Day Trip to Vienna

We had an early flight so we landed in Vienna shortly after 8 AM so we were in the city by 9 AM. First of all we decided to have breakfast which we did in a 'Kaffeehaus' (coffee house) for which Wien is famous. It was like we imagined it: people from Vienna come there to have a coffee (they do have different names for it than we have in Germany although in Austria they do speak german too). 


The evening before Kerstin and I had tried to decide on a rough route for the day as Vienna does have a lot to offer. Our idea was to go to Schoenbrunn in the morning before the hundreds of tour busses arrive. So after we had finished breakfast we took the subway to Schoenbrunn which was home to the famous 'Sissi' (not sure the film series with Romy Schneider and Karl Heinz Böhm is known in the US - I LOVE to watch them).


Saw those two guys and they just impressed me... that moment I didn't know how much more statues like these we would see in the hours to come...

Once we came to the back side of Schloss Schoenbrunn we were just like 'WOW!'


The Neptun fountain was rather impressing....


Back side of Schoenbrunn Castle with parts of the garden:


And to give you an impression how the garden looked like: this is a wide angle pic made from up on the Neptun fountain.


Going back towards the main entrance we passed several of the alleys where you can stroll around at leisure... (we didn't as we still had so much stuff to see... ;).


From Schoenbrunn we took the subway to the Opera. The subwas station itself was not so nice as it was full of drug addicts (we even saw one guy sitting on the stairs with a calculator and he probably was calculating a price for a customer...).

This is the opera:


Had we known of the city tour with oldtimers, we might have booked a tour... ;)


Those Mozart-esque guys were trying to sell tickets for concerts. We didn't envy them to have to wear this stuff when it was so hot.


Not sure I need to explain this one.... ;) We passed again later on and Kerstin bought 'Sacher Torte' (it is a very famous chocolate cake) for her husband.


Well and now let's go with the pompous buildings and fountains and statues...


This kind of architecture can be seen in a lot of cities. I saw it in Madrid, Barcelona, Buenos Aires and Paris (so far...)


Another Neptun Fountain


'Hey, whaddaya want'? ;)


Looks heavy....


Statues at entry doors as well.


This is the 'Spanische Hofreitschule' the spanish riding school where the famous - I think Lippizzaner - horses are being trained.


I liked that small house in between...


And this is the 'Neue Hofburg' (New Castle)


From that I especially liked the cupola. It fascinated me big time....


Not sure what the fish was doing in that scultpure... ;) :D


The way throught the Hofburg to the other side... these coaches are called 'Fiaker' in Vienna (and the horses do SMELL...... :eek::p:).


This cupola from the other side...


Polarization filter-weather... ;)

This is the 'Hofburg' (even bigger than the new one).


You cross the street from there and see two identical museums (and again they are HUGE). This is only one of them of course. :)


The big buildings were getting to us so we walked into the park near the Hofburg and again were greeted by a high statue.


Then we came into this wonderful rose garden.




What we noticed in the parks was that there are lots of chairs and benches.


Next neighbour to the museums is the parliament.


Strangely the city hall is not as big as the other buildings. There was a film festival going on so lots of booths and lots to eat and drink there. We didn't stayt there though as we wanted to go over to the 'Stephansdom'.


This is a theater. The 'Burgtheater' is rather famous.


Going back towards the Hofburg we saw this balcony...


And something smaller and simpler.... :rolleyes:


Finally we needed to go back to real life so we went shopping... :joker::joker::joker:


Finally we saw some normal houses... ;)


And again a big monument... (I liked the roof of the house behind though).


Mozart Kugeln (Mozart bullets) and Mozarttaler can be bought everywehere in Austria, although Salzburg really is Mozart-city. I like the taler better. They are chocolate filled with some nougat and delicious creme. 

We finally arrived at the Stephansdom. The church is a gothic church like our cathedral in Cologne and when seeing pics of the inside the day before I had said that it looks like our cathedral but ultimately it is very different. It is much smaller and from the outside they are not similar at all. I did like the colours on the roof a lot.


The Haas-house is opposite to it and the church mirrors in the windows. Still not sure why the 'Haas'-house is named 'Haas'-house as it was built by someone called Hollein.


When we went inside the Stephansdom they were preparing for a concert of the 'Regensburger Domspatzen' (a boy chorus belonging to the cathedral in Regensburg) which is why the altar was illuminated nicely.


After having visited the cathedral we sat down again to drink something and rest our legs. While we sat at a bar at the Haas-house the thunderstorm was coming. We continued our walk on the shopping streets though...


Liked that window:


Went shopping at the Hotel Sacher and took the subway from the Opera to the train station again. From there we walked over to the Hundertwasser-house. On our way we saw this rabbit:


And a 'normal' street which shows what we noticed all over Vienna: hardly any trees on the streets and no plants at the windows. It took us a while to figure out what was missing and then we found it was 'green'.


Finally first glimpse of the famous 'Hundertwasser'-house. Unfortunately it is difficult to take pics of the house as the trees have grown and cover a big part of it now....


These tents belong to a bar which is a good choice to have a snack. The guy owning it was a lot of fun as well. :)


Another glimpse of the house


Opposite the house there is 'Hundertwasser village', a small shopping mall with a museum. I liked this bar with water flowing on it. It was in the middle of the village.


After that I didn't take any more pics. We just went back to the train station, took the train to the airport and went back home....