Day 11: Vienna

Vienna, the final destination, the end of a journey. And what better place to end such an epic adventure. 

The start of our last day, in the morning after eating a nice breakfast courtesy of our hotel, Ibis, we headed to the Hofburg palace, the winter residence of the Hapsburg dynasty. There are few words to describe the architectural marvel that is the Hofburg. From the marvelous, dome covered gatehouse that made you realize the the sheer amount of wealth the Hapsburgs possessed, to the exquisite rose gardens that celebrated the members of this great dynasty, all of it was astoundingly beautiful, which I’m sure is what the Hapsburgs intended. After bathing in the absolute greatness of the Hofburg, we were given our first break of free time. 

An hour and a half was the time we were given. Doesn’t seem like a whole lot of time to explore such a vast city, however there are only so many hours in day, and my team has already devised a sound strategy to spend this valuable time. First, was to try the famous Sacher-Torte dessert. The Sacher-Torte is a heavenly slice of chocolate cake, created by Franz Sacher (who at the time was sixteen) for Prince Metternich, the Austrian Minister of Affairs at the time. My friends and I enjoyed this amazing dessert at the Sacher Cafe, a very high class establishment that I felt drastically under-dressed for. Afterward eating our “lunch” of Sacher-Torte. My friends and I headed down a Viennese Street filled with a variety of interesting shops. I stopped and purchased a package of Mozartkugel (more commonly known as “Mozart Balls”, it is an Austrian chocolate candy named after the one and only Mozart, it has a nice, crisp, chocolate shell and contains a Pistachio-based center. And so after wandering down this street we arrived at our destination, St. Stephens Cathedral. St. Stephens is the true epitome of a Gothic Cathedral with its beautiful spires and towering presence. And so my group and I made our last trek up a European tower, for context my group has made it a tradition to climb at least one tower or high structure in each city we visit. And so we began our ascent of 343 stairs to reach the very top of the Cathedral and received a spectator view of Vienna rewarding us for our commitment. After scaling the Cathedral, our time was up and we met with our group, and from there we split into four groups each tackling a different museum. Me along with my friends chose to explore the art museum. 

The museum itself is a work of art, it is the pinnacle of Baroque architecture as seen from the outside, and its interior doesn’t disappoint, it has a marvelous marble staircase coated in a beautiful carpet, which leads to a dome covered in hold plated displays of beautiful figures. Now I won’t go into to much detail about the art pieces themselves as reading this is already turning into a journey in itself. To be brief, I saw one of the largest collections of Egyptian, Greek, and Roman artifacts, many of which were statues of various figures: Horus, Iris, Athena, Zeus, Juno, etc. Then there was the vast collection of 17-18th century paintings, featuring 

 painters like Johannes Vermeer and Luca Giordano. I can’t say that I had a single favorite, but I was quite fond of Pieter Bruegel’s “Tower of Babel”, Giordanno’s “St. Micheal Vanquishing the Devilsaround, and Bartholomeus Spranger’s “Minerva Victorious over Ignorance”. After seeing these beautiful pieces of art, we traveled to the Viennese Amusement Park, Prater Wien. It was a fun time I went on a variety of rides from raft rides, to your standard coaster, to a swing carousel to finish. After enjoying the rides we head to dinner and concluded our day.

One thing I must say about Vienna is that it is incredibly beautiful, and while the other cities we have visited like Prague and Budapest also share in this Beauty, Vienna is able to maintain it, as unlike in Budapest and Prague, the structures in Vienna seem well preserved with very little decay. After this day, I can see why we ended our trip here as it provides the perfect closure to such a wonderful trip. Thank you for reading this essay of a description. 

Sincerely,

Thor

The day was started when we had breakfast in the hotel. After that, we took a short walking tour 
of downtown Vienna. Some things we saw included a statue dedicated to Mozart and Franz 
Joseph. The tour concluded by walking through the Winter Palace of the Hapsburgs to get to the 
rose garden. We stopped in a walkway of the Palace and learned about Sisi, the wife of Franz 
Joseph. She had a dessert made just for her, so she could maintain her waistline. The dessert 
was violet petals covered with sugar. After the brief history lesson on Sisi, we traveled to the rose 
garden. We took in the myriad rose bushes and took a really nice group photo in front of them. 
After we walked through the rose garden, we headed back to the downtown to get free time for 
lunch and souvenir shopping. I went with Nicole and Sam to a restaurant and both Nicole and I 
ordered bruschetta. This was no ordinary bruschetta, instead of diced tomatoes, the bread was 
topped with halved cherry tomatoes. To say the least, I did not enjoy this bruschetta. After lunch, 
I picked up a few small gifts for my parents and we were off to the fine arts museum. All of the 
sculptures and paintings were really interesting to see, because we had never heard of many of 
the artists featured. We then headed off to the Prater amusement park. My group and I rode 
many rides, including a spooky train ride and a flying ride that took us many feet above the 

ground. To end the day, we had supper and free time to get last minute souvenirs

- Tessie

Today we began our day with a lovely breakfast at the hotel. After breakfast, we boarded our bus, and drove to the center of the city where our tour guide, Ildi, took us on a walking tour. One of our first stops was the statue of Mozart, commemorating his musical achievements throughout his lifetime. After Mozart, we visited one of the few statues of Franz Joseph in the city. We learned that he and his wife, Sisi, don’t have any statues near each other in the city, as Franz is partially at fault for her death. They were visiting another country when there was an attempt on Franz Joseph’s life. However, while he swerved to avoid the blade aimed at him, it his Sisi directly, and she died shortly after. Now, Vienna praises Sisi, and there are statues and portraits of her all throughout the city, away from Franz Ferdinand. The closest one was across the park, with its own rose garden. After the park, we continued through the city, with Ildi pointing out historic buildings and explaining their significance to the group. Our walking tour ended in the magnificent rose gardens, where we broke off into smaller groups for lunch and free time. After lunch and free time, we had chose one out of four museums to go to, and we spent some time looking at the features in the museum. Once we finished visiting the museums, we went to Prater Amusement Park, where we spent time with our friends going on all the fun rides and attractions they offered. For dinner tonight we had chicken with rice, followed by a delicious apple strudel. After dinner, we had a final bit of free time in the city center for some final sight seeing and souvenir shopping for friends and family. It was a great final day!

- Nicole