We arose to the prospect of moving several blocks away to the Hotel Ibis for our final night in Vienna. After breakfast we carried out our version of a Chinese fire drill and ended up at the Ibis. At 10 am our room was not ready so we parked the car in their garage with the luggage in it and headed out for a day on the town.

Vienna sucks. As much as I hate to say this and as much as I have tried to like this city, Vienna sucks. It seems that each time I have been in Vienna I was in Prague just before. It is just not a fair comparison. Prague is so delightful and Vienna is so full of busy people running around madly. After a couple of palaces to be viewed, there is little to see. The cathedral is second class; there is no castle. It is just a city restored after WWII. Baroque, yes but after that what else is there to see?

The final straw for this anti Vienna tirade was the morning visit to the Belvedere and the Karl’s Kirche. Seemed like a nice morning. First the Kirche was in the process of restoration but there was an elevator up into the cupola which we could use. It cost $8 each to get into the church. When we entered this supposedly beautiful baroque church it looked like an erector set was set up inside. The elevator took us to the cupola and I went up another hundred feet on the scaffolding stairs to the very top to get the advertised fantastic panorama of the city. After reaching the top the view was through little portholes with no real view. Good cardio workout anyhow.

We left without being able to see the church itself or the panorama. I suppose we helped pay for the restoration with our $16 “donation”. Then we walked for unending blocks to get to the beautiful gardens of the Belvedere. The grand view between the palaces was what I had looked forward to seeing. It was completely torn up with chain link fences and large piles of dirt to prevent any views of this disaster. We got back to the hotel where I was looking forward to the free wireless internet I was promised. Well, apparently “free” means you have to sign up for a TMobile account and pay twice as much as at an internet café. Vienna really sucks.

For dinner we went to a Russian restaurant that we had seen advertised on the wall of a building near the hotel, Wladimir’s Restaurant. I was not really interested since, you know, Vienna sucks, but Ann picked a winner here. After we each ordered 0,4 cl of Stoly I warmed to the restaurant - literally. We were the only people there. The owner, Wladimir, took us through the menu which was written only in German and Russian with reluctance but Ann insisted. He warmed to us when he and Ann began discussing what the entrees were and how they were made. The meal was outstanding. After dinner he suggested a digestive wine which turned out to be the same Medevina wine made from honey (English: Mead wine) which we had tried in Podebrady. He asked if we were both teachers and even told us a joke he translated from Russian. Wladimir is from Byelorussia and had been in Austria for 16 years. After dinner he asked us about how he could better promote his restaurant and how we found him. Ann has taken this as her personal challenge, using the internet, to let the world know about Wladimir. The night became truly delightful.

Lesson for Day 8: Vienna sucks.
Another lesson: Byelorussians do not suck.