Wien - Vienna

What a big city! Having only been in small towns and villages for over two weeks, Vienna is a bit overwhelming. but we are starting to know our way around our neighborhood. We arrived on October 13, 2013 and were shown to apartment 13! I hope that's a lucky number for us. First dinner in Vienna? Crispy duck curry! It was Sunday and most eerything was closed! But it was delicious.

The apartment is great. It is so luxurious to have so much room! And since it has a washer, we now have clean clothes, too. It was a pretty productive day. including the times we got lost, which is almost always a productive thing to do.

We hit every cash machine around to get the cash needed for our apartment payment (he doesn't take cards, but then there was no deposit, either), Bought our train tickets to Prague for Sunday, bought transit passes and then began exploring. We are one block away from the Nachsmarkt, a huge open market with all you'd expect at a farmer's market plus lots of little restaurants. More like Pike's Market, I guess. Great spot!

We toured the State Opera House which was amazing. It is so luxurious, all marble and gilt and baroque statues. We were hoping to get standing room only tickets, which are quite cheap and sold one hour before show time. But people were already lining up on the sidewalk at 10 this morning! I don't want to see an opera that bad. They change shows in a cycle of three EVERY DAY! All the sets have to be stuck and replaced. I can't even imagine! These pix are for you, Jillian!! 

We visited Stephansdom, a Gothic cathedral from the 12th century. There was a guy way up on the spire cleaning it, I guess. I don't think any of the other tourists even saw him. Can you see him? What a job!

We then walked through the grounds of the Hapsburg Palaces, checking out locations for later touring. It makes more sense to us to read the guide books now. We can relate what they're saying to actual places. Dinner "at home" tonight of pasta and shrimp from the market and two kinds of torte for dessert! Well, what can I say? We probably walked several miles today...