Arrival in Wien (Jan 31)

The conductor woke us about an hour before arrival in Vienna. We were served tea and hard rolls with butter for BREAKFAST, in caps because it meant we were no longer in Italy. A general rule is that the farther north you go in Europe, the bigger the breakfast gets! We arrived at Westbahnhof and walked about 10 blocks to our room. We stayed with a lady who rents out rooms in her home, Budai Ildiko. She spoke English, and our room was spacious, clean, and she gave us a key so we could come and go as we pleased. Highly recommend her!

We walked 10-15 min to get downtown, visited the tourist info office and bought tickets for tonight's concert, and took a tram around "The Ring". It used to be a wall until 1860 when Emperor Franz Joseph had it knocked down and turned into a 190ft wide road! The tram took us by a whirlwind of sights, all built after 1860. We saw neo-renaissance, neo-gothic, neo-baroque. All kinds of neo's! (See photo neo-gothic city hall by night.) We also saw the Opera House and the Sacher Cafe, home of the famous Austrian Sacher Torte!

We walked down Karntner Strasse, a pedestrian only major shopping street where 12th century crusaiders walked toward the Holy Land. That lead us to St. Stephan's Cathedral, the National Church of Austria in the center of Vienna. The pulpit is on of the most intricate carvings we've ever seen.

As we walked through the old city center, we came upon the Hofburg Palace, the winter home of the Hapsburg rulers. The Hapsburg's were in power right up until WWI. We toured the Imperial Apartments and the Sisi Museum. Sisi was the nickname for Empress Elizabeth, who has been compared to Princess Diana. From ordinary to extrodinary, full of trajedy along the way. She is worth looking up!

We finished the night with a concert at the Kursalon, where Johann Strauss conducted his orchestra & waltzes. It turns out the concert was primarily for tourists, and there was more English than German being spoken, but it was still a great cultural experience as well as a history lesson! Some music was familiar and some was new, and we went to bed that night with new melodies dancing through our thoughts.