Graz, Austria. (July, 2022, Part II).

The Graz skyline is, well, unremarkable.  The north side of town is dominated by the Grazer Schloßberg, a park high upon a hill, formerly the site of a castle.  Only the clock tower and bell tower remain.  To get to the park you can walk up a few hundred stairs, ride the Schlossbergbahn (funicular), or take the Schlossberglift (glass elevator in the rock).  We opted to pay €2 each to ride up in the elevator.

What we did not know is that the elevator does not go to the top.  It exits just above the clock tower, near a small garden with an observation deck (admittedly the nicest area of the park). 

Higher up on the hill are a museum, a couple of restaurants, a beer garden, small amphitheater, and the funicular station. 

Had we realized it, the funicular would have been the way to go up.  The clock tower is probably only two-thirds of the way to the top.  We ended up walking uphill much more than expected.

The Schlossberg Rutsch (the Graz slide) is perhaps the most interesting way down.  It is over 200 feet tall and 575 feet long, basically corkscrewing down next the elevator on a 40 second ride to the bottom.  It looks like a pretty cool ride, but not €5 cool. 

After seriously contemplating the slide, we decided to walk down, saving €10 (worth at least 16 cans of Landgraf Märzen, 20 cans of Gambrinus, or 10 cans of Stiegl).  Instead of taking the stairs (which were in direct sun), we found a shady path.

This is what we have come to in Austria.  We no longer count in euros.  Instead, we count in cans of beer.  As in: we can ride the tram across town, or walk it and buy five cans of beer, pick one.

On our way back to our place we stopped for lunch at Best Food Grill, located at Annenstraße 12.  We ordered a couple of Kebap vom Huhn, a monstrous sized chicken sandwich on pita bread with lettuce, tomato, onion, and spicy sauce. I love chicken sandwiches, and this is probably the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten.

During our final days in Graz we put our Universalmusuem Joanneum annual pass to use, starting at Kunsthaus Graz.  If you like modern, contemporary, and avant garde art, you’ll probably like Kunsthaus (art house).  

If not, it will only cost you about thirty, painful and excruciatingly slow, minutes of your life.  Thankfully I did not have any sharp objects with me, and I escaped with my vision intact. Again, just not for me.

On the plus side, the building is very interesting.  It is self-described as a “friendly alien”.  A great view of town is seen from the Needle viewing platform.

To recalibrate my sanity, we next went to Landeszeughaus, one of the largest and best preserved armories in the world.  Four huge rooms over four stories contain over 30,000 weapons (swords, pikes, knives, shields, guns, a couple of cannons, mortars, and body armor).

Though this is a museum, there are no signs, fancy displays, seats, or even air conditioning.  It is literally four floors stacked with objects on the walls and shelves.  Very utilitarian, as it was centuries ago.  To get information on the objects you need to pick up an audio guide or go on a tour.  We did neither.  Instead, we just walked around in amazement looking at everything.

We had not planned on going to Landeszeughaus because pretty much every museum in Austria has some sort of armory display.  But with our Universalmusuem Joanneum pass, and having suffered through Kunsthaus, it was a must.

Between Schloss Eggenberg and Landeszeughaus we got our money’s worth from the annual pass.

Lastly we visited the Joanneumsviertel complex, which consists of three museums: Center of Science Activities; Naturkundermuseum; and, Neue Galerie Graz.  This is one of those places we would never have gone to but for our annual pass, and the fact that we had a few free hours in town. 

The Center of Science Activities is interactive kids stuff.  It did not help that all the signs were in German.  I spent the little amount of time we were there in front of a random aquarium in the corner.

Naturkundermuseum is subdivided into two sections, zoology and geology.  Rooms and displays full of insect collections, skeletons, stuffed animals, gemstones, crystals, geodes, and all sorts of rocks.  Interesting, but still just a quick walk through. I almost felt bad for the employees working at Naturkundermuseum. They had to pay attention to Stephanie and I (or at least pretend to do so) while we were walking through the exhibits, preventing them from playing on their phones.

The Center of Science Activities and Naturkundermuseum just scream elementary school field trip.

Neue Galerie Graz is another contemporary art gallery.  I found it to be uninteresting, but not so bad to make me want to poke out my eyes. All in all, it was okay, just not for me.

On our last day in Graz we finally headed over to Graz Glockenspiel to watch the carillon.  While 24 bells play a tune, two windows open showing a dancing couple.  The show occurs three times daily (11:00 AM, 3:00 PM, and 6:00 PM) and lasts for several minutes.  It’s something different to see and we had no excuse to miss it, having been here for ten days.

Afterwards we stopped by a sidewalk table to relax and grab a beer.  The perils of ordering a drink in a foreign country reared its head for the first time on this trip.  I managed to order an alcohol-free beer, Gösser Naturgold.  Though Stephanie had a good laugh, I actually enjoyed it.

After reading about airline delays and lost baggage problems all summer, it is time to find out whether we, and our luggage, will make it back to Memphis as scheduled.  We are flying from Graz to Amsterdam, Atlanta, and then Memphis.

Hopefully starting our journey in Flughafen Graz, a small regional airport, will minimize lines at check in and security.  We’re not checking our bags either, at least not voluntarily.

Garrett and Stephanie

P.S. We made it to Memphis without a problem. Flying out of Graz was a blessing. Flughafen Graz is a tiny airport. There was no line to get through security. We had the lounge to ourselves. Arriving in Amsterdam we were plane side, so we did not have to check in or go through security, just a quick pass through the passport control checkpoint that took about five minutes.

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