Vienna Part 1

Firstly I have belatedly responded to all of you who have left messages. I did them under various blog entries you wrote on. Hope you can find them. So lovely to get little messages. Thank you!!

I am writing this on our coldest day yet. The day has been fine and the sun was out this afternoon, however the wind was so icy cold that it made our faces ache and our noses run. It has been interesting getting out in the European winter. Our really warm coats, boots, hats, scarves and gloves keep us very warm and we haven't felt the need to be indoors lots, however that wind today targeted our only uncovered place and  it was biting. Far colder than our snowy days. I would say it was coming straight off the mountains if Vienna didn't have such a flat topography!! Anyway....Vienna is an amazing city.It is situated within enormous parks and open green spaces ( although not too green at this time of year). 51% of Vienna consists of gardens and parks! 
We experienced the vastness of their park like areas and some of their amazing gardens at Schonbrunn Palace. This summer hunting lodge, read extravagant palace, of the Habsburgs dynasty shows how the other half live. Room after room, 1441 in fact, of guilded magnificence and opulence. If built to the original plans it would have had 2300 rooms and rivalled Versailles. We also visited Hofburg Palace, the Winter residence of the the Habsburgs, . The vast rooms of tableware, cutlery , linen and ornate table centrepieces as well as the tragic story of Empress Elisabeth, better known as Sisi, was fascinating and made me realise yet again how wealth and happiness are not often partners. 
Speaking of where people reside, we are experiencing inner city living in Vienna at the other size end of the accommodation scale to those palaces. Our Viennese home is an über cool  loft apartment that is small ( read VERY small- probably the size of our kitchen / family area or the Habsburgs card playing room). Within the one room  we have 5 beds, a chair and a dining table with 5 chairs, a small kitchen, and then a  bathroom, separate toilet and a large walk-in storage cupboard. While not in the same league as our friends the Habsburgs it is very adequate!  We are also enjoying the close proximity to all that Vienna has to offer. We are 20 metres from the underground entrance which enables us to get on one of six underground routes and pop up anywhere we want in Vienna, meerkat style! 
Another thing that Vienna is famous for are its cafes or 'coffee houses' as they are better known. There are apparently 2141 of them! Today we visited Demels which first made their famous chocolate cakes and coffee in 1786. We only looked and the kids bought some chocolate for their mates. The bags they use are a work of art in themselves. We also bought a very small chocolate cake that comes in a wooden box and amazing wrappingto celebrate New Year! We did however queue up to have coffee and cake at the renown Cafe Central. This coffee house with its vaulted ceilings and baroque architecture is where other famous people like Beethoven, Trotsky and Freud drank coffee and no doubt debated and argued and set the world to rights, although obviously not with each other! Part of the joy in this trip is to be where others who have left their mark on our world have been before us. 
Now that we are staying in apartments rather than hotels we have missed the Internet - our portal to the rest of the world so cafes also give us free internet. Of course Cafe Central was a more expensive place than our usual coffee, hot chocolate and internet haunt -McDonalds. 
Vienna, like all other European cities also has its fair share of churches. We are beginning to be 'churched' out. However we did enjoy our exploration of St Stephansdom, a key focal point in the city. We enjoyed the magnificence and rich symbolism of the architectural features. We also ventured up the 343 steps of the 129 metre south tower. The steps only getting us 67 meters up. We took the lift up the north tower! Both of these towers gave magnificent panoramic views of Vienna, although we all agreed Salzburg had a more appealing vista perhaps due to being nestled into hills and being a much more compact city. The final part of the church visit was to the catacombs deep beneath the church. There we saw bones lying in the dirt, some still with the last remains of flesh on! We also saw in other rooms bones stacked neatly. Due to the thousands of bodies, as a result of a plague in the 18th century, there was a big shortage of space so the prisoners had to take the bodies out of the coffins, remove any remaining flesh from the bones, wash the bones and then stack them to make space for newcomers! Also in the catacombs are the coffins of archbishops and cardinals. Parts of the Habsburgs are there also. I say parts because three churches wanted to say that the Habsburgs last resting place was in their church. So in the St Stephansdom catacombs their organs are there, preserved in alcohol within containers,  while another church in the city has their hearts and another the remaining body parts. Maybe that's what they mean by Rest in Piece (s)!!!Anyway despite the gruesomeness it was fascinating at the same time. 
Tomorrow is New Year's Eve and Vienna is renown for its big street parties and concerts where 75,000 or more people hit the streets to bring in the new year. This year there will be 75,005! We will report on this adventure in our next blog. JT