Day 6 -- Sightseeing in Vienna, and Heurigen dinner.
The first stop on the sightseeing tour: Schönbrunn Palace. We weren't allowed to take pictures
inside, so you will have to settle for some pictures of the grounds.
Kimberly in front of the model of the front courtyard. The buildings around the courtyard were mainly
servants' quarters, and the main palace can be seen in the background.
Behind the palace are the gardens. You can immediately tell how important this type of covered
breezeway would be in a pre-air conditioning time.
On the back porch looking across the gardens to the "little" room on the hill where they might
take breakfast. The Schönbrunn gardens are about the size of Monaco.
Driving around; Vienna is a beautiful city, and we are headed to the Inner City.
A public park and gardens that we take a shortcut through...
...to get to Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square).
This entire area is the museum quarter.
This is the presidential mansion.
On this building are three antique clocks: a sundial, a regular clock, and a "moon clock" that shows
the phase of the moon. It happens to be a full moon, so there's nothing to see but a circle.
The Katholische Augustinerkirche.
This is the Hofburg palace complex containing a variety of museums.
Walking through a couple of upscale pedestrian-only streets...
...and through the inner city.
The Pestsäule (Plague Column) is sometimes called the Holy Trinity Column, because of course
the Catholic Church gets credit for deliverance from the plague.
A church with a restored Art Deco roof.
After the guided tour, we head out looking for lunch, and walk toward the Naschmarkt. This food court
dates back to the 16th century, and has over 100 food vendors.
We're looking for bratwurst, but for lack of being able to speak to our servers very well, we end
up with something similar called a Käsekrainer.
Still needing some more caffeine, we stop at a McDonald's for a coke and a bathroom break. The
European McDonald's are all on the kiosk-ordering system.
The outside view of our hotel, with all the European charm of an Ikea. The hotel is in a new
academic and business park that is being developed.
Out optional excursion for the evening starts with a visit to an amusement park with this
100-year-old ferris wheel.
It starts with a few kitschy historical replicas.
The technical details of the ride.
Inside one of the cars.
A view to the north, with another car in the foreground.
You can see how big the amusement park is, and Wade is bummed because we wants to spend the day there.
We have to settle for watching the bumper cars...
...and Wade jumps on one spinning swing ride
while we wait for the rest of the group to join up with us.
As we are leaving, we see another Hanswurst shop, reminding us of our friend Hans.
The dinner is at Heurigen Maly.
A Heurigen is a wine garden (think beer garden except with wine) out in the open.
Dinner is family style; here is the "salad" course with potatoes, cucumber, and slaw.
We did love all the great brown bread we had everywhere. Each of this slices weighs about a
quarter pound.
Our entertainment in the background, and our bus driver in the foreground.
The main course arrives: chicken, ham, pork loin...
...and of course, sauerkraut.
Our tour guide Alex sings the song "Ham Kummst" in the Viennese dialect; you can hear the audio below.
