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On Tour With Rock of Ages 2024 (Episode 3 – Vienna, 13th April 2024)

Florian Buechting Trip Reports No Comments

After visiting the nearby shows in Bochum and my home town Cologne, the third tour stage of the German Rock of Ages tour I visited in 2024 was Vienna. I just had one show there, the evening one, so that this episode of my trip report may be a bit shorter. I was very flattered about this trip, as it was the first time I saw the show on an Austrian stage. It will also be the only tour stage I visited which requires flying – quite a contrast to all the British shows I have visited before.

Episode 3 – Vienna

Wiener Stadthalle translates to Vienna City Center, which might suggest that there is just one arena. In fact, it is a complex of six venues and thus one of the biggest entertainment venues in Europe. They are named Halle A to Halle F (“Hall A” to “Hall F”). The biggest venue, which has a maximum capacity of 16,100 (Halle D) also hosted the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Rock of Ages was held in Halle F, which is a 2,000 people, theater-alike venue and also the newest of all arenas. It is rather close to Vienna Western Rail Station (Wien Westbahnhof) and thus perfectly connected with a wide range of public transport. On top of these six venues, there is also an Olympic size indoor pool.

 

The Trip To Vienna

My original booking was a very relaxed one: a some 10:00 flight from Cologne to Vienna, which would have meant that I am in the Vienna Airport train or bus around noon, maybe having a few hours in the Austrian capital before heading to the theater. Unfortunately, the flight got cancelled and the only option available was a 6:45 Eurowings flight. Hotel at the airport? I love the Moxy there, but the fitness (and more and more: influencer) trade fair FIBO in Cologne sky-rocketed the hotel prices, unfortunately.

 

Being at 04:30 at Cologne Main Station for the airport commuter train was a bit of a challenge (and means getting up at around 03:20 for me…). The train ride was quite smooth, check-in for the flight was fine as well. I am rarely at my home town airport when the landside bakery is still closed, by the way. The local airport lounge, simply named The Lounge, should normally open at 05:00 – however, this day they opened at 05:35, which completely broke my morning planning. On the flight to Vienna, a passenger right behind me collapsed twice for a short moments – one just as we left the gate and one in the air. However, we did not have to put in an additional stop and despite some delays on ground, we were still before scheduled arrival time in Vienna (VIE). I even caught one Vienna Airport Line bus earlier than I expected.

 

Some Time in The Austrian Capital

Thus, I was also much earlier at the Mercure Vienna West Station I had booked compared to my plans. I thus decided to head out to the Vienna Central Cemetery, the second largest in the world. There are also a number of “honorary graves”, which makes the place really interesting to stroll through. I sad farewell to Austrian schlager author Udo Jürgens, my birth town (Bonn) guy Beethoven or, of course, Falco. Overall, I spend some three hours on the grounds.

I originally planned to have some real Austrian food. However, I went for the nerdy option. I went to the Vytopna Railroad Restaurant at the Naschmarkt. The Czech brand is bringing you food and train directly to your seat… By a model railroad. Funny stuff – and the food was nice as well. I had some time to get back to the hotel. However, the Mercure Wien Westbahnhof (Mercure Vienna West Station) came with quite some issues.

 

The Show – 13th April 2024, 19:30

Hard to believe, but the first show in Vienna was in fact the first one of the tour where the full first cast was on stage. This also implied that Linda Holmgren hat one of their shows as Regina on stage at all. I felt a bit sad for the swings, especially for local girl Stephanie Löblich, who I looked forward to see in the Stadthalle. I love sitting in the first row and being rather close to the stage – but the first row had a couple of meters distance from the actors, which felt a bit of weird. The show went surprisingly smoothly – apart from Drew (Felix Freund) failing to get the VW Beetle mock-up from stage.

With some 1,500 people, the show was really well-attended. From what I heard from the reactions of other people, they loved it – and indeed, it has been a big party again. Bad luck that the schedule (one show on Saturday, two shows on Sunday and shows on Monday and Tuesday) did not give me more than one show in Vienna – but at least, I really loved my first Rock of Ages show in Austria.

 

Epilogue – Going back home

Even though the stage door area was locked up for fans, I had the opportunity to meet quite some of the cast members after the show. Was really a pleasure to catch up with so many of them – and also meet some other fans of the show. The technical issues in the hotel continued while I was back in the hotel. I got stuck in the elevator, had no WiFi and finally found out that I was not too dumb to use the air conditioning in the room. It simply switched off after a bunch of minutes – very inconvenient on a rather warm night. At least, the breakfast at the Mercure was really a blast. I felt lucky that my computers were prepared in a way that I could work offline and prepare some posts.

Apart from some weird crew behavior, the trip back home was rather smooth. The bus back to the airport was fine and I had some good working time at the Austrian Senator Lounge at the airport. Receiving your luggage about an hour after touch down is infame at other airports in Germany, it was comparably quick for Frankfurt Airport (FRA) and gave me some 90 minutes in the lovely German Rail Lounge at the airport before heading back to Cologne Main Station. Back at home in my residence Leverkusen, the houses were full of red and black flags and scarves. I cannot create any sympathy for that club, but on a purely sportsman level, my highest respect to Bayer Leverkusen for winning the German Soccer Championship for the first time – and in such an outstanding way.

As in all postings before, I took the pictures of the show only in the finale with my point and shoot camera.

 

On Tour with Rock of Ages 2024 – My Trip Report

Here are the six episodes I am planning to release:

 

 

Vienna on Flyctory.com

Here are all my postings related to Vienna in Austria:

 

Rock of Ages (Musical)

Here are all postings related to the musical Rock of Ages:

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