First Day in Vienna

On our first day in Vienna we met our guide, Herbert, in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral, where he told us about some of the history of the building. One of the interesting facts he told us of was how the cathedral was saved from intentional destruction during World War II, when German Captain Gerhard Klinkicht disregarded orders from the city commandment to destroy the church. Interesting enough he then proceeded to donate a substantial amount of his wealth to the church when he died years later. Herburt also told us of multiple stories that had developed over the years that tried to explain why one of the two towers of the cathedral is shorter than the other. I decided to include to write this one down because it was quite entertaining:

“Once there was a young mason who was in love with an older mason’s daughter and wanted to marry her. The older mason did not like the younger mason, so he challenged the younger mason to a race. If the younger mason could build his tower faster than the older mason, then he could marry the daughter. However, the older mason’s tower was already half-way built and these towers took up to 14 years to build! But the younger mason agreed and went to work. As time went on he realized his work was futile, and so he asked the devil to help him. The devil agreed but only on certain terms; as long as the younger mason did not mention any holy names during the construction of the tower he would be fine, but if he should accidentally say any holy name during the time of construction his soul would be sold forever to the devil. So the younger mason agreed because he was in love and construction began to go by faster. Things were looking good as his tower was gaining in height, until one day he saw his love walking as he was atop the tower. He tried to get her attention by shouting hello and waving, but she didn’t realize he was speaking to her. So to get her attention he shouted, “Maria!” And at that moment he realized that he had spoken a holy name; so he fell off the tower and into a giant hole in the ground which took him straight to hell. Apparently from this moment on everyone was scared to finish the shorter tower because it was cursed, so they put a cap on the top and called it good. THE END.”

We all had a pretty good laugh about it. Our guide then led us through some passageways which connect the various courtyards of the city. Apparently the rich people of Mozart’s time had no consideration for the common people, so they would drive their heavily loaded carriages and ride their horses through the main city streets at high speeds and trample anyone or anything that got in their way. So the common people came up with their own system of smaller passageways to get around and avoid being trampled. Through one of these passageways we came upon the stairs where Mozart was kicked down after the Archbishop of Salzburg fired him. We then were lead to the Café Frauenhuber where Mozart as well as other composers such as Beethoven performed and even premiered some of their works.

After our tour, Lyndi, Miranda and I found a trendy little restaurant called Freshii which offered a healthy selection of foods. Lyndi and I had quinoa bowls with veggies, feta cheese and kalamata olives. Mir ordered some kind of healthy burrito. We then visited the Viennese Hofburg and took some pictures of the beautiful baroque architecture and statues. After that we headed over to the Demel Khocolat Shop, a place that the tour guide had highly recommended for fine chocolates. What was especially neat about this shop was that it had a display window in which there were figurines of ballroom dancers made entirely out of chocolate.

Later that day we took a guided tour so we could explore the catacombs under the St. Stephen's cathedral. Here there are both a newer and an older part. The older crypts were refurbished with white walls so they didn’t seem eerie at all. The newer part, however, looks much older (and spookier!) In this part we were able to look into the actual ossuary caverns where bones and skulls are stacked high. I definitely jumped when I saw one of the skulls peering out from between the bones! It was quite an experience to see the burial place of 11,000 of the victims of the Bubonic plague. It reminded me of how precious and short our lives are and made me thankful for the medical advances we've made since 1735.

Overall we had a very nice tour and were able to visit some great historical sights near St. Stephen's cathedral. I can’t wait to see more of Vienna!