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TRAVELS TO GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY
BY TRAINS, BUSES AND BOATS
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TRAVELS TO GERMANY, AUSTRIA AND HUNGARY
BY TRAINS, BUSES AND BOATS
|
At first 
I tried to make a travel plan to show my
wife round Germany, Austria and Hungary where I have been before on
business. In order to realize our
wishes as much as possible, I booked all hotels, buses, boats, concerts and
even the admission tickets for museums by myself through inter-net without
asking the travel agents. I bought
electronic air tickets at a low price from Lufthansa Japan branch and the
railway excursion tickets (Eurail Germany-Austria pass) from the agent in
Japan. 
German railway (DB) official site was very
useful for me to find our traveling routes. The DB site has been designed to search in details deeply or
in outline widely according to the visitor’s requirement. It was also possible to search the
Austrian National Railways routes at the DB site. As we wanted to travel freely not restricted by train routes
and leaving time, I hadn’t reserved the certain trains but just had looked up
several train routes and the time schedules beforehand. There are many selections in Eurail
Passes. You can choose the
countries to travel among 22 European countries and decide your traveling days
during 60 days from the initial using date. In our case, we chose the Eurail Germany-Austria Pass Saver,
effective for 5 days for 2 persons, First class. You cannot purchase the Eurail Pass in Europe because it is
only effective for visitors being lived outside Europe. Selection of hotels is essential for
traveling individually. My opinion
is that 5-stars hotel is not suitable for the individual travelers although it
is convenient for business. It is
enough for me to have a quiet room with bath or shower and a clean bed. I think that gorgeous restaurants, swimming
pool, fitness center, business center and so on are unnecessary. On the contrary, there is nothing but
such facilities just push up the hotel charges. We selected 4-stars class and comparatively small hotels on
the assumption that there will not be a large number of tourists. Websites of the hotels showing the
pictures inside the rooms and the history of the hotels are quite useful for us
to judge if it meets our whishes or not.
There were many hotels suitable for our requirements in Europe
especially in Germany and Austria we have visited this time. We were satisfied with the services of
all the hotels we have chosen with kind staffs and reasonable room charges. One of the troublesome of the individual
travel is to carry the baggage. We
tried to minimize our belongings.
I had a small soft carrier case and a backpack and my wife had only a
small hand carrier case possible to take to the cabin. Nevertheless, it was not so easy for an
old couple to carry them in the trains and on escalators. The platform of the railroad station in the
countryside of Europe is lower than that of large cities, so that we had to
climb up the ladder of the deck with the baggage. The gap between the train deck and the platform is wider
than the normal Japanese railroad station. As far as these points are concerned, Japan Rail (JR) is
better. The speed of escalators in
Germany and Austria is much faster than that of Japanese standard speed
although it is not as fast as those in Hungary. It seemed to be rather difficult for my wife to stand at
right hand side on escalators pulling the baggage cart with her left hand and
grasping the hand belt tightly with her right hand to keep the space for the
passer-by at the left hand side according to the regulation. The following is our travel diary from May
25 through June 4 in 2006. May 25 (Thu.) We left home at 6:45 in the morning and
took a train to Chubu International Airport (Centrair) that is the new Nagoya
International Airport. I think
this is one of the best airport in the world as far as convenience for
passengers concerned. We took Lufthansa LH737 for Frankfurt
leaving at 10:25. Although it was
filled to capacity, we could get 2 seats at the window side in a relaxed mood
as the seat arrangement of Airbus A330 economy class was 2 + 4 + 2. It is bitter for me to stop drinking during
a long flight under the low atmospheric pressure in the cabin to avoid side
effect of the blood vessel expansion medicine I am taking. We took water often and walked around
in the cabin turn and turn about to prevent from the economy class
syndrome. After about 12 hours of
flight, we arrived at Frankfurt airport at 15: 40 just on time. It was the same flight when I went to
Lindau in Germany (a beautiful city facing the lake Bodensee near the border of
Switzerland and Austria) on business about 2 months ago. We dropped in the DB (German railway)
office at the airport to validate our Eurail Pass (to have it entered our passport
numbers and stamped the initial date of use by DB) and took a train to
Wiesbaden Hbf. When I asked a
young lady nearby if the train stops at Mainz to make sure, she asked me back
if it is “Mainz Central station” which reminded me that there are several DB
stations such as Central, North, South and so on in a large city in
Germany. Arriving at Mainz Central station (Hauptbahnhof or Hbf in short) after
15 minutes, she made a sign with her smiling eyes and got off the train
together. The door of the train in Germany does not
open automatically not like those in Japan. Getting off the train, you will have to push a button for
opening door. In old type coach in
local line, you will have to pull the lever with all your strength first and
then push the door to open as the remote control push button is not
provided. When getting on, as the
door does not open automatically either if no one is getting off, you will have
to push a button near the door to open it. It might be safer than Japanese full automatic system and
will be able to save energy. We took a taxi to the hotel Mainz Hilton
International by the Rhine River.
