Wieder in Wien

There are some lovely cities in Europe. Prague is romantic, Amsterdam is egalitarian with wild tourists, and Vienna is elegant. I miss it. Turns out, there was a way to get on a train in the Czech, give ourselves a couple hours' "layover" between trains in Vienna. So, we walked from the beautiful new Hauptbahnhof (main train station) into the city center. 

Fountain at the Oper (Opera house)

Our route led us through the Technical University to the Opernring, part of the ring road that sits where the old city wall was. It is always busy, packed with tourists and Wieners (yes, that's their name, sounds like "Vee-ners") going about their day. We passed one group of Americans that was hesitant to cross a side street where a car was waiting for them to cross. They laughed when I said "It's okay, you're in Vienna! You can cross the street!"

From the Opera we walked towards the Hofburg, the Imperial Palace complex. We didn't have time to go through the museums, but just walking around the connected palaces is impressive. We passed the Albertina palace (home now to a great art museum!), the Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School), and into the square outside the entrance. M was surprised at the "hole" in the middle of the roundabout, which showed an excavation through layers of history, from Roman settlements in the first century AD to a garden wall from the 1700's.

Ana, remember when we got the stable tour?

Walking to the back side of the Hoffburg takes you through two "Hofs" (courtyards). The first is newer and topped with a round dome, skylights letting in beams of sunlight. Coming out on the other side, there's another "Platz." Heldenplatz is flanked on one side by the Hofburg, on the others by the National Library, the national museums, Parliament, and the City Hall.

Why don't our libraries look like this?

Walking back through the Hofburg, we took a quick photo in front of one of the Hero sculptures in the front and went off to try to find Cafe Central. I knew the rough area, but finally looked at the map and got us to where we were meeting my German tutor from Graz. Last time I was in Vienna, Ulli took me to Cafe Central. It is one of the classic, grand coffee houses in Vienna. I had a cappuccino and Apfel Strudel. It was delightful.

Eventually we had to catch our train to Tyrol, so we went to jump on the U-bahn near Stephansdom, St Stephans Cathedral. Ulli works near the Hauptbahnhof, so she came with us to Stephansplatz and jumped on the U1 subway with us. We said our goodbyes somewhere near the Belvedere palace (also a great art museum!) and were dropped off directly at the train station. 

We picked up our luggage and were sitting on the Railjet a few minutes before it took off. by the time we were in the tunnel under Vienna, we were already going 100km/hr. As we came into the flat farmland of Niederösterreich, the Railjet hit its top speed of about 230km/hr. We flew through Saltzburg and into the mountains, climbing our way up to the Arlberg...

Mountains and castles from the train