Vienna – Part 1

We headed out for the DH’s big semester trip to Vienna, Austria. We were all looking so forward to it. We had to head to Heathrow airport at 5:45 in the morning and this was made a bit rougher as almost everyone also attended “The Women of the Windrush” opera at the Barbican the night before. This was part of the SOA class and Becky, and I were allowed to join with the group. The show was a one woman show about the some of the woman who came to London and the UK from the Caribbean in the 1950s. It was a multimedia art opera showing videos of interviews with some of the actual woman who lived through that time. Then some songs sung by the performer. The show was fine, but I have never been a big lover of opera. Many students commented that they to found this was not their favorite type of performance.

Amazingly everyone was ready and walking out of the Daniel House at 5:45 to get on the tube to the airport. There were no problems getting everyone through security though I personally did get a full pat down. We then had a couple of hours to relax before the flight. Most slept a bit on the short 2-hour flight over. We had to gather a few bags from the baggage claim and then get some train tickets to ride into the city center. Finally, we were to get on a city train to ride to The Social Hub that we were staying at. Everyone got on the train except Becky, me, and three of the students. As we waited for a disabled person to get on the train, the door closed, and we watched the train leave. We really did not know how to get to where we were going and of course everything is in German. We all decided the best would be to just grab an Uber, and so we did.

After getting everyone checked into their rooms and unpacked, we met again in the lobby and headed out for dinner. We actually went to a very good Mexican restaurant. This was the only place that could handle our large group and some of the dietary requirements we had. The dinner was very good, and our waiter turned out to be a gentleman from Montgomery, AL and who knew about Samford. Such a small world. After dinner everyone broke into groups and headed out on their own for the evening. Becky and I found an Irish pub and just relaxed and visited and then headed back. Not much of a night life for us.

At 10:00 the next morning we all met up with our tour guide for the next two hours. We met outside St. Stephen’s church, which is a huge, gorgeous cathedral in the center of the city. Our tour guide was a wonderful man who walked us around to different locations and gave us some great Austrian history, show us stunning buildings and made the whole tour a fun adventure. Though the day was bright and sunny it was also only in the 30’s and very breezy taking the wind chill into the upper 20’s. The one thing that was so surprising to me was just how incredibly huge so many of the buildings were. Every story of the buildings was twice the height of a single story of today’s buildings.

After the tour several of us went and grabbed lunch at an Austrian restaurant that our guide recommended. The food was great, and I got an authentic bratwurst, and it was one of the best meals I have had this whole trip. After lunch Becky and I went off on our own for the rest of the day. Different groups scattered all over Vienna. Becky and I just spent the rest of the afternoon walking around. We had to stop and try the famous Sacher torte. We just followed everyone’s advice and just got some at a local cafe. I really enjoyed it, but Becky, it found it not all that amazing.

We did go into a couple of unbelievable cathedrals. First, we visited St. Stephen’s in the center of the city. The sheer size of the inside of some of these cathedrals is truly overwhelming. It is hard to believe the time period they were built in and that they were able to engineer and build such a magnificent structure. One feels so small inside. Yet each one is still only what man himself can build and the most we can do. All of these buildings reflect man’s capabilities and come so short of all that God creates in his universe. We also stopped at St. Peters church and heard someone singing with the organ and it was gorgeous.

Becky really wanted a scarf to cut down on the strong wind and we were able to find a small shop that had a very nice, thick scarf that she really liked. We also saw a temporary ice-skating center Vienna sets up each winter outside city hall. Thought it would have been fun we decided not to join the fun.

We then found a nice burger place to grab some dinner. We then slowly made our way back to The Social Hub and had some dessert. It was very good as they do some good Austrian food at the facility as well. It was a great day and are so blessed to be able to do this trip and really enjoy being able to do this trip with the students.