Vienna, Austria

We arrived in vienna and took the CAT (fast Train) to downtown Vienna (Wien Miette). Booked in to the Hilton and were given an upgrade to a suite looking out over the Stadpark. We grabbed our tourbook and headed inside the ring. Our first stop was St. Stephen's Cathedral.

The Cathedral was amazing. After wandering we located the Gigerl Wine Cellar recommended in the RS guidebiook. We chose the Vienna sampler and were brought a platter of various deep fried vegetables. We ate until we were full. A long while later, thinking we were dine, they brought us 3 large platters. One was varios meats including Wienersnitzel and roasted or boiled pork and veal and roasted potatoes. The second platter had deep fried chicken, pork and ? The third was an assortment of corn, tomatoes, cucumber salad, shreded carrots and potato salad. We ate a very small portion an asked the waiter for our bill and a doggy bag for the vegetables. To our dismay, about half an hour later the waiter arrived with a large platter of desserts including apple struddle and a hot pot of rum custard for dipping. We made a valiant attempt and again asked for a doggy bag. We waddled back to the hotel and hit our beds around 10:00 pm exhausted.

Sunday morning we awoke to another beautiful sunny day. We headed out looking for a Cafe for breakfast. We found an outdoor Cafe on Graben Street and ordered coffee, yogurt and fruit and ham and eggs. Again, we were unable to finish all that was served. The coffee was possibly the best I have ever had.

We headed to St Peter's but were unable to enter as it was time for Mass. Next we headed to Saint Michael's.

And then on to the Hofburg Palace's Imperial Apartments. We started with a tour of the Hofburg viewing the Imperial porcelain and silver collection followed by the Sisi Museum and Imperial apartments.


Then back to St. Peter's Church
Then to Kaisergruft - the Crypt for the Habsburg royalty.


After thr crypt we returned to the Hofburg Palace and toured the Treasury. I think that this has ben Heather's favorite today. Nothing like a little bit of bling to make a girl smile. We made it through most of the jewels before they closed for the day.

We returned to the hotel, found a letter from our tour guide welcoming us to Vienna and changed our shoes (our feet are pretty sore) before venturing down for dinner.