Getting an area map at the hotel, we worked around the riverside. We found that the river port from which
we will start for a Rhine cruise tomorrow is very near from the hotel. Mainz is located at the junction of two
rivers, Rhine and Main, and there are many interesting places such as Dom,
Gutenberg Museum and so on but we had to give up an idea of visiting there
because they have already closed for the day. But it was on the assumption of the previously planned. May 26 (Fri.) Seeing the clouds threatening rain and the
flow of the river, we had the breakfast at the restaurant facing the
Rhine. We left the hotel at 8 o’clock
and checked in for the Rhine cruise at the ticket office of KD Rhine
(Koeln-Duesseldorf Rhein Steamship Co.).
Our Eurail Pass is available for this cruise too. At 8:45, our boat trip down the Rhine
started. The boat was almost filled to
capacity. They were German for the
most part. Fortunately, we could
get window side table. Drinking
beer, coffee and having a light meal while cruising, we enjoyed at the
ever-changing scenery through the window.
The boat went down on the right hand side of the river basically calling
at ports dotted on the right and left bank of the river. The Rhine rises from Switzerland,
flowing border of France and Germany and then drains into the North Sea at
Rotterdam in Holland. At the side
of the river, the distance from the city of upper stream, Basel in Switzerland
is indicated. Mainz is at 500 km
and the Lorelei is located between 554 and 555 km. We could see the beautiful scenery changing
rapidly from the window. There was
a boundless expanse of vineyard on the banks of the river, small villages were
dotted in the vineyard, old castles were on the hills and in the sandbanks of
the islands. It was raining hard
and windy on the deck. Two
railroads, the main line to Koeln via Bonn on the left bank and a local line on
the right bank run parallel to the Rhine.
In the main line, freight trains run frequently with as many as 100 cars
loaded with only Mercedes sedans or only petroleum tanks or only containers and
so on. It is imaginable that the
railroad is given considerable weight in the freight transportation in Germany
which makes a vivid contrast to the transportation system being indebted almost
90 % of the total domestic transportation to trucks in Japan. I remembered a fine day of the same
cruise in 1970, standing on the deck with a wine glass and waving to the
passengers on the boat passed each other. As we approached the Lorelei, the famous
music was played and everybody sang the song to the tune of the melody. “An
ancient legend of the Rhine” I
cannot divine what it meaneth, The
faint air cools in the gloaming, The
loveliest maiden is sitting She
combs with a comb that is golden, The
doomed in his drifting shallop, The
pitiless billwos engulf him!- Translation of
the German poem “Die Lorelei” by Heinrich Heine (1797-1856) into English by
Mark Twain The boat passed “The rock wall of the fairy”
in a moment. It is said that the
width of the Rhine at Lorelei is narrower than ordinal place and a fast
flowing, but I felt that the width of the river was not so narrow and the flow
speed was not so high. But it
might be only a surface impression for a Japanese who get used to seeing only
small rivers. Buoys are being put
in a line about 20 to 30 meters from each bank which might be warning for
sunken rocks near the banks. At 2:30 PM, we arrived at Koblenz on
schedule. People were taking cover
under the trees at the port waiting for the chartered bus. We intended to visit at Deutsches Eck,
the junction of two rivers, Father Rhine and Mother Mosel located near the port
but we cancelled it owing to the heavy rain. We asked a lady at KD ticket office to call a taxi and went
to Koblenz Hbf. Despite that it
was not a tourist office, the lady willingly helped us. The building of Koblenz Hbf (central
station) was built of stone and looked as historical building. At the platform of the station, we found
that many passengers with bicycles were getting into the coach marked with a
picture of bicycle. There is also
indicated in the train timetable as bicycle transportable. We got on the Intercity Limited Express
IC2115 for Heidelberg Hbf leaving Koblenz Hbf at 15:48 and arriving Heidelberg
Hbf at 17:34. The train returns to
Mainz in the opposite direction of the cruise. We took seats at left hand window side to see the
Rhine. Soon, Lorelei was seen and
passed in a second. The train made
a stop at Mainz Hbf and arrived at Heidelberg Hbf. I had once been to Heidelberg during 5 days
of my trip to Germany in July, 1970 when I lived in former Yugoslavia (Bosnia
Herzegovina). As a small
wall-hanging souvenir made from white birch decorated with a picture of Schloss
Heidelberg (Castle) and Karl-Theodor Bruecke (Bridge) over the Neckar (River)
