Vienna, Thoughts and Opinions

It's a little late, but with all of the traveling and time changes I haven't really gotten a chance to sit town and talk about Vienna.  The city is beautiful, cobble stone streets with old architecture everywhere.  I wish I would have studied up on my architecture styles before I came to Austria.  Last time we were in Europe I was still in college, so with my Spanish culture classes the styles and differences were fresh in my mind.  Travel tip for anyone going to Europe, review those it'll make looking at the building a little more interesting.  Give you another angle to admire if you will.

Instead of a hotel, we stayed in the flat of Philip's (dad's exchange student from last year) Aunt Ines & Uncle Philip.  Their beautiful 100 year+ old flat with vaulted ceilings, hard wood floors, and pretty much all of the Ikea catalog for their organization is located in the third district of Vienna.  Vienna is divided up into what they call districts, we refer to as neighborhood.  District one is like the Gulch in Nashville, district two would be midtown, district three would be Vandyland... etc etc etc....  

  On the note of Ikea, their furnishings are great for creating stylish storage space in small areas, why does the nearest Ikea have to be in Atlanta???? Nashville needs to get with it and try to get an Ikea store to move out to Lebanon or something, that would help revive that dying outlet mall.  Or, a perfect spot would be to stick one in the now empty Home Depot Expo building down on Thompson Lane.... 

  I'm stepping down from my soap box and back to our time in Vienna....

Day 1:  Arrive (a day late, but still we made it), quick shower, coffee with Iva (my long lost older sister who is now married and has a three year old),   Then, we had dinner at a tiny but popular resturant followed by the Mozart & Strauss concert to which we walked. 

Day 2:  City tour of Vienna, via bus followed by a guided tour of the palace "Schoenbrunn " with some gluvine for a quick pick me up in the square.  Philip wanted us to see the back of the palace, which was so beautiful with the gardens.... but there's nothing like a quick sprint to catch our tour bus to warm you up in this cold city..... And I thought gluvine was good for that, nope just sprint to your bus about a half-mile....

For the lunch we ate at a really cool resturant, the "Palmenhaus", that was built out of a green house, dinner was at a local resturant built in the lower portion of the Belvedre palace.  Trying to go anywhere with the ever-so-impatient Philip can be a challenge.  For example, when we first walked into the Palmenhaus he asked a server "Can we have a table?"  When he was answered with a "There's none open right now," he prompted turned to leave too impatient to even inquire how long the wait might be.  Now, it's one thing to be hungry, but it's another to turn and leave with a ten minute walk to another resturant.  In that time, would a table open up at this resturant, in all actuality negating the possibility of eating any earlier?  That my friends is an interesting concept to deal with, luckily dad and I can deal with it by distracting him and just telling him we are eating here end of story. 

Day 3:  Our last day in Vienna with a three hour drive to Feld am See.  We had breakfast at a little  coffee house, the Austrians love their espresso.  After breakfast dad wanted to buy an "Austrian" hat, so we went back into town.  Somehow I ended up getting a hat as well, but I think it's cute.  Then, we went to their farmers market which is awesome.  I love farmers market, and this one sold different meats, vegetables, spices, and even scarfs.  Of course, I got a new scarf to match my new hat.  After four espressos, I still ended up sleeping the whole way to Feld am See.