Vienna Day 1 & 2
Found my cafe. Although i think the owner may have this location set-up as a front to funnel money to Jihadist groups. There is hardly anything inside for sale and he is certainly you know of what belief. (Just Kidding!)
Finally i can blurb out my recent memories onto this blog for my future, and my grandchild's', viewing.
Vienna is sure a lot of fun. Too much to see and eat.
The pastries have thus far proven to be first class (certainly comparable to those found in Paris). The coffee is also exceptional and an explanation as to why i have pimples breaking-out all over my glorious body and face.
I arrived on the 27th about an hour late at 7pm. England had fog issues. Found my "hostel" , settled in, and went to bed. Woke up around 6:30am and hit the road. Yes, that early!
Found an excellent bar that serves coffee right next to my hostel for some morning snacking. Bought soap, towels, and the works from a nearby supermarket.
The first day was spent lazily roaming the Mariahilfer street. It is one of the many large streets with shops and nice churches. It ends near one of the better museums, the "Albertina" , which houses a small collection. Did it in an hour and moved on to the Stephansdom, the big tile church. Not as impressive as the Notre D, but had its charming aspects and was free to tour.
Graben street is nearby. It is the touristy street that has the best pastry and ice-cream shops around. All extremely overpriced and phenomenally delicious.
Day 2 was spent roaming as well, except this time my laziness got me lost and i ended up in some park that was 2 miles north of the castles i had planned to visit. Oh well, i had woken up early enough where i could easily compensate for any time loss. Yes, i had woken early again!
"Schloss Schonbrunn " is an extremely large Habsburg palace with gardens, mazes, oldest world zoo (250 years old), a botanical glass dome, great restaurants, 2 other royal buildings, and an art collection. I spent more than 5 hours here doing everything i could and yet still feel that there is some left unseen. The art collection is sub-par as so are the palace rooms, most of which are white with gold trims. The gardens, just as was with Versailles, are glorious and contain nice fountains. "The Glorietten " (castle like viewing deck) was also worth the climb.
Spent the rest of the day walking around shirtless looking for a fan. It seems that Vienna is going through a rare heat-wave. Still have not found a fan and my building has no AC. I miss the USA.