that I bought at that time has been put on the wall of my house almost for 37
years, the landscape had been very popular with my family. We chose Hotel Hollaender Hof located
at the foot of the Karl-Theodor Bridge from which we could see a panoramic view
of the Neckar River and the bridge. It is said that the official name of the
Karl-Theodor Bruecke (Bridge) is the Alte Bruecke (Old Bridge). We were to have seen a stone statue of
Karl-Theodor who is the builder of the bridge at the second pier and the statue
of guardian deity of Heidelberg (Goddess of wisdom Athena who is a daughter of
Zeus) at the seventh pier from the left bank (old town side), but unfortunately
both of them were covered with a tarpaulin for repairing. The original bridge was built in 18
century, flooded several times, destroyed by German’s own army during World War
II and re-built the ninth bridge that is the existing one. May 27 (Sat.) One of our main items indicated in the list
of things to do today was stroll the famed Philosopher’s Road, a woodland
walking path traversing a hillside (opposite side of the old town side) across
the river. It is said that Goethe
and many philosophers, poets and musicians were took a walk and lost in
meditation at this road. We walked
from the Marktplatz to the west about 1200 meters through Haupt Street to
Bismarckplatz, and then we crossed the Theodor-Heuss Bruecke (Bridge) to the
north and took the sloping road up to the Philosopher’s Road. Passers-by were very kind to show us
the way to the Road. There was the
Philosophy Institute on the way. After the short walk, the weather was
getting better. There was a small
park provided with a bench and someone’s monument at the highest point of the
Road we thought. The trees parted,
revealing a breathtaking panorama as the entire town spread itself out like a
canvas for our appraisal. The dull
orange-colored castle, bridge and roofs of the old town were well harmonized
with the dark green-colored mountains and the Neckar River. “The town has been constructed in a
narrow land between the mountains and the river. At the foot of the mountain, a large castle being in ruins
partially is standing on the top of the gate.” Goethe described Heidelberg like this in 1797. Probably he wrote it the view from this
road during his walking. It is imaginable
that the castle had partially been in ruins at that time. We stared at the scenery for a rather long
time. The Road was lined on the mountainside with
many private flower gardens, each of them was surrounded by a fence with an
entrance door. An old couple of
the weekend gardeners showed us their garden and said “It is quite enjoyable to
take care of our garden viewing this panorama.” On the way back, we took the dark winding narrow pass so
called Schlangenweg down a series of stairs and a steep slopes to the
Karl-Theodor Bruecke (Bridge). Returning to the Marktplatz and looking
around for the cable car station for the Heidelberg Castle, we had got into the
road up to the Castle by walk. As
the Castle consists of many different style of buildings constructed in
different eras, some of them have been destroyed and some have been
reconstructed, its full structure was very complicated and it was difficult to
imagine the original view. In the
opposite direction from the Philosopher’s Road, the view from the Castle was
also wonderful. We returned to the Heidelberg Hbf (central station) at noon after picked up our baggage at the hotel. The building of the station was modern glazed architecture. The Intercity Limited Express IC2390 for Frankfurt leaving at 12:47 was not crowded. We occupied a compartment for 6 persons and relaxed to take away our tiredness, stretching out our legs and eating some snacks. The timetable of our train travel of the day was as follows; From Heidelberg Hbf at 12:47 to Frankfurt Main Hbf at 13:41 by IC2390 From Frankfurt Main Hbf at 14:18 to Wuerzburg Hbf at 15:29 by EC23 for Wien West From Wuerzburg Hbf at 15:41 to Steinach at 16:23 by RB34923 From Steinach at 16:36 to Rothenburg ob der Tauber at 16:50 by RB35271 We arrived at our destination Rothenburg at
16:50. The scenery seen from the
window of the local train after changing at Wuerzburg was peaceful and covered
with rape blossoms. We bought some water bottles at the
Rothenburg station and took a taxi to the hotel as we had already walked 7-8
kilometers in the morning and a little tired. The hotel was Romantik Hotel Markusturm located the center
of the castle wall near the Markusturm (Markus Tower). The interior of the hotel was decorated
with a part of the Middle Ages building as it is and historical furnishings
were on display. In the room, it
was clean and comfortable. We
could see the old rows of houses covered with plaster and reinforced with
wooden frame provided with a roof of oval sun-dried bricks. May 28 (Sun.)
