Back out on the streets after the Treasury, we head toward the ring road to ride a tram around the city. We are following Rick Steve’s circle tram guide – which – if you use the public transportation trams and not the special tourist ring tram – is cheaper and you can hop on and hop off where you want.
We take Tram #2 up to the transfer point – which is at the back of the city. We figure we can find a decent place to eat lunch here without breaking the bank. We follow Rick’s sights along the way – looking left and right to catch the sculptures and buildings he points out (but too fast to get pix).
Hopping off at Schwedenplatz, we wander a bit before finding Bermuda Brau – which is a pub on the ground floor (smoking!) and a lovely restaurant upstairs (non-smoking!). We settle into a table and order up wine and beer and pumpkin soup for me (yay! dessert and lunch all in one!) and Sausages and pretzel for Ed. Yummy!
We review our circle tram tour and see there is the oldest church in Vienna as well as a memorial to victims of the Gestapo in between here and the next tram stop. We decide to visit those on our way to tram. Unfortunately, it is really raining when we leave Bermuda Brau. While we aren’t wussies, we’ve had enough of the cold and the wet, so we just head to the tram – ignoring both church and monument (although we can see the monument from the tram stop).
Back on the tram, it’s too sloppy to hop on and hop off, so we just ride back to Opera stop, looking out for Rick’s sights along the way. At Opera – well – before Opera – we decide to get off and go to the Museum Quartiers. It is too early to go back to the hotel, and we figure there’s got to be something we can do there. The Quartiers is more modern – both art museums and an architectural museum – so we ditch that one. We end up going across the street to the Kunsthistorsches Museum which houses an astonishing number of paintings from the masters. There is a Caravaggio exhibit there as well – one of my favorite painters from my Roman mystery book series! Surprisingly enough, this is a great diversion. The first exhibits we go through are from Estruscan times – all the “gifts’” (ahem, stolen loot) from Ephesus. We might not agree with its pedigree, but the artifacts are amazing. Then there are the Roman antiquities – stolen or not – really great.
Next up, we go upstairs to the paintings. They have a huge collection of Rubens, one of the biggest we’ve ever seen. And the Caravaggios – many originals and then lots of his “students” or painters who took up his realism.
As we wandered through the collection, there were even two local painters there, reproducing/replicating great works of art. That was fun. To watch them paint and try to replicate the masters. They did pretty well too! How do you get to be able to do that, we wonder?
The museum building in itself is a work of art! The interior is fabulous with the most beautiful café we’ve ever seen. All gilt and domed and frescoed. We actually considered having an overpriced cappuccino there, but the main café was closed for an upcoming event so we said forget it. If we are over paying, we want the atmosphere to go with it!
As I said, the museum was an architectural wonder in and of itself. Outside was no different. The building and the statuary around the park like setting between the Kunsthistroiches and the Natural History Museum were worth the photo opps.
Day done! We’re beat. Even the walking queen needs to go sit down! So we head back to the metro and the hotel to relax before dinner.
Tonight we are going Vietnamese. You can only eat so much Schnitzel – you know? There is a restaurant called Tata, 1/2 a block away which gets great reviews. And they don’t disappoint. Ed gets the Pho and I get Bun Cha Quat– pork and rice noodles and salad and peanuts and awesome!
Yummy, yummy and not filling! Very nice choice to end our days in Vienna. Tomorrow – back to Prague for our last night in Central Eastern Europe.
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