On To Vienna

With a trip as quick as the one we took we just got a full day and a half in most cities.  Vienna was not an exception.  I really liked Vienna, but I think I want to go see the western Austria towns some day.  Nevertheless, what history!  Vienna or Wien as it is called was a mystery that soon opened up and we were able to get around quite nicely.  Once again the Hop On Hop Off bus was indispensable in getting  places and they had 3 routes you could jump on and off of whenever it was needed.

This is the Belvedere Palace.  It has huge grounds and is a beautiful building.  It used to be in the country, but now it is in the city.  It didn't move, the city did.

Walking around Vienna, about every 50 feet or so it seemed you would come upon one of these things.  It is for the cigarette butts and trash.  I sensed that there were more smokers in Austria than we experience in the United States.  This was really apparent when we had lunch the first afternoon in Vienna at the Gasthaus Montroy.  Joyce doesn't handle smoke too well and I am not really fond of it either, but a voracious chain smoker set down roots about 10 feet from us and put away about 7 smokes in 25 minutes.  To me that would be hard to do.

 Here we are on the Karntner Strasse, which is a large shopping and commercial area.  We sat down at an outdoor restaurant, the Venezia, and Joyce said her lasagna was the best she had ever eaten.

 Karntner Strasse at noon.  It was cool, so everyone had jackets.

This is the Mozart House, at least Wolfgang lived up in the room on the right for a few years.  It was there that he composed Figaro.  He moved around a lot I assume because he didn't pay his rent very well.

 Schonbrunn Palace is huge and amazing.  This was just a quaint little country Schloss for the Royal Family of Austria.  I imagine they had a lot of hired help to maintain it.

Joyce took this photo with me on her iPhone in the panoramic mode.  I think it turned out pretty well.

St Stephens Cathedral right in the center of town.  It is a large, fantastically imposing edifice.  The architecture and the craftsmanship of this large European churches is something I never tire of seeing.

Swarovski's is located on the Kartner Strasse.  They have some pretty incredible displays of their quartz.  This figure of a woman swinging in a feathered type chair is all glass.  The picture cannot do it justice.

And these shoes in Swarovski's will not get you back to Kansas.

The morning we were going to really have time to explore Vienna, we had to walk from our hotel to the Schwedenplatz to catch the Hop On bus.  As we walked we passed a little shop with these beautiful painted wooden signs in the front window.  Late in the afternoon as we were returning to our hotel we passed it again, but it appeared it was closed.  I tried the door.  They were open.  This big wooden disc was painted by the owner of the store and it is in the Guinness Book of World Records according to him as the largest painting of its type in the world.

This young man  and his mother are running the shop.  There are all kinds of templates and paints in there and they insisted we look in on their little working area where all the signs are produced.

All in all the Viennese people were kind and very thoughtful in helping us enjoy their old, venerated city.  We had a great time there.  And the Apple Strudel!  There is a shop chain called Aida and they serve pastries, gelato and the like.  I had to have their Apple Strudel each night.  It was huge, light crust and I am sure low cal.