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Vienna, Austria
By Jutta Masterton
Photos by the author.
This beautiful Austrian city was the first touchdown
of our short European holiday. The main reason we came to Vienna
was to watch a Full Gala Performance of the Lipizzaner stallions
at the Spanish Riding School.
We made our way on foot to the riding hall, situated near the Hofburg
Palace in the centre of Vienna. The arena, the gold and ivory interior
of which could rival an elegant ballroom in any palace, boasts its
fair share of dripping chandeliers, statues, ornate mouldings and
paintings.
The double doors opened silently and a performance started that
was pure poetry. The riders looked regal in their fine livery and
their two-cornered hats. The equestrian haute école riding
was executed in its timeless tradition. The majestic, proud white
Lipizzaner stallions were magnificent as they performed their equestrian
movements with precision and grace.
Work included short and long-reining, the capriole, the levade,
the pirouette, the piaffe, the passage, and many others, enthralling
us for an hour and a half.
The ancestry of this noble breed came from oriental bloodlines.
The more recent ancestors were Andalusian and Arab horses.
Lipizzaner horses are bay, black or grey when born.
Most of them gradually turn grey, and then white by their sixth
to tenth year. As a good luck charm, a dark stallion is included
in each performance. It seems to have worked; the breed has survived
despite many tribulations. This included when the stallions were
evacuated during World War II so they wouldn’t fall into enemy
hands to be used as military horses or requisitioned for food.
You can visit the stables and the Lipizzaner Museum
next-door to find out about the breed’s four hundred year
history in Austria. Book your tickets for the performances well
beforehand as they are often sold out well in advance. And most
of the tickets are for standing room rather than seats.
Trying to make the most of our stay,
we embarked on a bus tour (with our English, Italian
and Spanish speaking guide who often spoke in German for good measure)
that took us to the Vienna Woods, the beauty of
which has inspired musicians, like Johann Strauss. On the way, we
stopped to admire the old Cistercian Abbey at Lilienfeld where to
this day 50 Benedict Monks still work. Intricate murals, paintings
and statues; delicate parquetry and carvings; and stunning leadlight
windows were in stark relief to the endless sombre tombs and crypts.
 Our
last stop on the tour was a visit to the ‘Seegrotte’
gypsum mine near Hinterbruehl, which had a few surprises
in store for us. It began with an offer to
hire what looked like horse blankets to keep us warm. We were told
it was a constant 9 degrees Celsius down below, just a bit colder
than the 28 degree summer’s day on the surface. Luckily, we’d
come prepared.
The lake is the largest subterranean lake in Europe. Although often
called a natural monument, it is man-made. The mine had been in
operation for sixty years when a blast went terribly wrong and effectively
ended its career. Millions of litres of water gushed into the lower
levels of the gallery, flooding it.
The mine has had an intriguing history. In its current and probably
final exploit, the rough-cut hanging cathedral ceiling echoes with
the murmurs of curious visitors as they travel in one of many almost
silent electric motor-driven boats.
As you glide in the boat or walk through this endless maze of tunnels,
the walls whisper of times long gone. Days when gypsum was blasted,
and then carted from the mine by the working horses that were permanently
stabled underground, never seeing the brilliant days up top, nor
feeling the sun’s warmth. Days when the miners prayed in the
little chapel.
In the 1930’s, some twenty years after the flooding, cave
explorers discovered the lake that had formed after the blast. It
was decided to reopen the mine as a tourist attraction, but its
peaceful days ended abruptly curtesy of World War II. The ‘Heinkel
Werke’ aircraft factory was set up in the underground mine,
so that some 2000 workers could safely assemble jetfighters for
the German military forces. Some original parts of a jetfighter
are still inside the cave.
Our boat meandered through the labyrinth of blue, crystal clear
water at a snail’s pace. It never caused a ripple on the water
or a swirl of mud on the bottom only about a metre below us.
This underground palace was truly magical, and
although we were part of a large tourist crowd, it seemed to cloak
everyone with a serenity usually reserved for a church.
 The
next palace we visited was the ‘Schönbrunn Palace’.
Initially built as a hunting lodge in the 1640’s, it was later
re-built and became the centre of the imperial court of the ruling
family of the then Empire. The palace boasts some 1400 rooms
behind an imposing front and back façade.
We decided on the 40-room self-guided Grand Tour, having to wait
to walk through the turnstile at our precise allocated time. We
waited again to collect our audioguides (available in ten languages),
which looked like one of the old brick-style car phones.
The tour had us wandering through
the rooms in the order of the recordings. The interior is in the
magnificent and spectacular Baroque style, some rooms partly re-decorated
in the Rococo style in the 1740’s by the Empress Maria
Theresa, the only woman ruler in six hundred and fifty
years of the Habsburg dynasty. There’s hardly a space of wall
or high ceiling that isn’t decked out in frescoes and intricately
gilded moulds; or has a painting of a dramatic, life-sized portrait
of the tribe of ancestors and rellies, or scenes from the Old Testament.
We briefly wondered what lay behind those other hundreds of doors.
We then strolled around the beautifully kept formal garden
and park behind the palace, which are extensions of the impressive
interior. Features include avenues with intersecting walks, fountains,
the Palm House, the Obelisk Fountain and the zoo. A meandering walk
lead up the hill to what we thought was the crowning glory of the
garden — the ‘Gloriette’. This
is a splendid giant gazebo. Huge glass doors enclose the central
part, and either side are covered open-air areas. It’s an
ideal place to have a coffee and take in the spectacular view of
the palace with Vienna as the backdrop.
Most people at the tourist attractions
spoke English and were very helpful.
We walked to most places while in Vienna, although
it is easy to get around by public transport, which has excellent
trams, trains and buses. But there are an amazing number of parks,
gardens and beautiful buildings scattered around the city which
you don’t want to miss. And who can forget the enticing smell
of the sausages as you wander past another WÜRSTELSTAND
side-walk food stand.
Jutta has spent most of her life living in Australia, and is now
attempting to combine a busy schedule of work, travel and writing.
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