Day one of sightseeing in Vienna

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Tuesday 25th August
Day one of sightseeing in Vienna
Readers you will be pleased to know that Gretchen has not divorced me after yesterdays debacle of trying to find our hotel for the night!!So the adventure continues.
The fine weather and heatwave continues also so we will need to ensure that we dress accordingly and take on plenty of water as we look around Vienna.
The city is just a twenty five minute train ride away and a €5 ticket covers all means of transport for a 24 hour period.
We got off the train at one of the cities underground stations and emerged and took a #2 tram that travels around the inner ring road of the older part of the city and principal tourist area.We got ourselves a map of the city which also included details of the main tourist sites and marked the things we wanted to see and do.
First port of call was the grand St Stephens cathedral located in a square near the tourist office.Like many of the buildings we have visited on this adventure the cathedral was under some reconstruction on one side.This one was a bit different though as a huge transparent cover protecting the works going on had a picture of what the cathedral looked like underneath.It did make the view more complete from down on the ground than we might have seen of the building without the transparent cover.
We had arrived when a mass was taking place so entry to the whole of the inside of the building was restricted.We joined dozens of tourists peering through or over(if you were tall enough)a railing stopping people from venturing any further into the body of the cathedral while the mass was in progress.
The cathedral which dates back to medieval times was severley damaged during air raids in WW2 but has been restored.It wasn’t as spectacular inside as other western cathedrals we have visited but it is always interesting to make comparisons while wandering around inside.
There is so much architecture to see in the city and we took some of the prominent buildings mainly theatres as we headed off to find the ‘Blue Danube’.The river appeared on the tourist map we had but as we found out it doesn’t run through the centre of the city or anywhere near the centre for that matter!!In fact we found that we were the only tourists walking through streets taking the most direct way we could to get a look at this world famous river.
When we found it,the river wasn’t blue as we expected(not that we really did expect a river running through a major city to be anything but the usual greyish colour)and in fact it wasn’t visible being hidden behind trees lining the road that runs closest to it.And to add to that we had to cross a railway line to get to the embankment to view it.
There was a pleasant walkway and cycle track that runs along the river and the point that we arrived at was also where the many cruise boats that travel the Danube tie up for the time that they are in the city.The boats are small,accommodating 200 to 300 passengers on a range of cruises that leave either from points east or as far west as Amsterdam travelling on the navigatable waterways of Europe.There were over a half a dozen boats tied up with their passengers transported away to the centre of the city for the day doing sightseeing.There were still a few people on board the boats sitting back in the sun enjoying long cool drinks in plush looking armchairs on the front deck.It all looked pretty cruisy!!
Seeing people taking on cool drinks made us head for the nearest cafe/bar as we headed back to the main part of the city.We decided that we weren’t going to walk back to the tourist area in the 30c heat and caught a couple of trams to get us to where we wanted to be.
We strolled around the huge Hofburg Palace in the middle of a large green area of the city with lovely gardens and lawn under shady trees.Then moved on to the magnificent Greek revival style Parliament building.Like many of the buildings in this city it is huge and it is often impossible to get the complete building in a photograph.The building has a large statute in front of it and dozens of small statues on the top of the building.
At the Rathaus(Town Hall)there was a food festival happening and even though it was only coming up to 5pm we hadn’t had much in the way to eat during the day so we thought we might as well have dinner right here.There were about a dozen countries represented all with menus of food particular to their own part of the world.We could have even had a kangaroo steak from the Australian stall but we opted for the local Austrian one and had wiener schnitzel(what else do you have in Austria) a pasta dish with meat and cheese all washed down with a couple of cold Kaiser beers.
The Rathaus was a vast building built in Gothic style and would have made a great photo had we been able to see it all!!But along with the food festival the city was also showing movies in the evening on a giant screen.....right in front of the entry to the building.We got the best views we could and then headed for home taking the #2 tram back around the ring road to the station.

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Photos

Cathedral,Vienna
Note the transparent cover on the tower which makes it look like you are seeing the cathedral in its entirety even though reconstruction is going on behind it.

Haven't they found out he is dead
We found this poster on the street walking down to the Danube!!

Comments

[Rin]

Cathedral
That cover has been on the cathedral since we were there in May 2006!! It looked exactly the same when we were there....