Kärntner Straße has ushered in many new vendors for those who can afford the high rent. Now there are two McDonald’s, one Burger King, and a Nordsee (NorthSea, a German fast-food restaurant chain) that we saw several in Berlin a few years ago but did not give it a try.

The square in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral was crowded with hundreds of tourists speaking all kinds of languages from the world.

The first order of business this morning was to visit the Drei (meaning "3") cell phone store in the cathedral square to buy a local SIM card for one of our iPhones.

After visiting St. Stephens Cathedral, we walked past the cathedral and turned right to check out Hotel Konig von Ungarn (meaning King of Hungary. This hotel was part of a 17th century building that was once a lodging for Hungarian noble families during their stays in the Austrian capital. ) The exterior of the hotel looked exactly the same as from 2000 when we stayed, although the hotel’s website shows that some of the rooms have been drastically modernized.

We purchased tickets to visit the Mozarthaus museum, formerly called Figarohaus. Mozart’s actual apartment between 1784 and 1787 was returned to its original structural condition and open to the public. He wrote The Marriage of Figaro in this residence, and entertained the likes of Haydn.

We stopped at Julius Meinl am Graben, a high-end gourmet food store with a café and sushi bar. We also went to St. Peter’s Church (Peterskirche, a very ornate church just off Graben) for a 3 pm free organ concert. St. Peter's church also hosts classical concerts in the evening at 8:30 pm, performed by the "Classic Ensemble Vienna". Check its website for details.

From the shopping street of Kohlmarkt (Vienna’s most elegant shopping street, with the emperor’s palace, Hofburg, at one end), we walked past many Habsburgs buildings, including stopping at the historical Michaelerplatz (you must see an old photo of this plaza in the second half of the 19th century, before the front was finally converted to joint together), eventually ending in front of the State Opera to take a Tram#D to go back to Hotel Adina.

We booked an English guided tour at 1 pm, and also purchased tickets for the 3:30 pm concert of the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (not to be confused with the Berlin Philharmonic) performing in the Golden Hall.

Musikverein is located just behind the Imperial Hotel on the ring road. We took Tram#D to Oper/Karlsplatz, then walked 5 minutes to the hall. The 1 pm tour guide told us that:

1. Musikverein means “Society of Friends of Music”. Before Musikverein was completed in 1870, concerts in Vienna were mostly performed in private homes or palaces; therefore, they were not accessible to the ordinary working folks. A group of advocates pushed for the building of a large concert hall for the citizens.
2. This building was built in the Greek temple style, because the Danish architect had spent 8 years in Greece, so his design had a Greek influence.
3. This concert hall was all made of wood, and hollow wood at that. The ceilings, the floors, the walls are all hollow, so it resonates with the sound just like a musical instrument does.
4. Musikverein was originally built with only two halls - a large hall and a small hall. The large hall is also called the Golden Hall due to its interior golden-colored decoration. The guide said that all the golden colors are painted, there is not an ounce of real gold in the decoration.
5. The Golden Hall seats 1744, with an additional space for 300 people standing in the back.

Wikipedia of Musikverein: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiener_Musikverein
Concert schedule & tickets: https://www.musikverein.at/

Our 3:30 pm concert seats were about 90% full. The acoustic was very good. The audience gave the orchestra a resounding applause. We also saw large tour buses bringing people to the concert. Cannot help wondering, where are they from?

Day 5 - Haus der Musik (10/15/2022, Saturday) Link to today's photo

We were saving the big museums for Sunday when most other places were closed. However, it was raining today, so we shuffled our plan to stay indoors. That’s why we visited the Haus der Musik today.

Haus der Musik – (House of Music) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haus_der_Musik is a fun interactive “sound museum”, located in the old town between St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the State Opera.

The museum has a room dedicated to the history of the Vienna Philharmonic, and also a mini concert hall continually playing videos of highlights from the 1/1/2022 New Year’s concert performed in the Golden Hall and conducted by Daniel Barenboim.

Another floor dedicates a room to each of the famous composers associated with the city, including Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Strauss and Mahler. In Mozart’s room it included a hand-written letter from Mozart to his father explaining why he could not stay in Salzburg.

