{"id":1812,"date":"2023-02-18T17:31:44","date_gmt":"2023-02-18T17:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2025-02-05T19:31:11","modified_gmt":"2025-02-05T19:31:11","slug":"coming-soon-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/18\/coming-soon-22\/","title":{"rendered":"Good Bye, Wien"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Karlskirche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In my time in Vienna, I have only met one person who said they would live somewhere else.  He has lived in Vienna for over twenty years and said he would live in the south of France or in Spain if he didn\u2019t have to live in Vienna.  Don\u2019t know why.  Everyone else loves it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vienna is a quiet city; it\u2019s more about culture and music, then it is about partying.  It seems like a city for families, which is maybe why it is regularly voted the world\u2019s most livable city.  Things may heat up in the summer (pun intended), when tourism peaks.  While there are plenty of breweries and bars in Vienna, it\u2019s more of a calm atmosphere than it is a raging drunkfest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vienna also takes its services seriously.  Trains, trams and subways run on time, all of the time.  Even on Christmas.  It is easy to get to anywhere from Vienna.  Even the airport, which isn\u2019t the biggest but is nice, is easy to get to by train and bus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before my time in Vienna came to an end, I had a few things I wanted to do.  But first, I really needed to fix my leg.  Walking is a handy skill.  I\u2019d been looking for a \u201cdeep tissue\u201d massage, but only managed to find \u201crelaxing\u201d and \u201csoothing\u201d massage places.  On my fiftieth search, Google offered an orthopedic clinic.  Ah-ha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found the physical therapist both frustrating and infuriating.  Do you know how frustrating it is to be told you are doing everything wrong?  Stand up wrong.  Sit down wrong.  Walk wrong.  Sleep wrong.  Use crutches wrong. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aaargggh.  I have been standing, sitting, walking, and, mostly, sleeping for a very long time.  And there I was paying someone to tell me I don\u2019t know Jack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Votivkirche<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And what is soooo infuriating, is that he was right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cStand up.  No, no, not like that.  Like this.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can\u2019t \u2026 it will hurt \u2026 it\u2019s \u2026 oh, that is better!\u201d  Bastard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leg now much better, I had time to hit some of the tourist sites.  Top on the list was St. Charle\u2019s Church (Karlskirche, 1737).  Dedicated to Saint Charles Borromeo (you may know him as the plague saint), Karlskirche was built in the Baroque architectural style following a plague in Vienna.  It is not a huge church, but the high alter is a baroque masterpiece.  Pick up an architectural history book and you\u2019ll find Karlskirche!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Domkirche St. Stephan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While you are visiting churches might as well include the Votivkirche (or Votive Church…I had to look it up too), St. Stephan\u2019s Cathedral (Domkirche St. Stephan), and the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church (Griechenkirche zur Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit).\u00a0 Try saying that one three-times fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sights seen, it was time to leave.  It took me 60 minutes to go from the apartment to the airport terminal.  I walked two blocks to the tram stop, where the tram was waiting.  Took the tram to the U-Bahn station.  Took the U-Bahn (had to wait two minutes for the next departure; so inconvenient) to the Wien Mitte station where I caught the CAT.  The CAT or City Airport Train (yes, in English), runs directly to the airport and you can check-in and deposit your luggage before you get on the train (actually, you can drop you bags the day before, which is handy).  At the airport, I went straight to security and then passport control.  Done in less than 1 hour. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Griechenkirche zur Heiligen Dreifaltigkeit<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One last thought on Austria.  Austrians have a reputation for being unfriendly.  They are brutally honest, and proud of it.  Why wouldn\u2019t you want to know that I don\u2019t like the cookies you baked for me?  Surely, you would rather have saved the eggs.  While I have never found the Austrians to be rude\u2014but I haven\u2019t baked them any cookies\u2014I have learned one important lesson when dealing with Austrians.  If they say they are rude, agree with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my time in Vienna, I have only met one person who said they would live somewhere else.  He has lived in Vienna for over twenty years and said he would live in the south of France or in Spain if he didn\u2019t have to live in Vienna.  Don\u2019t know why.  Everyone else loves it. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1819,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1825,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions\/1825"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/downhilltravel.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}