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Strauss Monument
The famous Strauss statue...apparently something everyone who visits here wants to have their photo taken standing on (and one of the brief moments when no one was!). Another beautiful day in Vienna... we really have been lucky with the weather so far. We started off this morning at the Spanish Riding School, home of the Lippanzer Stallions. We watched the morning exercise, which basically consists of two hours of watching the horses run and trot in circles. It was a bit monotonous, but the horses are beautiful so we stayed the whole time. They offer a Gala Performance on certain nights, but the price is rather high and the seats sell out quickly, so the exercise is a cheaper alternative.
After the riding school we went to the Natural History Museum (the KHM) because we had free tickets. The museum was pretty much like every other history museum I've been to, so I wasn't too impressed with anything there. However, since it was free for us to go in, I really couldn't complain.
After the museum we walked over to Burgarrten where I took a picture of the Mozart statue. We had some time to kill so we relaxed in the park and people watched. After about a half hour we took Tram 1 to the Burgtheater and took a 3pm tour (in English!). The
Natural History Museum
This museum is identical to the KHM museum across from it (aside from the statue in front). theater is absolutely beautiful inside with a ceiling full of murals painted by Gustav Klimt. The entire tour lasted about 50 minutes. A funny side note about the Burgtheater.... to get to the women's bathroom, you have to literally walk THROUGH the men's bathroom. This was quite a surprise to the guy standing at the urinal as a group of us women went strolling past. I think it was much more embarrassing for him than it was for us!
After we left Burgtheater, we took Tram 2 to Stadtpark to see the Johann Strauss statue. What an event that was! Apparently Strauss is quite the hero here as people were lining up to take pictures next to the statue. This made it quite difficult to get a photo without a stranger standing in it. We decided to walk around the park instead of waiting and came to a beer garden (Biergarten im Stadtpark) where we decided to have dinner. I had a vegetarian schnitzel which was very good. I also ordered an iced coffee that had the best whipped cream I have ever tasted on the top.
After dinner we walked back over to the statue and I
Natural History Museum
A closer view of the statue in front... was finally able to get a picture without someone standing in it... hurray! We then took Tram 2 to Schwedenplatz and transferred to the U1 to Praterstern. We walked around the Prater and I took a photo of the giant ferris wheel (built in 1896!). It was 8 Euro to ride the ferris wheel, which I thought was a bit too high, so we decided not to ride and walked around the park instead. We then took the U1 to Stephansplatz and tranferred to the U3 to Volkstheater. We then walked around the shopping streets near our hotel looking for a place to buy a bottle of wine. To our dismay, the stores selling liquor here seem to all close at 7pm! We gave up tryzing to find something and instead headed back to our hotel. I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow to get some wine! They do have a bar here at the hotel but the prices are twice as high as anywhere else.
Tomorrow we are off to the flea market at Naschmarkt and then to the city center to see Hofburg Palace and St. Stephan's Cathedral!
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Michael
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Hahaha, that's funny about having to wait so long to try get a photo of the statue without it being populated by strangers :D (Although it was probably frustrating at the time, sorry for laughing). Oooh, a theatre full of Klimt murals sounds eyecatching. Wow! That must be one of the oldest running Ferris Wheels in the world, that must have been a really impressive sight to see it still running! Sorry your wine plans were frustrated.