08/04/09

08/04/09

The German word of the day is wahrscheinlich, which means probably.

Yesterday and today we have gotten our first taste of Viennese rain, which has sporadically been very light and sometimes a little heavier. Some others and I made it out to St. Stephen’s cathedral in the rain, only to find the place completely overcrowded with people and an incredibly long line forming for the tour of the catacombs. While we can’t exactly hope for better conditions in terms of the crowds of people, but we wanted to go up into the tower and get a view of Vienna as well. In the end we decided to come back another day and save both of the tours for that time, which I think will be a more enjoyable experience without the weather as it is.

While walking through the Hofburg complex the last couple of days, I was struck by several things about the layout and the grandeur of the entire area. I tried to imagine what the place had looked like when Ottokar began to build the first installations of the complex, and how modest it must have looked. Though the complex was built up over a period of centuries, many of which during the absolutist era, I wondered if any of the Habsburgs ever imagined that it would become what it has. I’m sure that some of them envisioned something along those lines, but of course in a wildly different context than we understand it today. I wondered if the plethora of gift shops and tourist attractions throughout the complex would have been offending to the previous occupants that so valued their power, or if they would appreciate the fact that what they had intended to do succeeded, at least in the sense that they were trying to leave their mark upon Europe.

My overall impression of Vienna so far has been overwhelmingly positive as the beauty and history of the city have not failed to live up to their reputation. I look forward to exploring some of the more distant reaches of the city, and actually getting to know the city as well as I can in the short time that we are here.