Checking our bags in the cloakroom at the
hotel, we went to Marktplatz (Markt square). Medieval buildings and stone paved roads had been kept
intact. According to the DB
timetable, there are two or more same name of Rothenburg in Germany and we
found that the official name of this town is “Rothenburg ob der Tauber” which
means that Red town (or castle) standing on a high ground looking up from the
Tauber river. As far as the eye
can reach from the top of the town wall, roofs of all buildings were covered
with red tiles. We went to the outside of the town wall
through Burgtor (Burg gate) located at west of the town to see the Tauber
river. We enjoyed a fine view of
the Tauber river from the walking road running parallel to the river and walked
to near the Doppel bridge with an arch pier. From there, we went into the inside of the town wall again,
and then reached to a small square named Ploenlein. As our guidebook says that you can see a typical view of
Rothenburg from this area, we tried to walk through the narrow passage on the
wall. It was really nice. We walked the central street north ward
and returned to Marktplatz in front of the city hall. We wanted to visit St. Jakobs church but it had been closed
because of repairing. We returned
the hotel to pick our baggage up, and then walked to Schrannenplatz (Schrannen
square) to take a bus in the afternoon.
It was rather difficult work to pull the cart of our baggage on the
stone paved road. The Europe Bus covers Romantic Road in the distance
between Frankfurt and Muenchen in about 13 hours go up and down every day. Most of the passengers are
tourists. The bus stops at each
town along the road for around 10 to 30 minutes. We left Schrannenplatz in Rothenburg at 12:45 and arrived at
Hohenschwangau at 18:50. Our bus
stopped at Dinkelsbuehl, Noerdlingen, Augsburg and so on between them. Each of the towns seemed to have
special characteristics and its own culture. Although the stoppage time of the bus was very limited, it
was interesting for us to be able to have a glimpse of different towns. Leaving from every town, we saw the
fields of wheat and rape blossoms as far as the eye can reach. The bus stopped at just in front of our
hotel, Hotel Mueller in the village of Hohenschwangau around as scheduled. It started raining again. It was still light outside even at 8
PM. Schloss Neuschwanstein
(Neuschwanstein castle) was dimly visible through the window of the restaurant
of the hotel. We enjoyed a dish of
freshwater fish with white asparagus and white German wine. May 29 (Mon.) In the morning, we took a jam-packed bus to
the Marien Bruecke (Marien bridge) in a drizzle. The Neuschwanstein castle stands on a top of steep bluff in
a gorge. At the upper stream of
the gorge, there is the Schwangau fall and the Marien bridge is over the
fall. The original wooden bridge
was rebuilt into the present iron bridge during the construction period of the
castle. The Neuschwanstein castle
seen from the bridge was really beautiful and elegant. On the other side, the Marien bridge
and the Schwangau fall seen from one of the window of the castle was also quite
wonderful. We reached the castle
after about 20 minutes walk in the mountain with an umbrella from the bridge. We had to wait for a moment in front of the
main gate of the castle as a reservation was required to enter the castle. The lord of the castle was Ludwig II,
the king of Bayern. The interior of
the castle was provided with every luxury imaginable. At every corner in the castle, we found a lot of wall
paintings of motifs taken from operas (or music dramas) of Richard Wagner such
as “Tristan and Isolde”, “The Meistersinger of Nuernberg”, “Tannhaeuser”, “Parsifal”
and so on. I could imagine that he
was an ardent admirer of Richard Wagner.
However, Wagner died without seeing these wall paintings in the castle
one year before the castle ready to use. Ludwig II remained unmarried all his life
but he had a friendship with his cousin 8 years older than him, Queen Elisabeth
(Sisi as nickname) married into Hapsburg in Austria through his life. I felt that they might had common
points in their personality and peculiar circumstances, although I learned more
about Queen Elisabeth after visiting the Schloss Schoenbrunn (Schoenbrunn
palace) and Hofburg (the palace) in Vienna at the end of this trip. Such a new finding during the trip
arouses my interest in history. We could see the Schloss Hohenschwangau
(Hohenschwangau castle) where Ludwig II lived in his youth on the hill near our
hotel. The castle was under
repairing enclosed by scaffoldings.
