A day in Vienna

We started the day by going online to book a visit to Schönbrunn Palace, which is right next to our hotel. We originally thought we'd go there first thing, but the early times were all taken, so we decided to make that our last stop and bought tickets for the 4:30 entry.

That meant we would go to the old city first, so we decided to head over there for breakfast. Our first stop was the Citi Bike stand near the train station, where we picked up two of the bike-share bikes. The system here is very user-friendly, and the first hour with a bike is free. You can't beat that!

Most of our ride to the old city was on bike lanes, and the other roads were not busy, so it was a good trip. We did take a few wrong turns, but since we were not worried about the time, we didn't care.

We dropped off the bikes at a station on a pedestrian street and looked for a place to eat breakfast. Our air miles hotel was very nice, but breakfast was €30 per person -- a bit more than we wanted to pay! 

We found a cafe offering a breakfast platter for €8 -- this included coffee, freshly squeezed orange juice, bread rolls, jam, yogurt, ham and cheese. 

After breakfast, we went on to explore the city. 

There are two of these domed buildings facing each other in a huge square in the Museumsquartier -- one is an art museum, and the other is the natural history museum. In the centre of the square is a huge monument to Empress Maria Theresa.

This is the Austrian Parliament Building, which was being refurbished.

And the Rathaus (city hall) -- the two photos below.

The building is so big that it is hard to get a photo of the whole thing, so I snagged this one from a tourism website.

The domed building below is the Hofberg palace, another amazing structure:

The Hofberg -- the Imperial Palace

The church below reminded us a little of the Sagrada familia cathedral in Barcelona. It is called the Votive Church and apparently was built to thank God for protecting the Emperor Franz Joseph during an assassination attempt. It is quit an impressive building, but of course what stood out to us, as Canadians, was the Huawei ad on the side!

And this is the Scottish Church, which is really quite old (13th c) but has been rebuilt and repaired a few times since then. It is still a striking sight. 

There were line-ups (consisting mostly of Asian tourists!) to get into several cafes down here -- the Mozart Cafe, Cafe Central, and the Sacher Cafe. 

 And here I am, at the Austrian National Library. I usually like to have a photo of me with my bike beside these equestrian statues, but we were walking -- in fact, it would have been hard to ride a bike in the crowded streets. (Apparently this is Emperor Joseph II.)

Another rider at the Albertina Museum. This museum would, no doubt, have been interesting, but we were put off by the long line at the entrance. New Year's Eve was definitely a day out for many people in Vienna!

the Albertina stairway

More interesting buildings:

The State Opera House

 And finally -- St. Stephan's Cathedral. Of course, we fully intended to climb the tower, but after seeing the line, we changed our minds and just enjoyed a quick look around inside.

 



 St. Peter's Church, 1733

The Franciscan Church, 1611

St. Michael's Church, 1217

There were just so many beautiful and unique old buildings, it was hard to take it all in.

And a few more random photos before moving on to Schönbrunn Palace:

Since we had to be back in time for our "appointment" at the Palace, we took the metro back to the hotel and then headed over to the palace. This place is enormous!  We had registered for the Grand Tour, which included 40 rooms -- only a fraction of the 1,441 rooms we might have been able to see if we were... well, maybe no one gets to see that many rooms. 

The tour was very interesting, but the thing I found most intriguing is the obsession with Sisi -- the Empress Elisabeth, Franz Joseph's wife. I should have taken some photos in the gift shop. Not only is it called the Sisi Shop, but it is full of souvenirs (most of which are probably made in China!) related to her.

Also notable was that the palace grounds was the site of a New Year's Eve family festival. There were food stands everywhere and at about 5:30, there were fireworks. I commented that this seemed a bit early -- shouldn't New Year's Eve fireworks take place at around midnight? Little did I know -- the fireworks started at 5:30 and continued throughout the evening until the grand finale at 12:00. That's right -- about seven hours of almost non-stop fireworks. Sadly, because we had a 6:00 a.m. plane to catch (which meant leaving for the airport at 4:00) we didn't stay out to enjoy the festivities. I did listen from my bed, however!

