opinion on places to eat, drink, and shop, and overall he rated favorably to many other tours we’ve been on over the years. It was one of the better perks of our Big Bus ticket.
From there, we went to lunch at the aquarium. Called the Haus des Meeres (House of Fish), it was converted from a 47-meter-tall flak tower in late 1943. It’s an odd building in many ways, and we’re told the aquarium is neat . . . but we were there because there is a restaurant on the top floor reputed to have great views of the city. Lunch was fine — nothing special, but freshly prepared and tasty. (Lisa had a hummus bowl, and John had the Caesar Salad with chicken.) The view, however, was truly spectacular (and would look even better at night, so go here for a drink before your meal out.) Naturally, we took no pictures…. sigh.
Our day was wrapping up, but our night was just beginning. Join us next week when we detail the wonders of going to sleep in Vienna and waking up in Amsterdam, courtesy of the choo choo train.