In Beethoven's room, there was a framed text speculating why Beethoven was so productive while living in the Pasqualatihaus, because, it said, the Feng-Shui (風水) of this apartment was harmonious with Beethoven's basic energy.

In Franz Schubert's (1797-1828) room, photos of several people who were important parts of Schubert's short life were displayed - family members, friends and benefactors. Schubert was not wealthy and lived with friends most of his adult life. This room probably exhibited more items from Schubert's life than his birthplace museum or last-residence museum. There was text on display which said Schubert was an admirer of Beethoven. Although Schubert wrote more than 600 songs that are sung today, he did not think much of himself, therefore he did not have enough confidence to approach the "Great" Beethoven. And the two never met, until Schubert was one of the 36 torchbearers at Beethoven's funeral. Schubert died a year after Beethoven. On his deathbed, he requested to be buried next to his idol, Beethoven. He was indeed buried near Beethoven in Wahring cemetery, which is called “Schubert Park” today. Wahring cemetery was closed in 1888, and the mortal remains of Schubert and Beethoven were transferred to honorary graves in the Central Cemetery where he lies next to Beethoven.

On the short Krugerstraße (running in the East-West direction) leading off from Kärntner Straße to the Haus der Musik, there were 4 Asian restaurants in this 50-meter-long block, 2 Chinese and 2 Japanese (and a laundry service at Krugerstraße 9, in case you need a wash, dry & fold service.) As it was raining hard when we exited the museum, we ducked into one of the Chinese restaurants. A bowl of beef noodle soup and a Home-style Tofu (家常豆腐) with vegetables were happily consumed. They were very hearty on this rainy day. The cashier thought we had come to the city on a river cruise boat. It was true that we almost signed up for a Viking river cruise this past June to cruise from Regensburg to Budapest. Had we been on one, we’d have had only one-and-half days in Vienna.

Afterwards, we browsed the souvenir shops along Kärntner Straße trying to find a nice coffee mug which would remind us of this beautiful city of Vienna, but did not find any that we liked.

The IKI Japanese restaurant near our hotel was closed on both Saturdays and Sundays. The Hoffer supermarket near our hotel was closed at 6pm on Saturdays and closed all day on Sundays. Therefore, we were glad that restaurants in the old town stayed open on weekends.

Day 6 - Eroica Hall and Kunst historisches Museum (10/16/2022, Sunday): link to our photo

The sky was grey in the morning; we did not see sunlight until after 11am.

Speaking of the Viking river cruise, we saw two groups of people walking behind their respective guide holding a “Viking” flag in the old town.

Today we went to visit another Beethoven site, the Palais Lobkowitz in the old town. In the early 19th century, Beethoven was often a guest in the palace, since the owner at that time, Prince Franz Joseph Maximilian von Lobkowitz, was an important patron of the composer. Beethoven's Third Symphony was dedicated to the prince, which is why the festival room of the palace was named "Eroica Saal" (Heroic Hall). In 1804, Beethoven's Third Symphony was performed (privately) for the first time in Vienna in this hall, with the composer conducting. (And here is a 2-hr YouTube video dissecting Beethoven's Eroica Symphony by conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.)

Palais Lobkowitz has been turned into a "Theater Museum" exhibiting a nick-nack of theater stuff which were not of interest to us, but we came here to pay homage to one of the palace's halls.

When the Third Symphony was published in 1806, Beethoven was angry with Napoleon after the latter declared himself emperor of France that he struck off Napoleon Bonaparte's name from the first page so forcefully that he tore a hole in the page. Beethoven dedicated the piece to Prince Franz Joseph von Lobkowitz (1772–1816) instead.

After lunch at the Nordsee Restaurant on Kärntner Straße, we waited in line for 40 minutes to be seated in Café Sacher to savor a piece of their famous Sacher Torte. Every time we passed by this café, there was always a line of people queuing on the sidewalk.