In the afternoon, we checked out the hotel and took a taxi for the
railroad station of Fuessen from where our train trip begins again. Our first schedule was to go to Salzburg
through Garmisch-Partenkirchen and Innsbruck both of where Olympics took place
from here as I haven’t been to the Tyrol yet but we had to give up this idea
because of the limited length of time. We took a local train RE32611 leaving 13:06
from Fuessen and arrived at Muenchen at 15:07. According to the DB timetable, it takes about 10 minutes by
walk between the platforms of the local train and the international train in
Muenchen. We hurried to get the
International City limited express train EC69 to Vienna leaving at 15:26 pulling
our suitcases. We said good-bye to
Germany here. Although the train was rather crowded, we
could get the seats sitting face to face with a table between them. The seat arrangement of the train is 2
+ 1 for the first class and 2 + 2 for the second class. 2 + 3 for the Japanese express is out
of the question. Most of the first
class in this type of train provided with face to face seats with a large table
60 centimeters width. Businessmen
and businesswomen start working immediately after getting their seats opening
their PC on the table. Other
passengers don’t care what they are doing. A few compartment cars are coupled on to the train but many
seats are unoccupied. The
compartment car seems to be unpopular recently. We arrived at Salzburg at 16:54 just on time, which took
about one and a half hours from Muenchen. As far as the movement of people concerned,
the border is almost nothing in this area. On March this year, I went on a business trip to Lindau
(located at the peninsula in the lake Bodensee bordered by Switzerland and
Austria) in southern Germany to visit a company. The person in charge took us to an Austrian restaurant for
lunch. I realized that there is no
border any more and besides they use the same language. Although it might take much more time
for Asia to become the same condition like in Europe, I think the border is
unnecessary for mankind originally. We bought the Salzburg cards at Salzburg
Hbf (central station). The card
(24 Euro) can be used as free tickets for the most of museums and
transportation in the city. We
dropped in at the Austrian Railroad Office to reserve the limited express
tickets for Vienna on May 31. In Europe, all seats of both first and
second classes are basically non-reserved. The conductor puts a card indicating the seat number and the
reserved section on each seat as many as the number of seats reserved in
advance. Therefore, when you take
a seat without reservation, it is necessary to check if the seat is reserved or
not before taking a seat looking at the card carefree attached above the
window. If it is out of the
reserved section, the seat is regarded as non-reserved. You may get on a train without ticket as
there is no ticket gate but it is considered to be a free ride and you will
have to pay a large amount of penalty if the conductor requests you to show
your ticket. It is not allowed as
a rule to purchase a ticket in a train like in Japan. Although it is the system based on the confidence between
the railroad-company and passengers, a heavy penalty will be imposed on a
passenger acted in violation of the rule.
We also had to indicate the date in our excursion tickets (Eurail Pass)
by ourselves before getting on the train.
Even if we carelessly forget to indicate, it is considered to be a free
ride. The hotel was Markus Sittikus located in
the new city area about 500 meters from the central station. Although we planned to walk to the
hotel, we got a taxi as it was drizzling.
We found two pieces of wall paintings associated with Mozart in our
room. One was “Mozart family in
Paris” (Mozart is plying piano, his father Leopold is playing violin and his
sister Nannerl is singing.) and the other one was that I supposed a scene of an
aria of “The Queen of the Night” in “The Magic Flute”. We repeated sightseeing in the morning,
moving in the afternoon and staying one night at the hotel up to now. But we can stay 2 nights at the same
hotel from tonight. First of all,
we did washing the clothes filled in the suitcases. May 30 (Tue.)
This was my second visit to Salzburg since
October, 1968. It was drizzling
and a little cold in the morning.
We walked to the old city passing the road in front of the Palace
Mirabell and then crossing the Staats Bridge over the river Salzach. We dropped in the travel information
office to pick up the tickets for the concert tonight, which we have reserved
from Japan through inter-net. In
front of the Mozart statue, I showed my gratitude by praying for giving me a lot
of beautiful music and took some pictures. After visiting the Residenz (the castle of successive
archbishop), we climbed up to the Hohensalzburg fortress. There were few people at the terrace of
the fortress because of the bad weather.
