Vienna, Austria

We traveled from Salzburg to Vienna to stay there for 2 nights. Our little dash-mounted navigation system worked well and got us there with no issues. Upon arriving, the first thing that struck us was the size of the city. As we would learn the theme for Vienna is BIG. We entered the outskirts and the nav was still saying we had about 15 minutes to the hotel...the city just seemed to go on and on. We arrived at our hotel around 8:30 pm and got checked in. We had eaten on the road so Pam unpacked and we tried to get to bed early. The idea was an early start the next day. Thanks to the room darkening drapes, we headed out around 11am the next morning - So much for an early start! We found a nice restaurant nearby and ate outside. The food was very good...as was the beer ;) We next headed into the heart of 'The Ring' toward St. Stephen's Cathedral. We found the main spire under construction but again the shear size of the building was incredible. There were lots of shops in the area and we did some quick shopping. Vienna has more western good for sale then Prague does. One on my co-workers had given us some Euros to pick him up some Starbucks coffee and that was our only dedicated quest. We found one with ease and got him a couple pounds of drip ground. Pam was extremely jealous as she has been missing fresh brewed coffee and had not found a machine she could easily operate. We had gone to dinner at a friend's house and they had just purchased a Nestle Nespresso, one cup machine. We had been meaning to head to Old Town to buy one for ourselves but had not made it down there before the trip. We then noticed an electronics shop...much like a super small Best Buy or Circuit City...and they had the Nespresso advertised. We went in an were very happy to see that in addition to this machine, they had the European version of our Braun Tassimo coffee maker we had left at home (since it only worked on 120v). I think I spied actual tears of joy as Pam ran to find a clerk. We bought one of those and, due to the small selection, a very moderate supply of the coffee disks for it. We will need to continue to get the coffee for this machine from outside the country so when heading over this way please reserve us a little space in your suitcases for a coffee care package. The day was in the mid 80's we had done some good walking, and at this point Alex said she needed a nap and wanted to go back to the hotel. We arrived back to the hotel at about 3:30 and Alex and Logan took naps. When they got up, we all headed down to the indoor pool area. We splashed around there for a while and after a dramatic exit from the Princess, we returned to our room, changed, and headed out for dinner. We asked at the concierge where a good family place was and we were off. We found the establishment and headed inside. Outside they advertised the fact they had Air Conditioning however all the windows were open and it was a still a bit hot and sticky. Apparently they have it but do not run it often. The interior was decorated in...well, the best and most honest description I can provide is, hunting lodge. There were stuffed and mounted animals in every corner of the place along with some very old paintings. The seating was comfortable and the food very, very good. The beer was a local brew and had a very nice honey flavor to it. We had been the only people in this room when we ordered but soon they seated another patron, an older man from America. The poor guy was subjected to Alex's outbursts, Logan's constant crying, and our singing along with a live broadcast of Maroon 5. However, we all managed to enjoy the evening and the atmosphere and he left with a small smile - whether it was from the entertainment portion of the evening or the knowledge that he was returning to his quiet world will always be a mystery! After dinner we walked back to the hotel and swore we would get an early start the next day. We got up and had the car loaded and breakfast done before 11am. We got on the tram that ran in front of our building and ran around the afore mentioned 'Ring' - a large loop of downtown passing many historic sites. We got off near the statue of Mozart in the Burggarten. Alex and I went into a Botanical Garden that was having a butterfly exhibit...seemed a bit light on butterflies but was fun. Unfortunately it was a bit overcast and spitting rain on us as we continued our sightseeing. We walked around and then through a couple other huge government palace and museum buildings. Again the shear size of these buildings was overwhelming. We went though a final garden and out the other side to re-board a tram and head back to our car to head home. I had initially felt like we had seen a good amount of the city but on the tram ride back to the hotel, we saw at least another 5-6 areas with incredible buildings to explore. It would seem you would really need much more time to even scratch the surface of what Vienna has to offer.
On the drive home we stopped at a Tesco and took advantage of the fact we had a car. We stocked up on bottled water and paper products as these are the heaviest and bulkiest items to carry home when walking. This seemed like a brilliant idea until presented with all the stairs to carry the water up once we got home. We managed to get all of the water and suitcases upstairs and no one developed chest pains or numbness in their arms. Alex then made a castle out of all the bottled water and played in it. Good times... More Pictures