Wasser unto Wien (Friday September 7, 2007)

Global warming seems to have caused more periods of torrential rains & unrelenting drought. In our case, the rain started on Monday (late, in Eger) & has followed us ever since. Generally speaking, the rain has been less than torrential…usually just sprinkling & fairly light rain. However, the rain does serve to complicate sightseeing.

On this day, we opted to get up early to see the Schonbrunn Castle (a couple of blocks from our hotel). Rick Steves recommend going early or late, so we opted for early. We essentially were completely soaked by the time we got to the castle. The castle was very impressive (even though we saw only about 40 of 2300 rooms), but our hopes for touring the grounds were dashed by the wind and the rain. We opted to merely head back to our hotel & dry off.

Getting an early start helped, but as we both had our fill of the rain, we opted to rest a bit (neither of us slept very well the prior night). I eventually went out in search of a camera store (to get information about repairing or replacing my camera). Again, I got soaked & was a bit put off by the options in the nearby camera store (for replacement, as repair in any timely manner was out of the question).

After I once again dried off, we made our way to the central part of Vienna on the metro. This is a superb system, with trains running about 5 minutes from early until late. We emerged from the metro near the Opera House (a very historic landmark). We wandered around a bit & ended up having to resort to going to McDonalds to get some food (as every café we saw was very smoky & with our respective illnesses, just wouldn’t be able to stand it). We encountered the least competent McDonald’s employee in Austria (and strong candidate for the All-Europe honors). Despite that, we did manage to eat something along the lines of food & then set off to see the city. Charlie spotted the distinctive “M” of the Vienna Marriott. We had a lovely chat with their concierge, who gave us some good tips with respect to our visit & camera replacement.

Central Vienna is surrounded by a “ring” road (the replacement for the original city gates). We took the counterclockwise tram around the city & saw quite a lot of sights from the tram. We ultimately decide to get off the tram near the Museum area and walk around a bit (aiming for the recommended camera store on one of their biggest shopping streets). We wandered into a beautiful antiquarian bookshop & chatted with the owner. It’s about this time that we realized that the rain seemed to have let up. There was a huge police presence, even more so than Bratislava. They were to be holding a “street soccer” tournament in front of the local city hall, but that wouldn’t have seemed to require that level of security. Perhaps the Austrians are just careful? It was about 5pm & traffic seemed to come to a complete stand-still. Yet as we were walking around (and the rain had let up), it became a more pleasant time.

I finally found the recommended camera & electronics shop. It was a bit bigger than the Media Markt of the previous day, taking up an entire floor of a department store. I actually found a camera very similar to my “sick” camera at a relatively good price (especially considering it was eligible for a 20% VAT tax refund. Only one catch, this place didn’t take credit cards. So I had to schlep down five floors & find a working ATM. Ultimately, I was successful & got my new camera.

We then continued to wander around, finding that there were far more picture-taking opportunities without the rain. We chatted with a woman who owner in laundry company (and we would have used her, but the logistics of getting to her shop would have been difficult). After a simple dinner at their version of an “Applebee’s” (which had a nominal non-smoking area), we walked around the impressive building lit for night-time viewing. My new camera worked especially well & it got a good workout (through my taking literally a 100 nighttime photos). We ultimately made our way back to the hotel & called it a day. The let-up in the rain really made this a positive day.

One last thing: The let-up in the rain & traffic snarls? These were all a result of the Pope visiting Vienna (a very big deal!). We had no idea about this when we planned our trip (and no indications that hotels would be more difficult than usual). It’s weird that just about the time the rain let-up, he & his entourage drove by on the Ringstrasse (in a convey of a whole bunch of police & military). I know beautification can’t occur until after his death, but I do think we may have come up with the first documented Papal miracle.

And one more thing: September 7th is the 60^th anniversary of my parents’ wedding and the 44^th anniversary of my adoption. I’m glad they selected me…or did I select them?