August 27, 2013
Reykjavik, Iceland to Prestwick, England (735 NM)
Prestwick, England to Vienna, Austria (900 NM)
Today is the last lag for the Atlantic crossing. Hurray! No more survival suit after England. Marlene and Randall will get off at Prestwick and have a short tour to London before they take a commercial flight back to California. Bye, Marlene and Randall. It has been fun to travel with you. You two are good sports. We will miss you.
Three and half hours to Prestwick and another 4 hours to get to Vienna. We lose 2 hours by time difference too. We arrived Vienna at 6:00 pm. Checked into the Imperial Hotel. This historical hotel is just next to St. Charles church.
Vienna is rated number 2 in the world as most livable city. The marks of Austro-Hungarian Empire's glorious history are amongst modern buildings and clean treelined streets. With population of only 1.5 million, to me, Vienna is like an elegant lady, always has time for afternoon tea. But, I guess everyone has a Vienna in his/her heart, be it Mozart's favorite city, the Blue Donau's muse.....
August 28, 2013
Take a off day today to recoup. Update blog, learn to use Blogsy, and recharge everything. Being the music capital of the world, there is always a performance somewhere in town all year round. Tonight, we see a performance of most popular Mozart pieces at the Opera House. Pass time the Viennanian way.
August 29, 2013
Half day tour. Bernard, our tour guide, curates the city for us. A visit to Schonbrunn Palace gave us glimpse of the home of the Hufberg monarchy. Also saw the center character of the sensational focus, Empress Kaiserine Elizabeth, " Miss Sisi" (1837 - 1898). A true beauty in deed. She never allows her waist to be more the 16 inches. Movies, TV series repeatedly adapt her story in Europe. I have to check it out in YouTube.
Stopped at a few landmark "Hundertwasser" buildings. Friedrich Husertwasser (1928-2000) an artist first, then the architect. He build buildings around the world but mostly in Vienna as he was born there.
His building is mind boggling in its irregularity about everything. He wrote " What we urgently need are barriers of beauty; these barriers of beauty consist of uncontrolled irregularities. Paradises can only be made with our own hands, with our own creativity in harmony with the free creativity of nature."
What is inspiring to me is that he has a believe, and he lives his life everyday to work on his believe. He paint, he designs, he build walls, he writes..... He just live his life fully with no reservation and enriched this world with his creativity.
Time to sit down and have a real Vienna coffee. At the famous Cafe Central.
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Love your take on Vienna Renee! I was there almost 30 years ago, backpacking with Stan, and your photos brought back memories. Vienna has the best pastries.
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