Day and a half in Vienna

Vienna Day 1
Austria has a great rail system. We met a train only a 20 minute drive from where we were staying in Villach. The great this about the train is that it was divided into rooms with six seats facing each other that can be collapsed to form three beds in the room. So, M, my sister and I got a very clean private room on the train for our 4 hour trip to Vienna.The train ride was quiet smooth and very efficient. It did cost us about $160 for the trip but it meant no one had to drive us into Vienna. The train did have a lot of people on it too. I would imagine during major travel times it was very full.We had a beautiful two days in Vienna. My sister showed us around a little and made sure that we were not going to get lost. She also showed us how to use the public transit system without getting kicked off our fined for not having a proper ticket. Then set us free. She was only a student in the city and knew a little bit about the Art Museums and how to get around but could not tell us much about the history or unique things about Vienna, So we were on our own.
Beautiful fountain in a small park in the center of the city.There was also a wonderful rose garden. M is drawn to roses anytime she finds them so I had lots of time to take pictures. The building is Rathaus. I don't know much more than that. We went to the plaza infront of this building for a video concert later in the evening. There were food vendors set up and lots to drink and a great big video screen with risers and chairs to watch a concert of teh Vienna Philharmonic. It was a great place to get a feel for night life in Vienna.
Vienna was incredibly clean by far the cleanest city I have ever been in. Austria in general made the US look very messy and I felt a little ashamed that in the country with all that we have we cannot be cleaner and take care of the environment and pick up after ourselves.



McDonald's is even in Austria but they are decorated to fit into the architecture of the area. I did not go into any of the McDonald's we came across but I am told they are a little healthier and also have different options than we have in the US. I just really am sorry that McDonald's is what we have shared with the world. Is this really what people in Europe think American eat?


The Cathedrals in Europe are amazing. I have not been in anything in the US that compares. This is the inside of Stephandome. The thought of these structures being built and the inspiration to build such elaborate and ornate cathedrals is beyond my comprehension. Part of me questions the purpose of, expense and time required to build such amazing structures. Then there is the part of me that is simply amazed by the ingeuity and beauty.

I loved how the light from the stain glass was shining on the ceiling in the cathedral. Unfortunately we could not go up in the tower at the cathedral

Gargoyles are really cool I have lots of other pictures of gargolyes from England and Austria on my Shutterfly site. The contrast of newarchitecture and very old was also really neat to see.



I found it really cool that there were sun dials on buildings. I took a couple of pictures of these. I would like to know more about what all the markings on these are for.

Vienna Day 2
We started off the day going to Visit Schonbrun Palace. This was the Home of the Austrian Royalty. The really amazing thing I found about this palace was all of the historical events that occurred here or were connected to major historical figures.
We went of the grandtour and saw pictures of Marie Antoinette show was related to Austrian Royalty and the rooms where Napoleon lived when he occupied Austria. Of course they don't allow you to take pictures inside but there was a banquet hall where Kruschev and Kennedy met that I think my entire house would fit in and there would still be room to walk around the house. The lives of Royalty must have been beyond imagination for us normal middle class folk in the 21st century.




We paid for the grand tour of the palace which included the building and gardens and some other extras like an apple strudel baking demonstration with samples.

The gardens were very well groomed and I love taking pictures of flowers. These Lilies were in the fountain and pond behind us in the picture above.





The fountain on in the gardens was amazing and gigantic. The top of this fountain was easily 40 feet tall. And elaboretly carved with gods, goddess and animals.


There was a hole through the back of the fountain that you could see the palace and the gardens. There was actually a line of people waiting to take pictures from behind the fountain.


M and I also wandered the maze in the gardens. Once you found the "end" there was an observation platform. M took pictures of me trying to find my way out again.

We got done visiting Schobrun and found ourselves with not enough time to really see much more in Vienna. There was lots to see at the palace. We went back into the heart of Vienna hoping that we could take a tour of an Opera house but as it happened they did not publish teh brochure we had that tours did not happen on Tuesday. We found that out when we got to the entrance of the Opera House. So we went to the Music Museum and saw wax figures of famous Austrian Musicians. We lost track of time and had to hurry back to meet my sister only to find that we had missed our train. We had to take an Italian train back to Villach an hour later. Italian trains as it turns out are not as clean as Austrian trains. We got back to bed around 00:00. We did get to sleep on the train. We knew that tomorrow was going to start early and be a great hike but long!