We could see the Kapuziner monastery at the foot of the mountain in the
opposite bank of the river Salzach curved to the north and the Palace Mirabell
at the left hand side of the mountain.
At this side of the river, we could take an extensive view of the Dom
with blue-green roof, the Residenz with black roof and the steeple of the
church in the old city at the foot of the mountain range of Moenchsberg. As it was very cold with strong wind,
we rushed through the sights of the Hohensalzburg fortress and came down the fortress,
and then we visited to the house where Mozart was born. As it is 250 anniversary of Mozart birth,
the Austrian national flag hung on the wall of the 5 storey apartment house
with a garret was fluttering in the strong wind. I found that there are the same 5 storey apartment houses
with a garret in both neighbors.
Mozart’s parents were being lived on the 4th floor (3rd floor in Europe)
of this apartment house since 1747 and our Mozart was born in January 27,
1756. In the center of the
bedroom, there was a cage in which a doll of the baby Mozart was sleeping. A lot of mementos of Mozart such as his
favorite hammerklavier, his hairs, his family’s portraits, his handwriting
musics, letters and many other daily necessities were displayed. But I prefer the simple display of 38
years ago without imitated baby.
The old man may always like good old days. Nevertheless, I realized the same impression I had 38 years
ago at the stairs made of stone from the entrance to the 4th floor, each step
of which had been worn out during 250 years. The behavior of one of the tourist group came from an Asian country who
were screaming in a loud voice and taking pictures everywhere against the
restraint of the keepers of the memorial hall was really exasperating. We walked through the narrow street with
about 3 meters width named Getreidegasse (Getreide street) filled with
fascinating shops where Mozart birth house is located, and then we crossed the Staats bridge
to the new city to visit the Mozarts Wohnhaus in front of the Makart
square. Mozart family lived in the
birth house at Getreidegasse till 1773 when Mozart was 17 years old. They moved to this house as children
grew up and the house became smaller for the family. They lived in the new house till 1787 for 14 years. The house was bombed and destroyed in 1944. It was rebuilt after the World War II
as a museum and then again restored in 1996 as what it used to be a house
Mozart was being lived. Although
there are many instruments and a lot of valuable materials displayed as museum,
the building itself no longer has anything to be reminded me of the old days as
the birth house. We returned to the hotel once after
visiting the Mirabellgarten (Mirabell Garden) annexed to the Palace
Mirabell. First, we thought that
we can see inside of the Palace and asked several people coming and going, and
we found finally that the inside of the Palace is not displayed as it used to
be but it used for city offices, library, wedding ceremony hall and concert
hall nowadays. We returned to the Palace Mirabell for
concert after having a quick dinner and changing our clothes. The program consisted of Johann
Sebastian Bach, Mozart and Franz Schubert and the players were 5 members of
Salzburger Solisden consisting of a male violin, 2 female violins, each female
viola and cello. The elderly male
violinist was worth listening. He
seemed to be the leader of other 4 younger players. 3 of them are supposed to be Russian from their names and 2
of them seemed to be twins looking very much alike not only in features but
also in gestures. We had a good
impression on their performance.
The hotel was Markus Sittikus, the same as last night. May 31 (Wed.) As a patch of blue sky was visible between
the clouds, we walked from the hotel to Salzburg Hbf (central station) for
about 10 minutes. We took a
limited express train of Austrian National Railway, OEC561 leaving Salzburg Hbf
(central station) at 09:34 and arrived at the Vienna West station at 12:35
which took us about 3 hours. We
bought the Vienna Card (16.9 Euro) with which you can take all transportations
you want without paying in the city, and dropped in the tourist information
office to get a city map and a museum guidebook. For time saving, we took a subway to the
Palace Schoenbrunn directly. We
changed a train once and arrived at Schoenbrunn station. The subway runs on the ground in the
suburbs. We could realize the size
of the Palace as we had to pull our suitcases for about 10 minutes on the stone
paved road from the subway station to the Palace entrance. We had not worry about our suitcases as
we had asked the Palace the location of the cloakroom beforehand by
e-mail. We were admitted to enter
earlier than the time reserved from Japan because the Palace was not so crowded
as we expected. The Palace Schoenbrunn of Habsburg
corresponds to the Palace Versailles of Bourbon. The name of Schoenbrunn (beautiful spring) seems to be
brought about a fountain from which clear water was welling out in this area in
17th century. The Palace
Schoenbrunn is similar in construction and style to the Palace Versailles in
