Wien in 36 Stunden!

Friday we left in the morning to drive 7 hours to Vienna, Austria. The first 4 hours consisted of me behind the wheel cursing the road numerous times. The speed limit would go from unlimited to 100 to 80 to 60 to 80 to 60 all within 1 km and then there would be a camera over the road and the construction zone would begin and I would be driving in a lane 2 m wide next to a semi and the process would repeat. After we entered Austria, the speed was consistently 130 km/hr and Ryan had the privilege of driving.

We arrived at our hotel Best Western Kagran late afternoon. It is definitely the cheapest and best value hotel room we have stayed in so far in Europe. Our room is massive compared to other European rooms. After stretching our legs from the long car ride and getting settled in our room, we headed our on the U-Bahn to the Naschmarkt for a snack. We walked down the long stretch of food vendors passing many of the same delicious items: Chinese food, hummus, olives, cheese filled dates and figs, candy and dried fruit, tourist souvenirs, and restaurants. The vendors were very multicultural and aggressively calling to you and handing out snacks to taste. I caved and tried a falafel. It was delicious and I was happily swindeled into buying 8 pieces of falafel, a cheese filled date, some delicious hummus, and baklava (which they spell baklawa). Then we walked down the road to enjoy our snacks with little teeny tiny forks in a grass yard behind a building. We explored the area around the tourist info center. Side note: I have tried to find the tourist info center in nearly every city we have visited and honestly the only really helpful ones were in Lund, Sweden and Berlin, Germany I think. Many of the tourist info centers just have a few brochures and a place to buy tickets, and are not worth the visit, but that is just my opinion. I have found the hotel consierges, and the internet to be more helpful when trip planning.

Then we took the train on a quest to find a Deutsche Bank ATM. There were two listed on Google in a concentrated area but neither exist any longer so we failed. We gave up and headed towards the Danube Tower (pictured to the right) where we had a dinner reservation at 9 pm. We walked through a massive business complex and apartment building to a cute park with great green grass and unique artistic gardens. People were playing frisbee, soccer, volleyball, and tennis with picnic blankets set up all over. We sat and watched people bungee jump from the tower for awhile, then went up the elevator to the top of the tower. I wore a short summer dress which was dumb because the viewing platform at the top of the tower was cold and very windy. The tower was built in 1964, is 252 meters above city level and has a cafe and rotating restaurant inside. Ryan and I enjoyed our first and probably only coursed meal in Europe complete with appetizer plate, aperitif, soup, main entree, and dessert. We chose different things off the set menu of course so that we could try as much as possible and thoroughly enjoyed every bite! The city was also quite pretty at night from the tower.

Side note: one of the stations we were in downtown had signage on the walls with digital displays increasing numbers. We could not read all of them because they were in German, but some said things like; Number of schnitzel eaten in Austria since the beginning of the year. Some amounts were in days and some in Euros. What a fun idea!

So the free breakfast in our hotel is pretty simple and consists of coffee, juice, and tea, a banana, 2 slices of bread, 4 rolls, sausage sticks, butter, jam, and meat spread including chicken and cow liver spread. After eating what we could, avoiding the spreads, we headed downtown to the Sigmund-Freud Park to meet for a free walking tour. Side note: we encountered the view pictured to the left while we were walking. Zoom in on the picture if you can. I think it is hilarious.

Here are the highlights from our 3 hour, 8 km tour:

- Universities in Austria are completely free. There are so many students in many classes that there are not enough seats so students take notes sitting on the ground.
- Vienna Rathaus (City Hall) was built at the time when buildings could not be taller than the nearest church so the architect built it just 1 meter shorter than the nearest church...and then added a large statue on top to make it taller than the church.
- The Music Film Festival was currently going on at the Rathaus platz which is supposedly the busiest platz in Austria.
- Many of the buildings in Vienna are made to look old but are actually relatively new.
- Austrian Parliament building is built in the Greek style to demonstrate democracy and has a large statue of the Greek God of intelligence in front. When Austrians are upset with decisions made by Parliament, they joke that the Greek God is looking away from Parliament because there is not any intelligence inside the building.
- Sisi lived a rather sad life and was stabbed to death through the heart.
- Vienna city center used to be surrounded by a wall. There is now a road there that runs where the wall used to be around the old city center.
- Austrians love their sweets too! Manner wafers, introduced in 1898 by the confectionery dynasty founded by Josef Manner are pretty tasty.
- Our tour guide was very informative and at the end of the tour told us that he was an aspiring photographer and had postcards made of a picture he took of Vienna at night. He gave each of us a postcard as a gift and asked that he like his page on Facebook because if he gets 1,000 likes then a shop owner will sell his postcard. (Search Timariuveo to "like" his page).

After the tour we stopped for a quick lunch at Cafe Europe. Our sandwich and salad were decent but the service was slow and I feel like our server was particularly rude because we did not speak German fluently. After our trip to Copenhagen I learned the importance of taking a break to rest and refuel after a 3 hour walking tour.

We arrived at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna just in time to pick up our reserved tickets for a guided tour in English. The school trains Lipizzan stallions and riders to to perform. Usually the stables house 72 horses but most of the horses are on holiday in pasture this time of year and the performances are on hold until August. The best Lipizzan stallions arrive at the school in Vienna at age 4 to begin training and then performing at age 12 and have two rights...the right to take a 2 month holiday annually in pastures and the right to retire at age 25. The indoor winter arena is pictured to the right. I learned a lot about the horses, riders, and school and would have loved to see a performance.

Then we walked around the shopping area on Mariahilfe Strasse and took a street car to the Salm Haus Brauerei and Restaurant. Side note: I was really happy on the old street car. I have a thing for trolleys and street cars. Anyway, we were directed to join a table with an older couple on the patio and were soon joined by another older couple. We quickly found out that both couples were from Frankfurt, Germany and here on holiday, arriving by bus. They spoke to us in German and some English when we both looked very confused and we enjoyed a few hours of conversation about Germany, beer, English, Harley motorcycles, and Bosch. I thoroughly enjoyed the food and practiced German while having great conversation with nice people.

After dinner we strolled through the Belvedere Gardens. Belvedere is an Italian word that literally translates to "beautiful sight". The view of the building and gardens with fountains and statues is beautiful. And then we had ice cream for dessert at the largest ice cream parlor we have visited in Europe, Zanoni.

Then we rested after a long day in Vienna!

Side note and "lightbulb moment": So Vienna in German is Wien. So Wiener Schnitzel means "Viennese Schnitzel" or schnitzel from Vienna. It is the national dish of Austria, duh!