BUT FIRST…VIENNA

 

It started the moment I left Vienna Airport and it didn’t leave me until I returned to the airport. It was all over the city that inspired Johann Strauss and Beethoven, both indoors and out. It was an indefinable aroma, part floral, part confectionary in essence and all transporting to a time of gilded elegance. This was too strong to ignore and so I had to Google for the answer, which was that in Vienna history lives.

Centuries of royal balls, masquerade parties and events at the courts of dukes and their families have left their mark on the city. The perfumes, powders and scents of palace kitchens which clouded these gatherings have become a fixture in the very walls of the old city, making their presence known in the warmer months, transporting visitors to an age gone by.

Vienna is in all immediate appearance a city as elegant today as it was when the waltzes of Strauss were introduced. She is so unfailing true to her reputation, so little does she stray from her collective cultural depiction, as a city of palaces and artists that expectations cannot help but be met.

Her heart is, after all, the Hofburg, the former imperial palace dating back to the 13th century that today not only houses the office of the President of Austria but also enshrines the nation’s history, culture and epicenter. In this respect it is much like the Smithsonian is to Washington, but archives and artifacts naturally going back centuries farther.

                                                          
                                                                     The Hofburg

But this was not where I started my day after taking a shuttle from the airport to the historic center of the city. My first stop was a café on Wallnerstrabe  called Verde which, if anything, enhanced the aroma of the city tenfold. It is a traditional café basked in the opulence of Vienna, its pancake and French toast offerings themselves are literally covered in richness. They come in two coatings, vanilla or pistachio. Both come covered in currants and berries, both are culinary masterworks.



                                        Vanilla                                                      Pistachio
Making my way toward the Hofburg I found the first stagnant crowd around St. Stephen’s Cathedral where the narrow streets began to expand into a lively center of shops and plazas.


                                                             St. Stephen's Cathedral

Like the Smithsonian, a closer-counterpart to which I have never seen, the Hofburg is composed of multiple museums, each tied to a different area of interest as well as the Austrian National Library, a stunning atheneum of manuscripts, maps, folios and books cataloging the history of Austria.


                                                             Entering the Hofburg


                                                 The breathtaking ceiling over the library.



                                                     The Austrian National Library's vast collection.

                  Austrian National Library

The Hofburg is part traditional museum, featuring works of art and its comprehensive collection of artifacts and books and part garden where the iconic horse carriages take visitors through its lush pathways.

I spent the majority of my day in Vienna at the Hofburg, particularly at the library, before crossing the Vienna Ring Road to the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien, one of the largest art museums in the world. It's collection spans the prehistory of Austria to the contemporary era. 



                                                 


                                                                 Artifacts on display

After dinner I stopped at a small bakery for croissants to take with me on my ride back to the airport and for my next flight to Yerevan where I would continue my research into the fall of the Ottoman Empire and the brutalities it bestowed up until its collapse after World War I. Fittingly I started my journey in Austria a nation that, if not the starting point of the war as often credited, was certainly one of its most powerful players. Throughout two world wars and centuries of battle, its beauty and elegance have never dimmed. The opulence is literally felt in the air.

                                                
 Outside of the Hofburg is an archeological wonder showcasing three eras of Austrian hsitory.

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