The flight and everything went fairly well. A couple problems, nothing major. I ended up in Vienna about 3 hours later than expected. Vy, the friend that I’m staying with, met me at the airport and gave me this beautiful bouquet.
How nice, yeah? The first couple days weren’t too eventful…jet lag really hit me and I ended up sleeping a lot, having a lot of headaches, etc. We also postponed our trip to Salzburg. Anyway, I did get some good food!
Oh, and I’m staying in an apartment in the second district. It’s pretty nice – I’d say the most unusual thing is that the shower is in the kitchen…but it’s surprisingly convenient! Hmm, well I don’t know if that’s actually true. I’m sure there’s a benefit in there somewhere! Check out the flower count! The plants outnumber us here like 15-1.
It’s difficult to get a good shot of the area directly around the apartment, so instead, check out this street just around the corner.
It’s really astonishing how spectacular the buildings are…I feel that the vast majority of the architecture I see is crafted with economy as the primary concern. Many of the buildings are stone – even the new ones – and they are generally of high quality and visually appealing.
My first big outing was to Schloss Schoenbrunn – it’s an amazing castle that housed the most well-known Austrian dynasty – the Hapsburgs. Anyway, it’s not my job to teach you Austrian history.
This first shot is actually with the castle behind me. Here’s the garden.
And here’s the actual castle (again, from the garden)
I’ve also made my way out to Stephansplatz. It’s a pretty extraordinary area – the architecture is amazing, and it’s a kind of shopping center with a huge variety of shops. Even though it’s a little, well, touristy, I highly recommend it. There’s a lot to be seen and much to do there.
I forgot what the name of this building is. I think it’s in Hopsburg?
A display of bags at Steffl, a huge department store (in Stephansplatz).
I traveled by boat up the Donau to Melk recently to see the Stift Melk Abbey. The Abbey is enormous and the boat ride was beautiful and relaxing (though admittedly a little long (6 hours). Regardless, look at these photos.
Our boat, the MS Stadt Wien.
Trolley to the boat from the Banhof (transit station):
Vy and I on the boat:
Krems, a small burg and one of the stops we made by boat.
The city of Dürnstein…most of the people taking the boat tour got off here with bikes…presumably to use them for biking. There’s an amazing bike trail all along the Donau from Vienna to…I don’t know where. Anyway, it’s longer than I want to ride. I think it would be impressive to bike from Dürnstein to Vienna, but I actually don’t know how long it is.
A close-up of the stone castle in Dürnstein.
The name of this town is Spitz!
Just another beautiful stone structure we saw.
Another vista from the boat ride.
Melk was really a very cute little city, with a narrow main street full of cafes and shopping.
The Stift-Melk Abbey from the streets of Melk.
An aerial shot of the Abbey.
A vista from the Abbey…and Vy, looking lost in thought. That’s the Donau in the background.
Me, blocking a beautiful view from the Abbey gardens.
Hmm…no comment? I probably would have shaved if I’d known I’d be posting a close-up photo.
All-in-all a great trip so far. Sorry to everyone I haven’t been able to get in touch with – I’ve been out a lot more than these photos show in the last week and a half so I haven’t had a lot of time to check email…and we can’t get my computer to connect to the internet, which is surprisingly inconvenient. I’ll have internet at the end of August most likely, until then I’ll have to work at a local internet café. I’m heading out to Paris on Wednesday the 6th and I’m staying there a little more than a week. It should be very enjoyable!
View the entire photo album (without text) for this portion of the trip here. This album is large.
