Everywhere you go, you always take the weather

For the last few weeks the weather here has been brilliant – not too hot but something comparable to an average summer day in England. On the morning of Thursday 12^th April my parents and grandmother came to visit me in Vienna. I don’t know how they did it, but they seemed to have brought the rainy weather with them! Knowing my way around the city, I walked them from sight to sight with little regard for their fatigue after their early start and long flight; after dropping off their luggage at the Nh Belvedere Hotel, I marched them down Kärntner Straße to Sephansdom and from here to the Hofburg Palace, the Parliament, and the Rathaus. At Rathausplatz there was a festival celebration with plenty of beer huts and people dressed in their finest lederhosen. On our journey back towards the hotel we passed Museumsquartier, and decided to take a detour along Mariahilfer Straße to find a restaurant. With more shops than eateries (which were chain restaurants), we took a small side street and settled for ‘Gelateria Frascati’, an Italian Restaurant (not just an ice cream store as you might expect from the name).

Rathausplatz

The weather the next day had improved, so we seized the opportunity to walk around the Belvedere Gardens before heading to the Schloß Schönbrunn and taking a tour around the palace. The tour concentrated on the lives of Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth (known as ‘Sisi’) of Austria. Of all the information taken in that day I remember most clearly two things; that Franz Joseph had some impressive mutton chops; and that Sisi suffered a tragic assassination by Italian anarchist Luigi Lucheni (with a three sided file).

Inside the Schloß Schönbrunn

Parents at the Schloß Schönbrunn gardens

That evening we went to an orchestra performance accompanied by opera singers and ballet at the Palais Auersperg. The orchestra played music by Mozart and Johann Strauss. After we went to the Zwölf Apostelkeller, a traditional Austrian restaurant.

The oval performance room in the Palais Auersperg

The following day the drizzle came back so we took a tour inside the Hofburg palace and saw some impressive, but rapidly very boring, collections of ornate gold, silver and porcelain tableware and furnishings. We saw more of the royal rooms and amusingly the audio guide made many references to the Emperor’s “frugal” lifestyle – by this it meant, an elaborately furnished room with paintings and all, but with a single bed in place of a double (the tour certainly wouldn't have made his subjects more comfortable about paying taxes). In the afternoon I had to depart to attend Şefkat’s birthday celebration at Centimeter Restaurant.


On Sunday we met up again in a café near Stephansplatz and I taught them Briscola with a pack of Italian cards specially brought back for me from Trento by Federico. With my parents and grandmother needing to catch a flight in the afternoon I said cheerio and went home (where I then cried for days on end…. honestly).