Auf Wiedersehen Vienna

Today is our final full day in Vienna, as we leave early tomorrow morning by train for Ljubljana, the capitol of Slovenia. Because of this, we decided to cram as much into today as possible, beginning with the Vienna Zoo. The zoo at Vienna is the oldest in the world, having been here for over three centuries. We arrived pretty early and it was bitterly cold, no rain today, just still and cold. In fact, it was so cold that even many of the animals decided to stay indoors. It wasn’t until quite late into the morning before the animals came to life. 

This is the winter palace of the Habsburgs, known as the Schonbrunn Palace. The palace has extensive gardens and it's own zoo, the Vienna Zoo

The Schonbrunn Palace

A fully enclosed exhibition of palms within the palace gardens

More of the palace's lovely gardens

Our favourites were the polar bear, who looked so incredibly cuddly swimming less than a few feet from the protective glass; the elephants, in particular a young one who showed no manners in gobbling up more than his fair share of carrots; and, without doubt our favourite of them all, the orang-utans. These incredibly lovely animals sat right up against the glass which separated them from the human animals on the other side, and put their hands to the hands of the visitors. It was a very special moment, and I just could not drag myself away from them. It was a lovely zoo, but the inclement weather meant we couldn’t enjoy it as much as we’d like to. In any event, it paled in comparison to Toronga Zoo in Sydney, with its incomparable views of the harbour.

This adorable orangutans were so close only a few millimeters of glass separated us

This little fellow kept putting his hand to the glass in an effort to make contact with his very close relatives

This is an authentic Austrian barn in the zoo. It had some alpine sheep housed in the lower level, which I attempted to pat. Unfortunately, they wanted no part of it (bloody aloof Austrian sheep)

This afternoon we are planning to ride the giant ferris wheel, a must-do in Vienna; visit Demel’s cakes and pastry shop, world famous for its creations, which have fed many an Archduke over the centuries; and walk through the gardens of the Belvedere Palace, which is only a short walk from where we are staying at Rennweg.

Demel's famous cake shop - at 5 euro a slice, a piece of heaven you can afford

This is the magnificent Belvedere Palace, which now serves as an art gallery and museum

It’s quite remarkable, but after only a few days here we are negotiating the subways and the tram network like we’ve lived here for years. The public transport is excellent, and there’re very few places you can’t reach by either tram or train. Yesterday we strolled through the famous Nasch-Markt, which is a bit like Melbourne’s Queen Victoria market on steroids. The range of foods for sale is staggering, and they all looked totally delectable. We’ve noticed on our travels that food outside Australia seems to have a much greater cultural significance than it does back home. Perhaps we’re too young a nation or perhaps we don’t have a unique cuisine, or maybe a lack of food variety reflects our geographic isolation. Whatever the reason, we have nowhere near the variety of food readily available in Australia as we see in our travels.

The Nasch-Markt has almost every type of food you could imagine

The streets of Vienna are beautiful

St. Stephens church, right in the heart of Vienna (our first glimpse of sun)

The thought of leaving Vienna does make us sad. Even though the weather is very ordinary, the city itself is anything but. I do think Vienna is a city we could easily live in for a year or so. If the city itself is easy to fall in love with, the Viennese people are not so easy. They are helpful enough, but there is a coldness, a reservation about them which makes any meaningful interaction almost impossible. I had heard this about the Austrians and the Germans, and I think there might be an element of truth to the stereotype. Nonetheless, we will be sorry to leave tomorrow, although we return to Austria via Innsbruck and Salzburg in a few days. We are really looking forward to this part of Austria, but being right at the base of the Alps, we’re preparing ourselves for some sub-Antarctic temperatures; so glad we purchased those beanies. 

Vienna's skyline from the Giant Ferris Wheel