Tag: library

Goodbye Vienna (and Austria)

I go to the famous cafe Sacher to try their torte cake. I order the combo with the coffee and the special Brut champagne. If I return I’ll insist on sitting upstairs in the beautiful velvet dining space.

I visit the lovely Austrian National Library. I love a library with old books.

Wenceslas Bible

Finally get to try wiener schnitzel at Huth Gastwirtschaft.

I visit the Imperial Crypt, the crypt of the royals.

I then visit the Stephansdom Crypt where I see a plethora of human bones as well as intestines and other innards in alcohol jars. I highly recommend this tour if you like creepy things. No pictures inside.

Some internal body parts, juicing up for hundreds of years

I walk around town and then have cocktails at an American bar.

What goes with crypts, bones and cocktails? Seeing the Barbie movie in a historic theater. This theater also is famous for showing the movie The Third Man. If I had more time in town I’d come back to see that.

After the movie I take the train and walk to my hotel through the Prater amusement park where I get to view it lit up for the evening.

My final day I visit Belvedere Palace and its weird art. The palace is a museum and holds some famous artwork by Gustav Klimt and other artists.

The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Finally I eat a late lunch at an old glass building, the restaurant called Brasserie Palmenhaus Wien.

There is so much more to see and do in Vienna but but I am flying to Serbia in the morning for my final stop so I go back to pack. This time I have to pack for flying since all the bus and train routes were terrible.

This time tomorrow I’ll be back in the Balkans

Day in Dublin

Trinity College Library

My friend S is still in town and we do a great job of not overdoing the fun so we can get in a fair share of sightseeing. Today we are exploring Dublin. What better way than book a hop-on hop-off bus?! We reserve a ticket to see the book of Kells and Trinity College Library this afternoon as well. Luckily we did because it is completely sold out for the day by the time we get there.

We follow the bus around its path deciding we can stop at one or two stops and still make our Book of Kells time. First stop is some historic pubs were we stop to get a snack at one.

General Post Office
Molly Malone statue

We enter into the book of Kells exhibit and learn all about this ancient text. We learn how the colored ink is made and we learn of the meaning of different symbols. The book is basically a book of a couple gospels of the New Testament but in elaborate visual detail.

Next we visit the library at trinity college. They are in the process of removing all the books to preserve them. Fortunately we get to see the library with some of the books still in place.

We take our hop on hop off tour for a little longer and end up on the other side of the river where we come upon the Jameson distillery. Unable to get tickets ahead of time we pop in to see if they talk walk ins and they do. We get a included Jameson drink and start our tour. The tour ends with a sampling. We enjoy hanging out at the bar in the front for a little bit.

Finally we end the evening at the Cobblestone, known for its local Irish music. It is impossibly packed but we wait it out and score two seats. We can’t really view the band but we enjoy the music just the same. I am surprised we stay as long as we do because of the thick crowds but we do have a limit and call it a night.

We have another long day tour scheduled tomorrow. Nite nite.