Flying to Vienna

Yesterday we spent pretty much the whole day getting from Marrakesh to Vienna. This was our taxi driver, who got us to the airport in no doubt record time, thanks to driving 110 kph through the city. I was distracted enough by admiring his djelabba, made of some soft brown fabric and featuring lovely decorative stitching, that I didn’t notice the speedometer, but Dave said the speedometer hit 110 a few times!

Once at the airport, however, the high rate of speed was over. Our check-in experience was like something out of a bad movie. We were flying Ryan Air, and because the baggage allowance explanation on the website was somewhat confusing, we decided to book their "Priority and 2 Cabin Bags" tickets. It was a bit of overkill, but there didn't seem to be anything in between. It was either that or the regular ticket, which apparently did not allow any carry on luggage whatsoever. As I said, it was not clear, but we didn't want to take any chances. 

The previous night I had tried to check in. I had the Ryan Air app on my phone, but when I used it for check in, I got a message saying the app could not generate boarding passes; I would have to go to the website to get those. Surprise, surprise, the wifi at the riad was not adequate for this task, so we thought we'd do it when we arrived at the airport.

The airport wifi was also really bad; we could not connect to the website at all, so we decided to get in line (it was a long line) and ask the desk clerk about it. A couple of things were kind of strange -- first, we were not really going on Ryan Air but on LaudaMotion. That took a bit of figuring out, as there was nothing about that anywhere. Then, every other airline except LaudaMotion had a special line for Priority, so we had to wait in the long slow line along with everyone who hadn't paid the extra money for the deluxe tickets. 

Anyway, so we waited and waited until it was finally our turn. I showed the clerk my app results and explained that I couldn't get to the website. His reply: "Yeah, there's something wrong with the airport wifi." He gave us a form and told us to take it to a desk "over there" to confirm our booking. 

After a little wandering "over there" we finally found the right desk, where the nasty little clerk told us we would have to pay 480 Moroccan dirhams to get printed boarding passes. That is about $65 Canadian. Needless to say, we didn't jump at the chance to do that. Finally, Dave set up a mobile hotspot on his phone and I connected to the internet using that. Our boarding passes were there, but at the top it said, "This boarding pass must be printed. For mobile boarding passes, please use the Ryan Air app." The clerk who wanted our first board child in exchange for a printed boarding pass was not busy, so I showed her the website boarding passes, and she said, "Yes, that's what you need." 

Uncertain whether to believe her or not, we nevertheless returned to the line, which was even longer now, and waited our turn. This time there were some Austrian guys in front of us who also had the website boarding passes, so we were able to see that they worked. Whew! When we finally got to check in, we saw that the clerks were not using their computers -- apparently, the whole system was down -- but they were writing everything by hand. This explained why it took so long. 

The four-hour flight also had some unexpected twists. About an hour into the flight, there was an announcement, "If there is a doctor or other medical professional on board, could you please let us know." A guy a couple of seats ahead of us was sick, so sick that he needed to have bottled oxygen and constant medical attention. On the other hand, he was not so sick that we had to make an emergency landing, so that was a relief. When we landed in Vienna, an ambulance crew was there, and we had to wait for them to give him the all clear before we could deplane. 

But all's well that ends well; we were just a bit later than scheduled.  

Our next concern was how to get to our hotel. I booked it using Air Miles, and according to the hotel website, it was a €55 taxi ride away from the airport. Ouch! But according to Google maps, taking the train involved a change of trains at central station. Also ouch. Of course, sometimes changing trains is painless, but other times it is a big nuisance. In this case, we didn't know which it would be.  But the thought of spending only €12 for the train prevailed. It turned out to be quite easy, and we were glad we made that choice. From the train station, it was a short walk to our hotel, The Schoenbrunn Marriott.

Once we were settled in there, we used Google maps to find a nearby restaurant, settling on Restaurant Sokace, a mere two-minute walk. It was a Serbian restaurant, but they served wiener schnitzel, so Dave ordered that, while I had trout. Both were delicious. We were off to a good start in Vienna!

Marrakech

Marrakech... the name is like magic.

Many years ago, when I was a young mom, I read a book called A Street in Marrakech, by Elizabeth Warnock Fernea. This book is such a vivid description of life in the Marrakech medina that I almost felt like I had experienced it myself.

It certainly succeeded in giving me a desire to go there and see firsthand the places she talked about.