some respects but I prefer Schoenbrunn of simple beauty. As we visited 40 rooms in 2 hours or
so, it was necessary for us to review our memory looking at the pictures before
faded with the passage of time. In many of European palaces, there is no
corridor but each room is provided with two doors to be connected to the next
rooms both sides directly. In
order to visit a certain room, you have to pass through other rooms. Take Schoenbrunn for instance, the room
No.4 is the office of Emperor Franz Joseph I, No.5 is his bed room, No.6 is a
small room, No.7 is a small room for a staircase, No.8 is a make up room, No.9
is the bed room of Emperor Franz Joseph I and Empress Elisabeth, No.10 is a
salon of Empress Elisabeth, No.11 is the room of Marie Antoinette, No.12 is the
children’s room and No.13 is the dinning room for breakfast. The Emperor had to pass through 7 rooms
to go for breakfast after he gets up and washes his face. It must be stressful for him and also
for others in the rooms passed by him. It is said that the 1440 rooms in total are
being used for museums and public offices now. Once I have watched TV program in Japan that some citizens
of Vienna are living in some of the rooms in the Palace. They have to put up with inconveniences
for some respects but I thought that they must be very lucky. In the vast garden, there are many
fountains appropriate for the name of Palace. We were interested in many places in the garden such as “Ruins
of Roma” but we had to give up our desire to look all over the garden this time
and just took its extensive view from the terrace of the Palace. I thought that it is necessary to stay
at least one week to visit such a place. This was the second time for me to visit
the Palace Schoenbrunn, which widened my knowledge and made my impression on
European history much deeper than before.
When I dropped in Vienna on the way to Istanbul for a business trip, our
plane circled over the Palace Schoenbrunn several times flying at a low altitude
waiting for landing at Vienna airport, which gave me an enjoyable time for
viewing a splendid view of the Palace from a height of several hundred
meters. I believe that it might be
a special service by Austrian Airline. As we had little time to the evening, we
took a subway again and got off at Stadtpark (City park) station, then we
walked about several hundred meters to the hotel. The sidewalk in Vienna is divided into the people’s walkway
lined with trees and the paved road for bicycles. We could walk in a relaxed mood without worrying about the
reckless cyclists like in Japan. Our hotel, Am Schubertring was located near
Schubertring station of the streetcar (tram). It was a cozy little hotel with small number of neat
rooms. Although it was not easy to
choose a hotel suitable for our taste from countless middle class hotels in a
large city like Vienna through inter-net, we found that our selection was
correct, judging from the evaluation of the guidebook and the pictures in the
home page of the hotel. We were
very lucky that we have not been disappointed with the hotel selection in this
time of the trip. June 1(Thu.)
In the morning, we walked through the city
park visiting the musician’s statues.
At first, we visited Beethoven standing nearby the hotel, then Johann
Strauss, Bruckner, Schubert and so on along the Vienna River. We, my wife and me took pictures
together with the statues by turns.
This was my 5th visit to Vienna since 1968 but this was the first visit
to the city park. I prayed to each
statue of musicians in my mind for making my life delightful. We returned to Schubertring and took a
streetcar, which takes us to any place in the city where we want to go by
clockwise and counterclockwise. “I
think I can live in this city even alone.” my wife said. We got off the streetcar in front of
the Vienna University to visit Beethoven’s house. Just then, a man, apparently a criminal had been arrested
and squeezed into the patrol car by two policemen, a policeman and a
policewoman in front of the streetcar stop. He might be a pickpocket or a snatcher. We have got a feeling that there is a
backstage even in the elegant city. Looking at the layout put up on a board in
front of the Vienna University, I thought we should inform the children in
Japan that there is such a long-established traditional university in the
world. We crossed the railroad of
the streetcar and dropped in the Pasqualatihaus located inside of the
ring. I am an ardent admirer of
Beethoven. He lived in Vienna for
35 years, 8 years of which he lived on the 4th floor of this apartment house
and composed symphonies No.4, 5, 7, 8 and opera “Fidelio”. Crossing the street again, we walked in the
park in front of the city hall and entered into the building like the Temple of
Apollo. First we thought it must
be a museum but we found it the Capitol (the Houses of Parliament). There was neither fence nor guard at
all. There were many young people
and tourists gathered around the marble statue of the Goddess of Athens with a friendly
atmosphere which seems to be symbolized the freedom of this country. Moving south along the ring, we came to the
