It is very hot here in Vienna.  I think we hit 36c here today.  I didn’t sleep great last night due to the heat.  We have a fan in our room tonight, so that will be very helpful!  We had a full day of trains and boats. We have some great photos to share, but I am feeling too weak to write tonight.

We are leaving Vienna tomorrow for a smaller place called Villach.  A former co-worker of mine lives there.  We hope to connect with Clayton and his wife for dinner in the next couple of days.  We have a 4.5 hour train ride tomorrow, so I will compose our day today.  We do have some great photos  🙂

We are having a tourist free day today.  That is, after we go to Vienna Westbahnhof (West Train Station) to purchase tickets for the Wachau Valley trip tomorrow and train tickets to Villach for Monday.  We purchase a 24 hour transit pass for all of Vienna’s public transit.

Mission accomplished!  We have tickets for both trips!  We make our way back to the area our hotel is in.

There is a park nearby that we plan to spend some time in avoiding the weekenders in Vienna 🙂  This park is called the Augarten.  It was established in 1614 by Emporer Matthias.  It obviously has a long history.

During WWII after the Germans took Vienna they built 2 large concrete towers in this park.  They are called Flak Towers.  Not pretty structures, they do dominate this park.  It is interesting that they are 2 very different looking structures.

From this shot you can see the damage done by the Allies during the war.

We find a spot in an area of the park that has children’s playground

and some picnic tables and no crowds.

We set up our scrabble board and the game is on.  It is a trouncing!!  Not for me 🙁

We head back towards our hotel as someone needs the bathroom (okay it’s me)  It is about 2:30 and we also need a bit of food, so we decide to split, Stu to the grocery store to buy some beer and wine and me to the little coffee/sandwich shop to buy a couple little sandwiches at the little place that Stu bought the great togo coffee yesterday.  Simple, right???  NOT.  I did not go into the coffee shop yesterday, so I accidentally went into the shop next door.  Ordered 2 cordon blues which looked a reasonable size on the picture menu.  When I saw what she was about to cook, I tried to stop her, but I guess my “whoa whoa” isn’t translatable in German and she didn’t whoa.  So we have 2 monster deep fried schnitzel things!!  We give one of them to the girl at the front desk of the hotel.  We don’t even finish one between the two of us!

After we eat, another scrabble game spontaneously erupts.  I am the victor this time 🙂

We are on our way to find a place for dinner.  There is a full moon (or almost).  I am trying to take some photos, but the moon doesn’t look as amazing in the photo as it does live!  Oh well, imagine a beautiful full moon with a large traffic circle in Vienna, a column dedicated to Admiral Wilhelm von Tegetthoff (prominent naval commanders of the 19th century)  in the center, an amusement park behind.  The ferris wheel has cars that resemble train cars.  Cars, bike, buses and people all scurrying around it.

We keep to the right to find the street with restaurants.  We find a place very shortly Zina’s, and find ourselves a table on the sidewalk patio.

A young man brings us English menus.  He is followed up by a woman he later identifies as his Mom.  We ask the origin of the food.  Moma or Zina says “Oriental”.  I assume that we both look very confused by her answer and she elaborates by saying Lebanese and Syrian.  Interesting, we would never consider Lebanon and Syria as Oriental.  We passed another middle eastern restaurant on our walk today and they also described themselves as Oriental???  We are confused 🙂

We order an assortment of starters as this is the recommendation for first timers.  Clockwise from the top left we have humus, a zucchini dish, mini calzone, prawns (wrapped thin strips of crispy dough DELICIOUS!!), a spinach dish and a pesto sauce.  All accompanied by a selection of breads.  Excellent!!

On our way home we see this.  It says 4,187 cyclists today and 664,194 for 2015.  It has a bicycle pump at the base.  I have no idea how they count the cyslists, but have  noticed that there are lots of them in Vienna, not as many as Amsterdam, but lots.  Amsterdam is actually dangerous place to walk because of the cyclists!  🙂

We pack up our stuff and hop on the metro to take us across town to our new digs.  This one is too far out and only has one decent restaurant within walking distance.  We have eaten there already and there is a rule written by Greg Ross about never eating the same place twice!  So we move 🙂

We find the new place after quite a hike.  It is a very warm day already in Vienna.  We are not complaining.  We would much rather have the warmth than the cold and rain that we had the last day in Krakow.

