The West Revisited: Episode 2 The Half-day city tour and the concert

October 18th, 2019

We got up early in the morning, and went outside to catch a Tramcar. Viennese trams are extremely wheelchair friendly and it was as easy as a pie for us to board the tram. Once inside all we had to do was to purchase our ticket from the machine inside and we were all set to go. The tram took us to Vienna's city centre and after ascending from the underground tram stop via elevator, we found ourselves in the heart of the city close to the St. Stephen's Cathedral, the archdiocese of the city. It was very early in the morning under the dimly lit blue sky. Our next job was to find our tour bus and our tour guide who would be holding a placard signifying that they belonged to 7TRAVEL, the agency organizing the half-day city tour. The EU doesn't yet allow wheelchairs to be used on coaches and buses so we had to keep my wheelchair inside the coach's luggage rack. We had a very large group so were allotted the coach with a licensed guide, a chubby lady called Lydia.


The Horseman of the Albertina (start point)

The Tour started at 9 am from the Albertina museum and went along the Ringstrasse, the most important road of the city, with Lydia explaining on the mic . Among the sights we saw were the Cafe where the noted founder of psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud wrote his theory and the Parliament building which resembles the Parthenon, the famous Ancient Greek temple.

Our first stop was the Hundertwasserhaus designed by an artist called Friedensrich Hundertwasser, that being his pseudonym of course. Lydia, my dad and the rest of the group went off while I and my mom stayed behind in the coach. It was nothing more than a weirdly designed apartment so it was a good thing I did not get down.

The Weird Apartment by F. Hundertwasser

The next stop was the Belvedere, a palace complex which was built in 1697 for Habsburg general and prince Eugene of Savoy after his victories in the Long Turkish war. Construction began in 1712 on the Lower Belvedere and in 1717 on the upper Belvedere. It was here that the Turkish commander was humiliated by having a special tent made for him. Prince Eugene died in 1731 after which the estates were initially owned by his niece and was later acquired in 1752 by the reigning monarch at the time, Maria Theresa and in 1770, the wedding of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette of "Let Them Eat Cake" fame were celebrated here. In 1781, the first art gallery was inaugurated in Maria Theresa's last years. The gallery continued for another century until it was moved in 1888 during the reign of Emperor Franz Joseph I. It was during this time that Archduke Franz Ferdinand, whose assassination sparked World War I lived here. The Belvedere has been an art gallery ever since. For our tour, we only took a walk around the garden and stopped for toileting.

Upper Belvedere

We then headed for our next stop, the Schönbrunn Palace. The name comes from the German words for beautiful Spring. It was originally a castle around a monastic estate until it was purchased by Emperor Maximilian II in 1569. It received the name Schönbrunn during the time of Ferdinand II, the Holy Roman Emperor of the 30 years war. In the 18th Century, particularly in the time of Maria Theresa, the modern palace began to be built. Franz Joseph I, after his ascension to the throne in 1848, regarded the Schönbrunn as his favourite residence, living here throughout the Belle Epoque. It was he who gave the palace the yellow paint. It is now a museum managed by a government-owned company. As for our tour, this was our last stop. After giving us the tour of the ground floor, Lydia and the coach left and we were on our own. She had already purchased the museum tickets for the group. My parents and I explored the various rooms of the palace using audio guides which the listener had to hold as if making or receiving a phone call and the place was as barrier free as it could be. After the museum tour ended I wheeled around the garden and my parents took pictures. later, we had lunch at the Residenz Cafe which was attached to the palace, and had two famous traditional Austrian dishes the Apple Strudel and the Wiener Schnitzel whose names I had only heard in the lyrics of the famous musical number "My Favorite Things" from the classic film The Sound of Music.


Enjoying ourselves at the Schönbrunn -The Big Ben of Vienna

The Famous Apple Strudel and Wiener Schnitzel (With Potatoes and not with noodles)

Then we went home via Metro. The Metro in Vienna is as Barrier free as a metro should be. I could get in very easily as there were buttons to hold the door and people did hold the door for us. People could get in easily using walking two-wheel scooters. There were even spaces to keep not only wheelchairs but also bicycles and your ever so adorable dog or cat. The tour was over but we still had one more activity to engage in before our day would be over.

While returning from the palace, a man in a red shirt, cap and sunglasses approached us. He was a ticket agent, and he was selling tickets for a concert to be held at the orangery, a theatre built by Empress Maria Theresa. The concert was open to tourists. Our tickets were upgraded by the agent to ‘VIP’ which gave me a good viewing position. We returned to the palace in the evening to attend the concert. The programme consisted of two segments highlighting the popular tunes of two of Austria's greatest classical composers, Mozart and Johann Strauss Jr.. There would be a baritone and a soprano opera singer and a pair of ballet dancers. They would portray the same theme-love, for the concert was a proposal by a rich man to his girlfriend. After enjoying the concert we returned home by metro again and ended the day. The next episode will be on a tour to a beautiful town in Slovakia, so stay tuned and keep reading.