DAY 28 - Vienna II

Tuesday, 17 May 2005

Lipizzaner Museum
We stop by the Lipizzaner Museum to get tickets for the world-famous Lipizzaner horse's morning routine...only, for some unknown reason, they are not performing today. :(  So, we settle for the museum and get a good glimpse into of the life the horse and horsemen. BTW, the Lipizzaner is named after the town of Lipica, a town in western Slovenia on the border with Italy.

Hofburg Palace/Schloss Hofburg
In the palace gardens, we come across the Mozart Memorial with a neat set of flowers planted to resemble a large treble clef. Though the palace exterior is not extrordinary, the interior really shines. First up is the silverware, and this is the best set we've seen on our entire tour. Gold plates, cups, tableware – even giant golden candelabras! The rooms are also well-kept
and nicely furnished as if the royals were still living there. Of all the palaces and castles we've been thru, the two Vienna palaces were the best kept. Once done, we pack the car and head for the Czech Republic on a local highway.

Wolfgang Mozart Memorial
A tribute to Austria's beloved son and most famous musician...
Czech Republic/Ceska Republika
As we cross the border, the Austrian customs guy looks at our passport and groans "Americains" in disgust. The Czech customs were pleasant and indicated that we needed a highway sticker for the car. This was the third sticker on the windshield, which is basically a hefty highway charge (~30 Euros) for Switzerland, Austria and the Czech Republic. Made some change from Euros to Czech korunas, and we headed into the country. While coming into the first town, we casually notice a woman standing by the end of a driveway. Nothing comes of it until we notice a second woman in a second driveway. Then Locke puts it together – these are hookers for European tourists/truck drivers coming into the Czech Republic! The third driveway has two of them – yikes! Then the billboards have softcore porn picture shots of places to stop by. Though this is just a local highway, it is also the main route from Vienna to Prague.

Countryside
Once we get past this first city the countryside opens up around us. Simply amazing is all I can say. Gently rolling hills with patches of green and blooming mustard scattered in between. One of the most beautiful landscapes I've seen in all of Europe.

Endless Fields of Mustard
During our entire trip fields of mustard are in bloom since it is spring. Every sizeable country had them – Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, Great Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Austria and Czech Republic. So I finally find a good field and take my landscape photo of this lush scenery.

-- Al