Settled in we’re off for more adventures.  We have schnitzel left over from dinner that we need to eat for breakfast.

Not far from our new hotel there is a square with a cafe and also public seating.  Stu pops in for coffee to go and we sit in the square eating the schnitzel and drinking some very nice coffee.

We use the hop on hop off as transportation.  Very hot inside, however the upper deck has a clear roof and will be hot as well.  Stu is soaked!

We get off the bus and walk a bit and find a very nice spot.  It is shady, lots of public seating and food vendors.  We choose “Happy Noodles” 🙂  After we begin eating we notice “Crazy Noodles” on the other side of the entrance to the Metro.  We begin to question our decision ……

Oh well, we are quite impressed with our 6 Euro lunch.

We top it off with Zitrone gelato from the Italian gelato place right behind us.  This spot is great!  Cheap food and all the people watching entertainment you could hope for.

We wander about the Old Town making our way to the Tourist Info office.  There is an excursion to some smaller places along the Danube’s Wachau valley that we would like to go on.  The young lady in the office is very helpful.  We will do this on Sunday!

This is what Rick Steves says about this trip

We then find a spot for a great cold beer and decide that we need another park day tomorrow.  A quiet park away from crowds of tourists, a game of scrabble and a picnic.  That scrabble game has been quite bulky to lug around, but it does give us lots of fun 🙂  That’s the plan for tomorrow.

We saw a park across from this beautiful church with these orange chairs for people to use.  This might be the place!

We spot these hot little numbers from the bus 🙂

As we are walking back to our hotel we see this place.  It looks like a modern condo built on a heritage building.  A glass box in the sky.  I hope they have AC for a day like today!

Off we go to the city center to resume our Hop On Hop Off Tour.  We have decided to go to the Hapsburg Museum.

There are sooo many large beautiful buildings we have trouble finding the correct one.  After a couple of tries we are in the right place.

We view the china section first.  WOW!!  We are not china aficionados or even really interested in it.  The displays are unbelievable!  The ultimate in Opulence!

The beginnings of towel art.  These are napkins that are a meter square and folded very intricately.  Can you imagine doing this for an intimate dinner party of 150!??!

We take a break for a bite to eat then continue to the Hapsburg Apartments in the palace.  There is a lot of information about Empress Elizabeth and Emperor Franz Joseph.   They live a life much different from all of us 🙂

We wander about Vienna’s “Old Town”.  Beautiful statues everywhere and nothing that we can read about them.  The maps we have don’t mention most of them.  Inconsequential  I guess  🙂

We are moving hotels tomorrow to one located closer to the city center.  Less time walking to and fro.

We arrive very early in Vienna and drop our bags at the hotel we booked.  It seems quite far from the action. 🙁  But it is VERY reasonable 🙂

As we walk we are seeing extraordinary buildings!   Beautiful, we are speechless.  We walk into town and buy tickets for one of the Hop On Hop Off tours.  More incredible buildings.

Beautiful churches.

A boat cruise is included in our bus tickets so we leave the bus for a boat ride on the Danube.

As we wait we have a beer with this beautiful church behind us.

We move to the top deck to see the most we can.  After about half an hour a young man comes up and tells us that the top deck is now closed, with no explanation.

Shortly after that we head through a lock to the Danube Canal.  The locks are closed by barriers that go up like 1950’s garage doors.  In retrospect, I don’t think there was clearance for the top deck, but that is just a guess.  This at the beginning to the lock drainage.

This is at the end.

The lock process takes about 30 minutes and then we are off to continue the Hop On Hop Off and get as close to our hotel as possible.  It is pushing 3PM and we are in need of a nap! 🙂

Off to our off the beaten path hotel.  We are pleased with the room.  It is just a long way from the action.