Experience in Vienna
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Vienna, the capital of Austria, has been given the name as the 'City of Arts'. It is indeed well-deserved. Among the European cities that I had visited over the past month, Vienna possesses buildings with the most beautiful and exquisite architecture and monuments.
I was most impressed by the Parliament House, which has a very strong Roman element.
The statue of Athena in front of the Austria Parliament
The words are in German. With my basic German, I could only understood the first statement, which basically depicts that:
"All men are free and have the right to be born."
One of the many operahouses and art theaters... There were so many sales personal on the streets. We were approached by at least 10 tickets officers who tried to persuade us to watch at least one musical. We would love too, but we really had no time. There are just too many places of attraction in Vienna!
However sadly, I have lost all the photos (around 300+ pictures) taken during the first 2 days in Vienna due to one selfish person. Uploading my photos into his laptop is the biggest mistake I had ever made. ARGH! Anyway, enough of it. Let's go more into each attraction. I'll extract some photos from Wikipedia in replacement of my lost photos.
I also visited 2 remaining and famous imperial palaces that were previously occupied by the Austrian royal family - 'Schönbrunn Palace' (the summer palace) and Hofburg (the winter palace). I had one thing on my mind when I entered each of the palace: 没天理的大, 太浪费了!
(Taken from Wikipedia)
From the picture above, Schönbrunn Palace does not seem too big. If you ever tried to walk around the garden and venture into the zoo (the Tiergarten Schönbrunn) and 'The Gloriette' at the top of the hill behind the palace, you would understand that 'big' is no longer the word for it.
Taken outside the entrance of Hofburg. Luckily, my friends and I decided to take one last snap of Hofburg during our last day of stay in Vienna, so thankfully we have at least 1 photo of the winter palace. It's a pity though that I no longer have the photo of the statues built on the other entrance of the palace. They were very striking and stunning. Sigh... Oh, and I do realise that there are plenty of statues with great emphasis on the beauty of human body... Just the human body... Hehe. You do get my meaning right?
In the winter palace, there were a lot of exhibitions (with entrance fees charged) with regard to the royal families in the past, with great particular emphasis on Empress Sisi. I was pretty curious about her life, since Empress Sisi and Mozart were the 2 most common appearances on any souvenir. However, it was quite disappointing to know that she did no noble or great things. People remembered her so well because she was well-received by them. Hmmm... That just reminded me of Princess Diana.
(Taken from Wikipedia)
I tried the popular and 'original Sachertorte' in Hotel Sacher. There was a pinch when the bill came. However it does not seem right if one does not try, even once, the cake that Vienna is known worldwide for. I didn't really like it since I'm not a fan of dark chocolate. Nonetheless, if anyone of you loves dark chocolate, 'Sachertorte' is something to die for (feedback from my friend).
Das Rathaus (the town council) - our last stop for the day before we left Vienna for Venice.
It's one of my favourites as I come to admire the gothic style of the building very much. It reminds me of structure of an ancient European church. I initially though it was a church until I went closer to the entrance.
Last but not least, they were our tour guides in Vienna. Great chaps from NUS, who were in Vienna on exchange programme and were kind enough to bring us around. Thanks a lot guys!
There are still many things that I wish to share about Vienna. However, it may be a little too overwhelming. Some things are better left in the mind as long-lasting memories. Overall, I will rate my trip in Vienna 9/10. It's definitely one of the places that I'll go again if given a second opportunity.
--Mary HAD a little lamb--
12:13 am
