Vienna: Day One

Hi Kids, what a wonderful day we've had here so far. Started out with a huge breakfast at the hotel, included with the room. So many interesting meats, cheeses, breads, and even champagne. Tomorrow I promise a picture.

So, we started out walking, which we did ALL day. Probably have five miles under our belt and walked off breakfast. So, you won't believe the chocolate stores here. This is just one picture to temp you! I think people must think I'm very strange for taking pictures of shop windows, but isn't this just gorgeous!

So, we decided we're going to find the Imperial Palace, also called the Hofburg. Apparently the Vienna City marathon had events on the grounds there this weekend, so the space didn't really make for great photo ops. Here's a link instead. We just walked through the grounds rather than the buidings, but what a magnificent space.

We continued our walk, this time ending up at parliament. It is this incredible Greek-esque building. The architect really liked Roman and Greek statues.

When we went in, we discovered that we arrived at the perfect time for a tour. Why not? So we learned all about the parliament, the architecture, and the goings on leading up to the election on Sunday. That explains all the election signs all over town.

Here is a picture of me in the old portion of the House of Lords that is no longer used. Can you imagine the magesty of being a member? The little chalkboard looking things are what someone used to get recognized. They would bang them to voice their opinions of the various motions being discussed. The history in this chamber has to be amazing. It also has a beautifully ornate glass ceiling original to the building--the only glasss ceiling original to the structure because the rest were bombed during WWII.

OK, so after all this walking and education, we were thirsty. We walked a bit more and found a wonderful beer garden. So we sat outside in the beautiful sunshine and had some very interesting beers. First, we started with what we knew--a basic pale ale and a wheat beer.

We later discovered that the beer on the right, what we thought was a wheat beer, actually was brewed with hemp leaves in it. You could taste it on the finish.

Then we got a little more adventurous. These were good, but would have been better with food. We tried a chili beer, the Marz, and a smoked beer. Really. The chili really had a kick to it and our friend Dan would like it. It would be great with Mexican food. The Smoked beer really had a smokey taste and aroma and would be outstanding with my baby back ribs. The Marz was really smooth and delicious.

Then there was more walking. We found one of the main shopping streets and walked all the way up and down. It was packed . . . on a Monday afternoon. I'm not sure when people work here. People were buying things in high end stores and the sidewalks were literally packed. Interesting experience.

One our way back, I had to take another picture of a store front, this time, high end apps that you can buy for your dinner parties, including cavier, smoked salmon, whatever you want. We just took a picture.

So, those are the highlights of our day, so far . . . oh, and being able to stand up to shower! If you've traveled in Europe, you know what I mean.