tuxette's Journal: Trip Report - Vienna Day Six (good RoF day)

Day Six - 6th of April

Naturhistorisches Museum: boyfriend of tuxette had a free day today, so we went to the Naturhistorisches Museum. While this place is huge and its collections are more impressive than not, the total experience was a disappointment. Neither boyfriend of tuxette nor I liked the way things were set up. You had all these samples that were grouped together by species or whatever - but you never really had any explanation about the "whats and whys," nor did you have displays showing how different species interact in their environments like you see in other natural history museums. Plus, the specimens in formaldehyde (or whatever) in jars was kind of freaky...

We also realized how much nicer it is to go to the zoo to see living animals, than to see the lifeless stuffed versions...

Another letdown was that the dinosaur exhibit was closed for renovation - bah. Better luck next time I guess... *sigh*

Lunch: The other day when I ate at Amerlingbeisl, I walked a little bit around the area (Spittelberg) afterwards and came across this restaurant called Bohème. They had a sign showing their weekly menu, and it looked good. So when boyfriend of tuxette and I decided it was lunchtime, I took him to Bohème. After a look at the menu, we ordered the daily 3-course special (for 9 euro). We started with a dumpling soup, followed by pork baked with tomato and mozarella cheese. Both washed down with Trumer Pils - mmmm, pils). And then there was vanilla ice cream and lemon sorbet for dessert, along with some melange.

The food was wonderful. The soup was flavorful, and the pork was tender and juicy. The only thing that was kind of annoying was that we got charged for the bread. Reminded me of Lisbon heh...

The restaurant itself was very charming. We were seated in a sort of private-ish room. On the walls, photographs of famous opera singers and programs their performances, all autographed. The subdued opera and classical music in the background. Very pleasant! The staff was also very friendly.

Street name confusion: One of the main streets in the Spittelberg area is called Burggasse. There is a street in the area near our hotel called Berggasse. Apparently, it's easy to confuse the two. Now among Vienna's famous people - Sigmund Freud. There's a museum in his honor on Berggasse 19. This is what you are greeted with when you go to the address on Burggasse 19...

Stephansdom: After lunch, we went to see Stephansdom. It's quite a forboding cathedral from the outside, and inside. Look at all the detail... And the pipe organ heh... We even had a tour of the catacombs, as they called for a tour while we were inside and I'm fascinated with catacombs for some odd reason ;-) That was rather fascinating tour! Among other things, they had these containers/urns that held the internal organs of the various royal family members. These containers were of varying sizes of course. There was one container that was particularly large. I can only imagine the Ring of Fat that guy had! They also have a special crypt for priests, and they had a mass grave for plague victims, as well as other mass graves (and they ended up having to stop doing this (around 1783), because the smell becamse so bad that nobody came to church services!). Only the bones are left in these mass graves. Eerie... It was also interesting to learn that back then, people didn't visit graves the way they do now...

After the tour, we first took some pictures of Mini-Wolfgang (one of my new penguins) and then did some shopping (though not here - eek! Now this is more like it!), and eventually stopped at a café to have some Sachertorte and melange. It was OK - I prefer the other sweets I have had. Especially the cheese pastries/cakes. Mmmm...cheese...

Cool graffiti: guarding Wasagasse

Dinner: Since Bohème was so good, we decided to go back there for dinner, this time bringing the same gang from the previous night. Boyfriend of tuxette and I ordered duck with orange-pepper sauce. It was served with red cabbage, potato croquettes, and broccoli. And it was sooooo gooooood! I actually tried making something like this at home already hehe... didn't quite get it exactly right, though what I made was pretty good ;-)

We shared an Apfelstrudel for dessert, served with vanilla ice cream. It was good but not as good as the one I had the other day ;-)

Number of steps: 9787 (huh?)
Kilometers covered: 4,8

RoF perspective

I don't understand you. I really don't. There's all this food spread out on the table, and you only take a miniscule amount? Mere crumbs? What's wrong with you?

You want lunch...you want lunch now...yes! Lunch! Order the 3-course lunch! And order beer! Do it now! Ooooh, that was so goooood!

Hey, didn't anyone ever tell you you're not supposed to walk so much after a meal?

Oooh, you don't know how much I love this city. Everything involves "the ring." Schottenring, Ringstraße, Opernring, etc. All in my honor! And all the wonderful food! tuxette ought to be more grateful!

Now feed me!

YES! Sachertorte! Rich, chocolatey goodness!

Now when are we going to have dinner?

LOOK AT THAT DUCK! A marvelous presentation! What marvelous flavor!

Now be a good penguinette and order dessert! Yes! What? You're sharing it again? That portion was too small! Order some more!

Robot Soccer in Wein

[DarthStrydre]

As luck would have it, I did not stumble onto your journal until today. Had I known before I would have given you the location of the nicest hotel I have ever stayed in (Hotel an der Wien). Sitting across the street from the absolute last Ubahn station West of the city, it was clean, with an excellent view of the treed hills, full breakfasts, and of course the nasty shelf toilets.

I was in the city representing the USA in the 2004 FIRA robotic soccer competition for a week. Sadly, it was the most hectic week

bummer

[tuxette]

I hope that you get to see more of the city and its sites next time. You can find plenty of tips in all of my trip journal entries ;-)