Our first full day in Vienna. I noticed a difference almost as soon as we saw the city in the daylight. Like any big city, it has become commercialized (at least the area where we are staying) and dirty. Certainly dirtier than any of the cities we have been in so far. Another thing I noticed was that the sights to be seen had been encroached upon by stores and restaurants. Less space I guess, so they had to do what they could.
The immediate task at hand was finding a laundromat to do some laundry. When we first arrived in Vienna, we had asked the owner of the pension we were staying at (pension is a step up from a hostel, but a step down from a hotel) where we could find one. She gave us directions, so we set out to find it in the morning. Turns out she pointed us in the right direction, but didn't specify where exactly to find it. So we asked around, found someone who spoke English, and got directions to a "laundry". Several blocks later, lugging our laundry, we discovered we had been directed to a dry cleaners instead. Quick note here: laundromats are called "wash salons" apparently. Luckily, the dry cleaners could give us directions and we were fairly close. In the end we found it, and spent about two hours watching our clothes spin in an endless cycle...back, forth, back, forth, back, forth -- you are getting very, very sleepy...
Actually, Bill and I left Mom there and set out to find a free telephone line to upload parts of the webpage. We found one at a local ISP's headquarters, and the owner was nice enough to help us hook up, and we uploaded all that we had for email and webpages. Unfortunately, I had fallen behind, so the only part that was done at that time was the rest of Munich.
After finishing the laundry and dropping off the clean clothes back at our room, we took a tram around the Ringstrasse, the street that...well, rings the historical part of Vienna. By doing this, we got to pass by pretty much any sight that we wanted to see; sort of like a preview of what's to come.
From there, we headed off to the Hofburg, one of the many castles of the Hapsburg rulers. Because we got a late start in the morning, and sucked a couple of hours off our day by doing laundry, we only had a few hours before everything in the Hofburg closed.
We headed first to the Royal Apartments, which (unbeknownst to us) had been temporarily turned into an exhibit to (apparently) a beloved Austrian ruler, Empress Elisabeth, or "Sissi." It wouldn't have been too big of a deal, except that to make room for some of their artifacts, they had taken down paintings and moved some furniture, so the Apartments were totally different than the ones in the guidebook we bought at the gate. Also, due to the resemblance of the lives of Princess Diana and Sissi (both reluctant princesses), she has become something of a celebrity.
From there we went to the Treasury, which contained an impressive collection of jewels, reliquaries, and other things the Hapsburgs had shoved into the back of a closet for years. I thought the most impressive were the largest cut emerald in the world, weighing in at 216 karats, and the Crown of the Holy Roman Emperor. Not to mention plenty of other amazing examples of craftsmanship at its best. (Alix: I was most impressed with the embroidered vestments (so fine it was like looking at paintings) and with the capes and chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece -- all absolutely stunning in red velvet and gold.)
Alix: Just so you know that Eric is not kidding you, getting laundry done can be quite an ordeal. Most pensions and hotels do not have services and even when you find a wash salon, things are a little different. The washers are about standard but run $5 US per load! The dryers (I discovered) do not heat as high as we are used to so choosing the middle heat setting cost me an extra half hour until I figured this out. All in all, two loads of laundry took about two hours. I had not expected such loss of time and so am glad we are not tied down to leaving Vienna at a particular time....I'd hate to miss something just to get my laundry done!
I would agree that Vienna is not as clean as I expected and also that the overwhelming smell of the downtown area is of horse, horse, horse due to the use of horse carriages for the tourist trade. While they are really good about picking up the obvious signs of horse passage, the smell remains and can be really overpowering. But even given this, it continues to be a good experience. The people are great, the sights wonderful, and the food good. Just watch your step on the streets!