Vienna Waits for You

Okay, maybe Vienna isn't waiting for you but JG sang this line to a Billy Joel song the entire time we were in Vienna.  We left the house at a decent time and according to the GPS Vienna is just 4.5 hours from our home....however, when you have kids and are limited to just one chain of gas stations in Germany in which you can use a ration card to get gas it tends to add some time to the drive.  A lot of time. 

We arrived at the Hotel Cortina around 4:30 p.m. and checked in.  We grabbed the camera and our jackets before we headed to the U-bahn, which is just a short walk from the hotel, so we could begin our adventures in the city.  We took the subway to Karlsplatz and grabbed a frappuccino from Starbucks before we walked down to St. Stephen's Cathedral.  This beautiful church has an amazing rooftop and gorgeous spires but as our luck would have it it also had an abundance of scaffolding.  At least many famous sites make an effort to disguise the scaffolding by covering it with a photo of what you're missing.

Located right next to the church is the store to one of my most favorite treats of all our travels, the Manner wafer cookies!  The lemon wafers are so delicious and I was excited to visit the store but it was crowded the first night so we went back the next day.  I ended up with a little stash of cookies!

On the same platz (square) we found a group of street performers so we stopped to watch their show.  These guys were pretty amazing...take a look below.  Yeah, that guy was spinning on his head!  

We found this interesting memorial named The Gates of Violence, just a block over from St Stephen's and on the Albertinaplatz, which is in rememberance of all victims of wars and violence.  It was a very interesting piece of art with images on all sides. 

The Albertinaplatz is just a small portion of the Hofburg Palace and this portion is now a museum.  I liked this statue of the gentleman on the horse mostly because I like the oxidation.  I really, really like the way a green dome looks against a blue (or in this case cloudy) sky.  The contrast is usually very stunning and I find myself wanting to take tons of photos. 

By this time it was pretty late so we stopped for dinner and then headed back to the hotel.  My first impression of Vienna was pretty amazing.  Honestly, if given a little more time there, it just might replace Prague as my favorite city!  I loved being there. 

The next day we continued our walking tour and I will share those photos tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by today.