Staying in a riad was a good start, I suppose. It was just too bad our experience couldn't have been more typical of the famous warm Moroccan hospitality. Warm our room was not, and the hospitality was tepid at best, but as I said to Dave, at least now I know what lies behind the walls lining the streets of the medina.

And no doubt about it, the riad was beautifully constructed and maintained.

Our room was on the second floor, and we stepped out onto the railed balcony encircling and looking down on the courtyard. In the summer, it would be lovely, as it is open to the outdoors, but in December, there was a canopy of some sort rigged up to keep the heat in and the rain out. There was a beautifully tiled pool or fountain, but at this time of year it was empty.

When I booked our room in this riad, I made sure to request the breakfast option, but this too was a disappointment. The previous evening our host had made some jokes about breakfast  -- it was served from 4 a.m. to 6 a.m., and so on. The result was that we really were not sure what time we could expect to eat. We figured that 7:30 was a safe bet, and went out to check. But everything was dark and our host was nowhere to be found. He finally showed up, from who knows where, and said he'd have breakfast ready by 8:00. Clearly 8:00 Moroccan time (or perhaps his own personal time) because we weren't served until well after 8:30. The food was disappointing as well -- a true sugar and carb fest: freshly squeezed but sweetened orange juice, white flour pancakes, white bread, white flour sickly sweet cakes and... well, that's it. No fruit, no eggs, just a lot of white dough. The coffee was okay, but barely. Oh well, we figured we would appreciate our tagine lunch that much more.

After a short map session with our host, we set out on foot for Jemaa-el-Fnaa, the main square of the city.  The mosque on the left was recommended to us as a landmark, as it was very close to the street of our riad.

We saw a lot of these combo motorcycle/ carts.

I remembered reading about this square in Fernea's book -- particularly about the aggressive snake charmers -- so of course I was on the alert.

At 9:30, the action in the square was just beginning. 

My first sighting was not of a snake, but a monkey. This guy was not looking at me when I first saw him, but as I took the photo, he must have felt the vibes or something, because not only did he look up, but he began to follow us. We made a quick getaway, and I realized I would have to be even sneakier than I thought I was being.

It wasn't long before we came across the snake charmer. Somehow I managed to escape his notice. 

The next photos are all inside the medina. You could literally spend a whole day wandering around in there, and that is almost what we did. We wanted to buy a few small gifts for people back home, but mostly, we just explored and marveled over the variety of sights, smells and sounds.

One sound that we could not escape was that of motorcycles. Every few minutes -- sometimes every few seconds -- the stream of pedestrians would have to make way for a guy on a motorcycle. There was the odd donkey, but nothing like in Fes. Here, obviously the motorcycle is the way to travel.

I loved these beautiful handpainted wooden items   -- cupboards, mirrors, chests. The souks (as the markets are called) are not the place to find cheap stuff, though -- everything seemed priced with tourists in mind, and the vendors were not super eager to bargain.

As anticipated, we enjoyed a delicious tagine late lunch/early dinner and mint tea at a restaurant with a terrace overlooking the square.

I had bought some postcards, so after eating, I wrote and addressed them. The next task was to find a place to buy stamps. The man who sold the postcards told me I'd have to go to the post office, so I looked on Google maps and found one almost right next to the restaurant. We found it with no trouble, but the door was locked. There was a guy standing outside, and he asked me (in French) what I wanted. "Je veux acheter des timbres," I told him. He went to the door and gestured to a guy inside, who then came and opened the door to let me in. I told him what I wanted, and he went to a little table, unlocked a drawer and pulled out some stamps. He took my cash and put the money in his pocket. Then he walked me to the door, unlocked it, pointed to the mailbox, and bade me adieu. Very strange! 

Ready for a break from the souks, we decided to explore farther afield and look for Bab Aganou -- one of the historical gates in Marrakech's old city walls. There was also supposed to be a palace, so we thought we'd try to find that as well. Although we had a paper map or two and Google maps, it was not easy to find these places, and when we got to the palace we discovered it was not open to the public. But we saw a lot of interesting things along the way.

And here it is -- Bab Aganou. It's hard to tell from this photo just how huge the gate is. And I didn't notice until I saw the photo that there are stork nests on top!

 Another snake charmer, this one with a nice variety of specimens! 



View of the square from our restaurant -- this was later in the day, when it was booming.