The Scary Church of Death

Back to our one full day in Vienna. . .

After the Hofburg Palace, we wandered around looking for a place to eat as a light rain started.  We popped into a church that was part of the palace -- a very modern/starkly designed cathedral.  It was arresting in its own  way.  After trying one restaurant (Albertiner-Keller) which was jam-packed (SRO) with tourists, we checked out the Mozartcafe, but that was full up as well.  We turned around and went back to a quiet place on Augustinerstrasse, right between Josefsplatz and Albertinaplatz. 

Turns out it is a rather large, but not very full, Italian restaurant.  The owner is Italian, and spoke to us in three languages: German, Italian, and English -- none of which we understood well.  But it all worked out, and we had a nice family time, laughing and joking.  Very relaxing.  The girls also taught Carol and I, after first torturing us, the elephant game.  If you don't know the elephant game, that's okay -- I will be sure to torture you with it for a while. 

After lunch, we popped into the state library.  It is amazing and a must stop on any trip to Vienna.  Unlike the monastery in Prague, we could wander around through the library (the shelving, statues, and other finery were roped off, as they should be) and gawk at the four hundred year old globes, the statues, the old books, and there was some information on the history of the different countries that made up the Hapsburgs lands. 
It was remarkable. 

By the time we came out, the light rain had stopped, so we wandered around the grounds of Hofburg Palace for a bit, and then headed off to Karlskirche.  The church was listed as one of Vienna's top ten sights by our DK guide to Vienna (along with Stephansdom, the Hofburg Palace, the Museumquartier, the Belvedere, and a number of places we did not get to -- gives us a reason to come back some day).  However, the guidebook failed to mention it is best referred to as the Scary Church of Death.

It's not the Scary Church of Death because it was built in the early 1700s to honor Karl Borromeo, the patron saint of the fight against the plague.  It's because of what's on the inside.  The outside is quite memorable -- scenes from the plague, minaret-like columns that are quite distinctive looking and reminiscent of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.

We paid our entrance fee and went on in.  We immediately took the elevator up -- the guidebook said it afforded amazing views of Vienna (sort of), and a close look at the frescoes.  The elevator is a standalone shaft going up one side of the church.  It's glass, so we could see how high we were going.  At first it was neat -- hey, there's a good look at the organ.  But, we kept going up and up, which was a bit unnerving in the glass elevator.  Then, the platform that it took us to shook.  Yes, the large platform shook.  We were high up in the dome, right even with the lower frescoes. 

There were stairs to climb -- wooden platform -- right in the middle of the dome, that led up to the very top.  It was a scary feeling, looking over the side.   There is a Mrs. Iron Tourist was the smartest of us all -- once she realized the platform shook, she beat a hasty retreat back down the elevator.  The rest of us headed up the stairs to the top.  Going up was both very cool and very scary.  There we were, right among the frescoes.  But, with a shaky wooden platform below us, and significant drop below that, it was a wild feeling.  We reached the top (Torie had charged on ahead) and all admitted we were quite shaken by the situation.

Our trip back down the stairs was probably the slowest walk down ten flights of stairs ever.  And that just brought us back to the shaky platform.  The elevator trip down did not seem as scary, but we were all relieved when we reached the church floor.  I was pale, the girls were breathing hard, good times.  We took some time to gather wits about us -- and the church was quite beautiful.  We will always remember the Scary Church of Death.

Next, we went off in search of Stadtpark (City Park).  After a couple of wrong turns that simply added to the mileage of the day (see how easily I turn my mistake into a virtue -- more exercise!), we came to a beautiful fountain the Soviets had dedicated to themselves as liberators of Vienna.  Everyone was running out of gas, so we stopped in the Intercontinental Hotel for pastries and drinks.  It was an expensive, but well-earned rest break. 

Refortified, we walked into Stadtpark, which was quite beautiful.  Unfortunately, the famous gilded statue of Johann Strauss is, like large parts of Vienna, under repair, so Johann was not there.  We did find the Franz Schubert statue, but it was not very interesting.  We walked the couple miles back to the hotel -- I had actually suggested taking the U-bahn, but the girls thought it would be too much like our train station experience the previous day, but at least we spotted the Hertz location where we would pick up our rental car the next day.

We had dinner at Boheme, which was located on a wonderful pedestrian street in the Museumquartier.  Continuing my crusade to tag Vienna as the city with the longest names, we went from Mariahilferstrasse to Karl Schweighoferstrasse to Siebensterngasse to Spittelberggasse.  Don't ask me the difference between a strasse and a gasse (other than one has an "str" and the other has a "g").

Unfortunately, there was only one waiter, and -- given how long it took for the food to come out -- perhaps he doubled as the cook.  Service was slow, and the food was only so-so.  Oh well.  The previous night's dinner had been so good, this leveled the food off.