We started out in Munich, but had to find our way to Vienna right away from the airport. Unfortunately, the train we needed wasn't running that day because of a train crash (whoops!), so we had to take the much more expensive but much more comfortable high speed train to our first destination. Once in Vienna, we quickly found our way to our hostel which was a 20 bedroom dorm! Actually, there were many more people staying there because there were other bedrooms that branched off from our room.
On Saturday, we woke up and explored the city with Anna's brother who met us there that morning. We saw the Imperial Palace--where the Habsburg dynasty lived for centuries, Mozart's house, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and many huge parks and museums. For lunch I ate a Kasekrainer, which is like a hot dog with cheese, but so much better than that. That turned out to be my first of many during my stay in Austria. We decided to go into the Albertina museum, which is one of my favorites that I have visited. We saw works by Picasso, Monet, Mel Ramos, and the state rooms of Sisi. For dinner, we went to a restaurant called WienerWald (translation: sausage forest).
The Plague Monument--1/3 of the Viennese population died during the plague of 1679.
Statue of Mozart (he lived in Vienna for only a short time) in front of the Habsburg's Imperial Palace.
St. Stephen's Cathedral--completed in 1433 and the symbol of Vienna. The tiled roof was donated by the citizens of Vienna to repair damage from WWII.
On Sunday we went to the Schonbrunn Palace which was another palace that the Habsburgs lived in. Now it is just a huge tourist destination, and it is easy to see why because it was one of the most beautiful gardens that I have seen. We wandered through the gardens, played in the giant maze and labyrinth, and had a delicious sort of dinner at the Easter market in the front courtyard where we laid around for hours. It was a perfect day! We were so lucky that every day of spring break was sunny and pleasant.
Playing in the maze triwizard tournament style.
The next morning we made our way to Salzburg. This time we were sure that we could figure out the trains and we purchased the group ticket and hopped on--no problems! Except we got on the wrong train. The group ticket only works on local trains, and we got on the fast train. Oops! We paid the conductor the difference, and took note of what we needed to do to get it right for our last journey. Then we arrived in beautiful Salzburg!
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