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The home of Strauss, Romeo and Juliet, Opera and Ballet.....
We arrived in Vienna early for a driving tour and to spend a couple of hours seeing the sights - those one night stops are killers :( The sights in Vienna are central with the Austrian Parliament building, Hofburg Palace, Natural History Museum, Museum of Art History and the State Opera House all within a couple of blocks of each other.
First we were dropped of at the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Hofburg family commonly referred to as Viennas Palace of Versailles. Stepping off the bus I immediately regretted my decision to wear shorts and one layer of thermals under a hoodie with birkenstocks.... it was a chilling 8 degrees and raining....... Never one to miss a historical site, I jumped off and shuffled quickly through the chilling wind and rain counting down the 30 minutes until I could get back on the bus. We didn't have enough time to visit to castle so we found ourselves wandering through the gorgeous gardens. I attracted many stares and on my way back to the bus got called a crazy American....ah well.
I jumped back on the bus and waited for the blood to recirculate back through my fingers and toes....thinking I'd made it now its time for a hot shower. I wish I wasn't disappointed when we were promptly dropped of 10 minutes later in the centre of Vienna to have lunch and explore the area surrounding the Hofburg Palace.
Power walking through the courtyard of the Hofburg Palace, stopping to quickly grab photos of the balcony where Hitler in 1938 declared Austria under Germany's control, we ducked into Vapiano's an old favourite from Brissy - who knew it was a franchise??? We were back on the streets one hour later with 2 hours left of the cold to endure.The next 2 hours were spent popping into H&M and Zara to stay warm blooded, before we headed back towards the bus. BTW Vienna has local chocolates wrapped similar to Lindt balls/Ferre Roche with crushed Pistachio in the middle! Delish!
The bus was late :( One of the only times the Top Deck team were late to a pickup! As we waited in our group for the bus this Austrian grandma approached me and started yelling at me in Austrian.... I did manage to understand what she was saying from her points to my legs, feet and fake coughing + the shake of the head and wag of the finger - I was in trouble and apparently going to get sick.... The whole event was caught on camera by many of our Topdeck group. All I could do was laugh which I think made the grandma think worse of me....but really I already regretted the decision to wear shorts, I knew it could make me sick....thank you for pointing it out :)
After a quick hot shower and glamorisation within 30 minutes (yes I can get ready quickly) a bunch of us headed off to a 3 course Dinner and Concert. Dinner was delish, the red wine was flowing a local Austrian Red that went down way too well. Talk turned to footy - not to be confused with Soccer - real footy. On tour we had a good mix of Sydney, Hawthorne, Richmond, Carlton, Fremantle, Collingwood and the Dons! I had just checked out the draw for next season and discussing the rounds with the guys. If anyone from the AFL Corporate team ever reads this I am once again disappointed that Essendon isn't visiting Queensland in the 2013 season!
The concert was amazing a mixture of Mozart and Strauss, played by an orchestra, with many of the pieces including Ballet and Opera. I was on the edge of my seat the whole concert! Thankyou Vienna for rekindling my love of classical music and introducing me to Ballet!
The next morning we set off to visit Mauttehausen Concentration Camp in Austria. For those that haven't read about or visited a concentration camp these were built and managed by the SS branch of the Natzi's. These were built in support of Hitlers ethnic cleansing to eradicate Jews and Gypsies - and anyone else that didn't fit with his ideal race. Millions of Jews and Gypsies were crammed into trains like cattle and transported out to concentration camps to work themselves to death. Mauttehausen was the last concentration camp in Europe to be liberated by American allied forces during the late 50's. Detainees in this camp mined stone from a quarry at the bottom of the hill, working 12 hour days all year round being fed every 3 days.
Today the camp still has the original barricks, quarry, graves, gas chambers and crematoriums. Within this camp alone millions of victims died through sickness, hard work, random executions through gas chambers (locals thought that the camp was for maximum security prisoners) and eventually shootings during the mass breakout in 1944 when several hundred escaped into the countryside and were hunted down.
The concentration camp today is haunting, the nail marks inside the gas chambers, the barracks were thousands of victims were crammed in - now contain pictures of the events at Mauttehausen. Extremely confronting but well worth the visit.
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