Upon arriving in Vienna, Cassidy and I walked a few blocks into the 1st District, which is where we would spend most of our time enjoying the sights. After walking and getting somewhat acclimated to the layout, we found an Indian restaurant and settled in with a couple of Austrian beers. We decided to make it an early night so that we could get a full day of sights in the next day.
We started day 2 with a large cup o' Starbucks (just to clarify, I don't like to SEE them, but I still love a strong cuppa to get me going) and then headed to St. Stephen's Cathedral. It was built in the 12th century and is another example of the Gothic design that we see over here quite a bit. We were able to go up one of the towers to enjoy views of Vienna, but quickly left due to the cold and wind!
Next stop was the Hofburg Palace Complex. It was the winter palace of the Hapsburgs and it is HUGE! It is a city within a city that houses multiple museums, churches, not to mention the actual living quarters. We visited the Imperial Apartments, Silver & Porcelain Collection, Sissi Museum, and the Treasury. All except the Treasury were interesting and impressive. Even Cassidy enjoyed looking at the old porcelain and silver (for a limited time). It just gives you a glimpse into how lavish their lifestyle was. There was different tableware for every occassion, complete with gold, silver, bronze and family crests on each of the thousands of pieces. We listened to our guide book and paid the 20 Euro to see the "amazing treasury collection" and found it was not at all worth our time or money. However, we did get a good laugh out of it when Cassidy wanted a picture of him "trying on the crown". Yes, we are that easily amused.
Afterwards, we strolled around the grounds where I visited the horses and then we ate a late lunch in a park. Much to their liking, I shared mine with the pigeons. We found so many beautiful old buildings that weren't in our book and just wandered through them while I snapped some pictures.
That night we had tickets to an orchestra performance at the Musikverein in the Golden Hall. Per Frommers, this is "one of the four acoustically best concert halls in the world". We were there for a concert that was mostly Mozart and the music was magnificent. There were also a couple of opera numbers which I did not like. I have never been to an opera before and I cannot say that I will be jumping to go again anytime soon.
On day 3 we had tickets to the Lipizzaner horse show. It is basically a dressage show with some "tricks" added into it. I loved it because I used to ride horses and am familiar with how difficult it is to make a horse do anything he doesn't want to do...let alone prance around in unnatural gaits to the beat of classical music. The auditorium is part of the palace and was ridiculously beautiful as you can see by the picture. Understandably, they don't allow pictures during the show so that the horses can concentrate so I don't have any good action shots.
We spent the rest of the day at Schonbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Hapsburgs. Mind you, this summer home is no more than 10 miles away from their winter palace and their idea of a summer home is about 1,400 rooms small. Ahh, to be royalty! This palace was just as extravagant as the other. Behind it was their own park complete with a labyrinth that Cass and I each managed to get through on our own. No David Bowie sightings in here though (anyone watch Labyrinth as much as me during their childhood?).
That about covers Vienna. It lived up to our high expectations and we enjoyed our time there. One curious thing though, they eat a whole lot of ice cream. I'm serious, we saw people at 10 am eating huge sundaes or waffle cones full of ice cream. We originally thought they were tourists...but later decided they weren't. I'm not judging b/c I fully support this lifestyle, but I thought it was worth mentioning. And to end, some random pictures during our Vienna visit...up next, Prague.
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