Tag: History

Walking Tour of Vienna

When on a short city break, it can sometimes feel like you are trying to cram everything in. One of the best ways of seeing a lot in a short space of time is to take a walking tour.

Luckily, on our trip to Vienna, the hotel was offering a free walking tour of the city and we decided to make the most of it. When picking a tour, I like to look for ones that don’t just visit the popular tourist spots; I can do that perfectly well on my own. Instead, I like to pick tours that offer something a little different, usually places that are just off the beaten path. The free tour we joined was just the ticket as it was centred around the Jewish quarter and surrounding areas, slightly out of the main shopping areas.

We spent a couple of hours hearing tales of historical sites down the twisty streets next to the Danube. The architecture was incredible, often showing glimpses of the changes made to buildings across the years: Art Deco, Baroque and Gothic in places, splattered with an array of Roman style statues.

Stories of bar tenders who were so drunk they were mistaken for Plague victims and thrown into mass graves, visits to the places Mozart studied and incredibly ornate churches behind plain wooden doors: the tour was excellent and gave a sense of Vienna’s history.

As this tour took place on the coldest day of our trip in Vienna, we rounded off the morning with a hot drink in a toasty café. Once we’d suitably warmed up, we were off again; this time making up our own little tour locations as we found out way back towards the Danube.

The Most Beautiful Library

Paying my €8, I grumbled about the cost of a visit to, what was in fact, one room. I soon regretted my grumbles. This ended up being the best €8 I spent in Vienna by a country mile.

The State Hall aimed to be a demonstration of grandeur and power when it was first built. A show of grandeur and status. Baroque in style, it was designed to embody excess to the fullest, containing huge detailed domes and floor to ceiling bookcases.

Like something out of a fairytale, the artwork on the ceiling depicts the different types of books housed in the library – science, art, philosophy and music. A handy electronic guide highlighted sections of the ceiling and their meanings, providing a more detailed understanding of the imagery.

Currently housing around 200,00 books, the hall is two stories high, boasting huge bookcases that, to my delight, opened up to reveal yet more books in the hidden rooms behind. It was easy to imagine the secrets they might hold.

Darkened bookcases, ladders leading up to dusty tomes and ominous statues decorated the library. Person-sized globes were dotted between the bookcases. Imagine everything you think should be in a library located in a magical kingdom and this place would live up to the expectation.

As an avid reader and someone who loves nothing more than to curl up with a good book, this place captured my heart immediately. The romance and mystique of the hall was permeable from the first step over the threshold.

I was lost in imaginings of how this place would look when it was first built. Flickering candles lighting the towering rows of books, the watchful eyes of the central statues and the lone reader, curled into a semi- comfortable corner, surrounded by the familiar bookish smells, their world only perforated by the crinkle of the page.

Adding to the mythology of the hall, Gia and Atlas stand on the roof outside, holding up the globe and watching over the hall. The two huge pillars on either side of the hall, know as The Pillars of Hercules seem to push against the oppressive weight of the books, stopping them from closing in on the tiny visitors in the room below. It was as though this room, built by giants and filled with mythology had allowed the mortals to roam its halls for a day, sharing some of its dusty secrets.

An Old Ghost-Town That Everybody Forgot

We’d been talking about trying to include a trip to a good ol’ American ghost town but one of the biggest (Bodie) was a little too far off our route.

Instead, we picked a visit to Grafton on the way back from Zion. Grafton was evacuated in 1866 due to flooding and fighting, with the last few families moving in 1944. The buildings have been restored and it’s a great glimpse into the past.

There were around five buildings remaining, one being the church / school house and a small graveyard.

It was quite eerie to wander around the empty buildings; being one of those people who watch far too many scary films, I couldn’t help thinking about the abandoned buildings in the Blair Witch. It was easy to imagine someone or something hiding in the dusty corners of the buildings.

There was only one other small group of people on the site when we visited and that added to the sense of isolation. The backdrop was stunning, all red rock mountains and dust-ground floors.

It wasn’t a long visit but it was a big change from the other sites on our trip and really gave a sense of history to the scenery we were experiencing.

The Secret Location for the AllSpark and Megatron – Otherwise Known as the Hoover Dam

My main memory of the Hoover Dam was heat. It was blisteringly hot and that’s coming from someone who had just spent a day or too baking in the Vegas sun. The problem with the Hoover Dam is that there is no shelter, none at all. So if you are planning to visit, lather up on sunscreen – trust us it’s worth it!

Once you get past the heat, it’s easy to be blown away by the sheer size of the Hoover Dam. It. Is. Huge! If you have vertigo / get dizzy with heights, this could be a challenging place. One peak over the edge of the wall had my head spinning. But it was worth it. The views are incredible and as we visited on such a sunny day, the colours of the dam walls against the blue of the water and sky was striking.

Wandering Beeb was enthralled with the sheer engineering feat of building something so huge. Being a bit of a history buff, he was completely fascinated with the history of the build and there was plenty of information dotted around the dam to keep him busy.  He worked his way around the site, absorbing information on the construction and the stories behind the dam.

I’m a bit more visual, so I spent my time snapping pictures and taking in the site. I also wanted to get my geek on by spending time looking at the place where they stored Megatron’s body in Transformers (the dam was the base for Sector Seven in the Transformers movie).

I’ve heard a number of people talk about the costs at the Hoover Dam, and it’s true, you can be charged for everything; a tour inside the building, a tour around the site, for drinks (don’t forget that heat I mentioned before – make sure you take loads of water!). However, if you want to go on a budget, just don’t take any of the tours! We spent an hour or so there and didn’t spend a penny.  The site has lots of information dotted around and there is plenty to see without paying for a tour.

A product of a design competition winner, the winged statues guard the entrance to the dam. The unusual method of installing the statues involved using blocks of ice, which melted in the sun to help the engineers to get the placement and finish for the statues just right. Known as ‘Winged Figures of the Republic’, they sit on jet black bases, reminding me of those two statues Atreyu had to pass through in ‘The Neverending Story’.

With over one million visitors each year churning through the Hoover Dam site, you can expect any visit to be busy, however I think that we were quite lucky. We stopped off at the dam fairly early in the morning on our route to the Grand Canyon. It was a long day but it was well worth it to avoid the crowds.

Whether your visit is due to an interest in the history of the dam, to wonder at the sights or (like me) to see where the AllSpark is hidden (Transformers again!), Hoover Dam is a great place to visit and is guaranteed to get you some great photos.