This is our first update from Vienna! We did not have very many pictures last night, so we decided to make a super-post today. We got into Vienna Saturday morning at 6:30am, after taking the night train from Krakow.
The first night in Vienna, after settling down in the apartment and doing a few groceries, we walked around town to see what we could find. Here is a picture of the famous State Opera House, beautifully lit up at night.
We kept walking around the city which had many people out shopping and drinking in cafes. Overall the city feels safe and comfortable, and all the locals are very friendly. This is one of the main pedestrian roads in the Inner City.
This is a night time view of St. Stephen's Cathedral, right beside the Stephansplatz metro stations which we travel to almost every day to get into the Inner City. A lot of the buildings that we have seen are under construction, as is this church.
Inside, the cathedral was filled with lights and projectors that made the whole interior look really awesome!
This morning our first stop was up the St. Stephen's Cathedral tower to get a view of the city.
After that, we started off on two walking tours we had planned. The first one took us around "medieval Vienna", and the second walked around "imperial Vienna". Here is Isabel standing near Graben street, one of the many fancy pedestrian walkways in the Inner City.
Along our walk, we stopped into a few churches to see the magnificent interior details. This was one of our first stops, St. Peter's Church, the second oldest church in Vienna.
An obligatory break in the walk, for lunch at our first Viennese cafe!
This is St. Ruprecht's Church, the oldest church in the city! According to legend, it was built in the 8th century.
This was the start of our Imperial walk. Straight ahead you can see the Hofburg Palace.
This square is Michaelerplatz, right beside the Hofburg Palace. After an entire day of rain, wind, and general coldness, the sun had finally come out!
Through the gates, we found ourselves in a large square. The biggest attention grabber here was the National Library (below). Because of its size, we've decided to dedicate an entire morning to the Hofburg Palace, so hopefully we'll have more stories about that later :) This is also the location of the Spanish Riding School.
This is the Church of the Friars of Minor.Its spire was destroyed during the Turkish invasion but the remainder of the building still stands and dominates the center of this courtyard, surrounded by grand apartments and "palaces", which are extremely common here!
This is a monument to Mozart, who lived in Vienna for some time. This statue is located in the Burggarten, which is beside the Hofburg Palace, and used to be reserved for royal use.
This is the Museum of Fine Art, and directly facing it is the Museum of Natural History, which is its mirror image. In the centre of this square is a monument to Maria Theresia, the only Austrian empress.
This panorama was taken from the centre of the square. At the left you see the monument to Maria Theresia, then the Museum of Fine Art, followed by the centre building of the Museum Quartier, and the Museum of Natural History on the right side.
This concluded our walking tours of the Inner City, highlighting some amazing buildings and monuments. In the next two days we are hoping to go inside some of the large palaces, and visit more of the many parks in the city.
This evening we went out for dinner, to try some more traditional Viennese food. It was delicious, and the coffee was excellent!
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