Trip 53

April 11, 2026

While travel is most often an “adventure” sometimes, it’s challenging. Originally we were to fly on Finnair to Helsinki , then to Vienna. For reasons still unknown to us, a few days before departure, Finnair decided we should depart a day later. We scrambled a bit to find another flight, with the first one we found that, with connections, would have gotten us into Vienna about midnight (including a five hour layover in London), then found another flight through London (no layover) that will get us there about the same time as we originally hoped.

The flight over to London was routine. One thing that was better was free ViaSat internet. I wanted to try something a little geeky (well, it is actually geeky), with a Unifi Travel Router (UTR), (the size of a deck of playing cards; no built in power — need a battery bank or use airplane seat power) to connect their WiFi to my home internet connection. This allows multiple devices to connect , gives me the privacy of my own network and access to my home network resources, including my Plex media server. It was a little fiddly with first authenticating on my phone to their portal and then again on the UTR, but it worked.

I was able to stream a TV show from my home server, in 720p at 34,000’, no lagging, on my iPad, connect to computers at home and move files between them. Speeds were (a bit slow) but fine for downloading, but upload speeds were predictably awful. I doubt this is what the airline and ViaSat had in mind. 😉

Arrival in Wein was simple and passport control quick. We activated our e-Sims and now we have faster data speeds (for about half the price our carrier would have charged) on our phones.

Rather than take the City Express Train from the Flughafen , which may be quick (10 minutes faster 😉) , but is quite a bit more expensive. We bought tickets at the ÖBB (National railway) terminal in the station and took the ÖBB S7 line, 10€ for two. The train is packed! Make sure to validate your tickets; there are ticket police.

We’re staying at a (new to us) hotel for one night in an area we haven’t visited before. We are greeted by a robot cleaning the hallway.

There is a beautiful Russian Orthodox Church across from us.

It was built from 1893–99 by the Italian-Austrian architect Luigi Giacomelli as an embassy church. A large part of the construction costs (400,000 rubles – $14-15m in today’s value ) was raised by a donation from Tsar Alexander III. The consecration of the Cathedral to Saint Nicholas was held on 17th April 1899.

Inside, there were quite a few people lined up to buy and set up votive candles, while others kneeled and prayed at the small shrines.

There was obviously a religious celebration ready to take place. Quite a few people were outside lined up in the courtyard with tables, displaying Easter baskets, and along the wrought iron fence enclosing the courtyard. Soon, the priest came out and began chanting (in Russian) , mixing thru the crowd and dousing them with holy water. Priests use a brush (aspergillum) to sprinkle the holy water, often with significant volume (it was big brush)

The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Easter on a different date because it adheres to the Julian calendar rather than the modernized Gregorian calendar used by Protestants and Catholics. Occasionally, the two calendars and lunar cycles align, resulting in the same date, but the Orthodox date is usually one, two, or five weeks later. This creates a 13-day gap, causing the Orthodox to calculate the spring equinox later, and they strictly abide by the ancient requirement that Pascha (Easter) must occur after Jewish Passover. So this then, was part of their Easter celebration!

The daily schedule for their celebrations were posted outside, both in Russian and German. The main Russian Orthodox congregation is centered at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas (Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Nicholas, n.d.). The Russian Orthodox Church in Austria (Diocese of Vienna and Austria) includes approximately 40,000 faithful across the country, with a significant presence in Vienna, which serves as the episcopal see; it is the second-largest Christian denomination in Austria.

From the sacred to the profane.

The sacred ceremonies of the Church disrupts space/time through hierophanies (divine manifestations), while the profane represents our linear, ordinary existence. We take the S-Bahn to Saint Stephens to walk the Graben. The Graben is now a huge pedestrian area, lined with shops, restaurants under the shadow of the cathedral . The Graben in Vienna is named after the German word for “ditch” or “trench  as it was built over a defensive trench dating back to the Roman camp of Vindobona. In the 12th century, this old moat was filled in and leveled to expand the city using ransom money from Richard the Lionheart. Around 1 AD, the kingdom of Noricum was included in the Roman Empire. From that time, the Danube marked the border of the Holy Roman empire, and the Romans built fortifications and settlements on the banks of the Danube, including Vindobona with an estimated population of 15,000 to 20,000.

We visited Saint Stephens, the interior and even the bell tower and tiled roof, many years ago.

After a long flight and little sleep, we’re ready to just stroll for a bit. But a must stop for us is Trzesniewski, a small sandwich shop (opened in 1902) on a side street off the Graben.

All they make are open-faced finger sandwiches, of quite a variety, of which they have 26. Here you see a few: Ei mit Ei (egg with egg salad on rye) , raucherlachs (salmon) , Ei mit gurkin (pickle) and a nice large beer. Open-faced sandwiches for €1.80 each.

It’s Saturday afternoon on a beautiful spring day, so the Graben area is quite busy with locals and tourists like us.

We stopped at The Henry, a nice multilevel grocery store in the inner city on our way back to the hotel.

Lose something? Maybe it’s here (“Fundbox”)