The last place we visited today was the Kunst historisches Museum (literally, the Art History Museum, similar to our "Museum of Fine Arts") housing the Habsburgs’ art collection. We only had time for a small portion of the painting gallery - we saw selected Caravaggio, Titian, Raphael, and Velazquez paintings in the Italian, Spanish & French Art rooms, and a Vermeer painting in one of the Northern European Art rooms. We also saw a painting of Emperor Joseph II and his younger brother. Emperor Joseph II (1741-90) was the music-loving emperor featured in the Amadeus movie who told Mozart that his music had “too many notes”. It is amazing that the actor who portrayed Emperor Joseph II in the movie was made up to have an uncanny facial resemblance to the emperor in person.

While walking toward tram #D stop to take a tram to come home, we saw Hao Noodle & Tea (Opernring 19, 1010 Wien). It was a contemporary Hong Kong style Chinese restaurant run by a group of young and polite staff. We took out dinner from there to enjoy in our apartment. It seemed that Chinese restaurants in Vienna were heavy with cooking oil when stir-frying food.

Day 7 - Theater an der Wien and the Waltz King (10/17/2022, Monday): Link to our photo

VT took a few photos from our hotel's breakfast this morning, so that you may see what they were like.

We wanted to attend a Johann Strauss concert which was performed at the Kursalon concert hall located in a city park called "Stadtpark". VT also wanted to go to the park during the day to take photos of the Waltz King's golden statue. So we visited the Stadtpark this morning intending to purchase two tickets at the box office while there, for this evening's performance. [Transportation: Tram#D to Oper/Karlsplatz, then change to Tram#2 east direction two stops to Weihburggasse.]

The concert's name was "Strauss and Mozart concert in Kursalon". This concert hall, Kursalon, was where the "Waltz King" Johann Strauss Jr. (1825-1899) gave his first concert in 1868. The Kursalon thus became a popular place for concerts and for dancing. Today, there is a Strauss concert almost every day at 8:30 pm. Tickets are divided into 3 categories based on their distance to the stage. They are the VIP (rows 1&2), category A (rows 3 to 8), and category B (rows 9 and beyond); priced at €105, €75, and €63 respectively. Seats are not assigned; an usher will lead you to an empty seat in your ticket category. Shows last about 2 hours.

We wound up purchasing two concert tickets from a kiosk near Johann Strauss Jr.'s golden statue in the park. The man at the kiosk asked if we needed concert tickets and that he could sell us tickets at a discount. We were curious why he was able to sell at a discount. He said that he bought tickets in bulk at a discount, so he passed on the savings to customers. He offered to sell us two catalog A tickets at €50/each. We were skeptical whether these tickets were legit, but decided to trust this man so that he could, at least, recoup his capital investment. Besides, since the concert was unlikely to sell out on a Monday, the worst scenario that could happen to us was to buy two new tickets at the box office, and treat this as lessons learned.

From the Stadtpark we took Tram#2 to Oper/Karlsplatz then walked south to see Theater an der Wien and Naschmarkt.

Theater an der Wien (Theater at the Wien River): This theater was completed in 1801 (ten years after Mozart passed away) to perform Mozart's operas.

A theater impresario and friend of Mozart named Emanuel Schikaneder, who wrote the libretto to Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” and played the role of Papageno in the opera, built this theater outside the old city walls (today’s ring roads) to stage Mozart’s operas for the ordinary working folks.

Beethoven worked in this theater for a while (from 1803 on) and was provided with an apartment in the theater complex. Therefore, this is another Beethoven site where he lived for a while (in 1803 and 1804). Several of Beethoven’s compositions premiered here too.

Naschmarkt (Nasch = nibble) – Just opposite the Theater an der Wien, it is Vienna’s most popular outdoor market with about 120 stands and restaurants. This market was created by covering up the Wien River. We had lunch here at a pleasant pan-Asian restaurant which had Chinese, Japanese, Thai, and Vietnamese cuisines on the menu.

In the evening at Kursalon, we were admitted to the concert hall without any problem. On an ordinary Monday night’s show, the orchestra consisted of only 9 members (therefore it was only a subgroup of the full band taking turns to perform in the evening), plus two dancers dancing to the waltz tune, and two singers singing Mozart’s opera arias. It was very touristy but fun.

Day 8 - Belvedere and Haydnhaus (10/18/2022, Tuesday): Link to our photo

Day 10 - Going Home (10/20/2022, Thursday)