Maria Theresia square. At the both
sides of the statue of the Maria Theresia, there are the Naturhistorisches
Museum (Museum of Natural History) in one side and the Kunsthistorisches Museum
(Museum of Art History) in the other side. We can see that these buildings and the park are arranged
ideally around the Hofburg (Imperial Palace). We enjoyed seeing many popular paintings in the Museum of
Art History. I felt a strong
excitement standing in front of my favorite genuine painting like meeting an
old friend. My favorites in this
museum are “The Hunters in the Snow” by Brueghel, “The Venezian young lady” by
Duerer, “Madonna in Green” by Raphael, “The Tower of Babel” by Brueghel and so
on. We dropped in a cafe (coffeehouse) in the
patisserie patronized by the Habsburg at the time and went to the Hofburg. There is the Hero’s Square after
passing through the gate strait down to the northeast from the statue of the
Maria Theresia. Looking at the New
Imperial Palace on the right hand side, we moved to the courtyard of the
Hofburg. As it is an aggregate of
the buildings reconstructed and enlarged repeatedly during 650 years of rule by
Habsburg, inside is intricate like a labyrinth and each block is named like “Reichskanzlertrakt”,
“Amalienburg”, Schweizerhof”, “Leopoldinischer Trakt” and so on. Adjacent to the Hofburg, there are the
Spaniche Reitschule (Spanish horseback riding school) that is televised in the
new year concert of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prunksaal National
Library that is often referred to as the most beautiful library in the world,
and the Augstinerkirche (Augstiner Church) in which the royal family’s wedding
ceremonies were performed. It is
interesting that we can see the transition of the buildings for several
hundreds years. As it was not possible to visit all
buildings of the Hofburg in a short period of time, we visited the “Sisi” Museum (a museum devoted to
Empress Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie of Austria) and the silver tableware
collection. In the “Sisi” Museum,
we were quite interested in the different personality of the Emperor Franz
Joseph who lived a sinple and conservative life while the Empress Elisabeth
(Sisi) who lived a free and uninhibited live in the exact opprosite of her
husband. There were an equipment
for shape-up exercize used by “Sisi” and the dressing room in which “Sisi”
stayed a long time to make herself up especially for her hair. Incidentally, “Sisi” was born in
Munich, Bavaria in 1837. She is 101 years older than me. When she was 16 years old, she was married with Franz
Joseph, then Emperor of Austria. She was 173 centimeters in height, 48
kilograms in weight and 50 centimeters waist. She had difficulty adapting to the strict etiquette
practiced at the Habsburg and spent a long time for traveling to smooth over
her hurt feelings. She had always sympathized with the Hungary and
cooperated in the independence movement of Hungary. During a traveling, she was assassinated by a terrorist at
the lakeside of the Lake Leman in Switzerland in 1898. On the return way, we came out of the main
gate of the Hofburg that faces the Michael Square. We found that we came in the opposite direction. Passing through the Kohlmarkt Street,
we came to the Graben Street and went forward Stephansdom passing by the Pest
monument. Although a middle part of the Steffel
(Stephansdom) were being repaired, its elegance and beauty hadn’t changed a bit
since I saw last. We made a round
of the church and listen to the explanation of its history on an earphone. From there, we went south on the
Kaerntner Strasse, the main street of Vienna filled with famous luxury shops
where vehicles are shut out, and reached at the Staatsoper (National
operahouse). I remember that I saw
an opera “Der Rosenkavalier” (The Knight of the Rose) by Richard Strauss when I visited in Vienna first in 1968. I would like to live in Vienna at least for
a half year. The hotel tonight is
Am Schubertring, the same as the hotel last night. We will go down to Budapest by boat tomorrow. June 2 (Fri.)
We took a taxi to the Reichsbruecke pier of
Vienna to take the hydrofoil for Budapest via the Danube River. This pier is not an open-air port like
the Rhine River but an international port provided with a large building for
the customs. The most of the
passengers were Hungarian and the familiar sound of Hungarian language was
pleasant to my ears although I cannot understand it.
June 4 (Sun.) In Budapest for two nights, we stayed at
Hotel Hilton with 5-stars located in Var (Royal Palace hill) although it was
against my rule for selecting the hotels because it was familiar with me as I
used to stay many times before and there are many sightseeing spots near the
hotel. We had also expected to
enjoy the wonderful panoramic view in day and night from the room faces the
river. However, the rare night
view was hazy in the rain. |
Please glance over the photo album of this travel as well.
Please glance over the photo album of this travel as well.
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