Vienna!

This morning we woke up and went down to our free breakfast provided by the hotel. It was one of the best breakfasts we've had here. Every hotel we go to they serve similar things. Some sort of toast or bread, salami, cheese, tomatoes, sometimes cornflakes, and sometimes some sort of fruit. Not always what we're looking for, especially since we're such breakfast people!

But today there were scrambled eggs! And yogurt with granola! And a machine where you could make your own espresso (Doug made me a double shot). So we started out the day with happy tummies.

Our first stop was to go and buy a new camera. We found a Nikon store on the way and showed him our camera, but he told us we'd have to get it serviced. So we kept going to the store that our reception desk had directed us to. We found it and got pretty much the same camera that we had, but one model up (we had the S3000, and now we have the S3100). So hopefully this one serves us a bit better (I swear I have the worst luck with cameras!)

With a camera in tow, we started for our first destination, but wound up at the Hofburg Palace. We didn't go inside, but just took pictures of the outside. There were people trying to sell tickets to an orchestra concert that was playing tonight, but they were too expensive for us (sorry Nana).

Hofburg Palace (but I think this is the back of it)

Little park area where people were lounging in the grass

I saw these people walking across the roof so I took their picture. They were in suits, so I dunno what they were doing up there

The buildings here are impressive. Maybe the best that we've seen. So much molding, paint, and mosaics (This picture has the Douglas store in it; we saw sooo many of them today, along with a million H&Ms

Then we went to St. Stephan's Cathedral (Stephansdom). It was a must see for Vienna according to everything. The tiled roof was amazing. It was being restored, but we like how when they restore a building, they cover it in a screen that looks like what the building would look like (you can see it on the lower right). Almost every building has had that, except for the church in Berlin, in which the whole thing was covered up.

Intricate!

The other side of the roof

More cool buildings (with McDonalds and Douglas store. Our guidebooks warned us about the golden arches being on cool buildings)

This...is the inside of a Burger King. They are fancy all around!

The opera house

We decided to go to the Museum of Music. It was an interactive museum and showed how sound is made and perceived. It taught about sound as a building block for music. It really was neat. They had a history on the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, and had a small theatre room that played the New Year's Eve Performance (so wish we could go to one of those) that they had at the palace. They even played the Star Wars theme. On another floor they had interactive parts that allowed you to learn your threshold of sound (but not specifically) compared to an animals, and how we detect sound space (source of a sound). They had a room that allowed you to hear perfect surround sound (kinda seemed like normal surround sound, perhaps we're spoiled). On another floor they gave short histories on the famous composers that worked in Vienna. Mozart, love sick Beethoven, Haydn, Schubert, and others we hadn't really heard of. They had a free audio tour too.

I don't think this was Beethoven's personal piano, but the placard was vague, so I took a picture anyways

This is the last door that Beethoven ever walked through. It was the door to his apartment where he died. Kind of an odd thing to hold on to

These definitely were Schubert's glasses that he wore when he composed. They made that clear!

They also had a room where you could conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. They followed your tempo and didn't play unless you directed them. They played faster if you sped up your direction, and slower if you slowed. It was really cool!

We walked down to a monument that we had seen from down the road. I dunno what this was, but it looked cool.

The fountain in front is the Hochstrahlbrunnen Fountain, which commemorates a major pipeline that was built to bring water to Vienna (their water actually boasts of being cleaner than bottled water). Behind that is a Russian monument to the 18,000 soldiers that died in the liberation of Vienna of Germany in WWII. It's called the Denkmal der Roten Armee (Monument to the Red Army)

St. Charles' Church

We then took the underground to get to another Palace. As we walked to the palace it started to rain and sprinkle a bit. And the wind picked up. And it was cooold. I was beginning to think that I shouldn't have worn shorts. It was a nice day out, but that wind was cold!

We didn't go into the palace. We were mainly interested in the gardens. So we just went into those, which were free

Gloriette. We decided to hike up there and were glad that we did!

Slightly closer look

View of Vienna from the top of the hillside

The storm as it headed out

And left pretty clouds!

We then wanted to go and see the Military Museum. Apparently they have the car that Archduke Franz Ferdinand was riding in when he was assassinated, along with his still bloody coat that he was wearing. We had a little trouble finding it, cause my guidebook was vague. When we finally made it there, it was closed. So I settled for a picture of the outside of the building.

There is still so much we could do here and so much to see that we didn't get a chance to. We didn't get to see where Mozart lived when he composed "The Marriage of Figaro." We didn't see the Beethoven Monument. Maybe we'll have to come back here someday.

This is near our hotel and we found it a hilarious name for a gas station:

Tomorrow we ship out to Salzburg! Luckily, it's a slightly shorter train ride, so we should have more time. My legs are so sore from all the walking today, so I'm looking forward to resting them the rest of the night. I'm off to pack up my bag and get some rest. Good night!