Elegance Everywhere: Vienna

We arrived in Vienna on Wednesday and, when we were planning this trip, we had thought the 3 1/2 days we have here would be too much.  Well, it isn't!  There is so much to see and do that we are now running out of time.

Vienna oozes elegance - in its architecture, its culture and its rich history.  To start, we did the Big Bus Hop On/Hop Off bus tour which here involved two routes.  In hindsight, except for the fact that one of the routes takes you to the magnificent Schonbrunn Palace, you can probably best see Vienna on foot.  The Metro is convenient and easy to access most of the places you would want to see.  And, a further note about the bus tour, Vienna has a regulation that the upper level of these buses must have roofs.  That means, when the temperature is warm like it is here right now, riding around is a bit like being in a very hot greenhouse.  Besides, half of the buses have windows that don't open very wide so you absolutely bake when you are on them!

The "red route" seems to cover most of the city but, as many of the sights are in the "Inner Ring", it is just as easy to walk to them.  We started at the Votivkirche near where we are staying.  The first part of the tour took us by many beautiful, historic buildings such as the Hofburg Palace, the Rathaus (City Hall) and the Opera.

The Votivkirche

The Hofburg Palace

Mozart's Statue

More of the Palace

The Opera

The next part of the bus tour took us further out of the city centre over to the Prater district which has an amusement park with its Reisenrad (Ferris wheel) and lots of restaurants and clubs.  Then, we went crossed the Danube to the UNO City where a number of very modern UN buildings are.

The Danube Tower - which is closed for renos so it's a good thing we didn't "hop off" to see it!

More so than the bus tour, we have really enjoyed walking around the city.  Of course my sister wants to visit the main churches (and even some of the other ones too) and we have also tried to partake in the Viennese cafe culture, even though neither of us drink coffee!  We went to the Sacher Eck, the cafe where the famous Sachertorte is served.  This was invented by a 16 year old Franz Sacher who managed to parlay his creation into fame and fortune.  Have to say, it was pretty yummy!  Another day, feeling a bit overheated by the temperatures in the high 20s, we stopped for a zitron soda (lemon and soda) at the Konzert Cafe Schwarzenburg, another of the city's famous cafe dating from the late 1800s.  

St. Stephen's Cathedral and the interior (below)

Peterskirche

Michaelerkirche (St. Michael's Church) 

Michaelerkirche (St. Michael's Church) Interior

At Sacher Eck having Sachertorte (below)

The Konzert Cafe Schwartzenberg where we had zitron soda

On Friday, we went to visit Schonbrunn Palace.  More about it and the trip there in the next blog.

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