Happy Independence Day to everyone in America! I hope you spent it well. To my family, I hope you had a great time partying it up at our house as usual! I wish I could be there with you, and I miss you all.
Anyway, I am typing this up using the hotel computer (free internet on it), so the keyboard is different (letters switched around, like y and z, some buttons are smaller, etc.). I apologize in advance if there are many typos. Also, since it is a public computer, I am going to try and type these up quickly, so I also apologize for the note form.
Anyway, off we go!
We woke up early this morning to catch our train from Prague to Vienna. The train left at 8:30-ish in the morning and arrived in Vienna at just before 1 PM. We thought we would have the entire six-person compartment to ourselves when the train started to leave the station, but the Japanese kids that shared the compartment with us finally showed up. So close! Other things of note from the train ride:
- Saw lots of wind power turbines. The Germans and Austrians must use a bit of wind power. The Czech´s, not so much.
- Passed a little swimming hole at one point, with lots of men wearing speedos. Great.
Since arriving in Vienna, here´s what we´ve done:
- Figured out the subway from the train station to the hotel. Accidentally followed the instructions for driving to the hotel instead of walking to it, so ended up going a roundabout way to get to it.
- The hotel is really cool. Spiral staircase leading to all floors. Soundproof room. Kind of an older era feel to it. Will take pictures.
- Grabbed lunch at nearby cafe. Had gratinized vermicelli (spelling?) with ham and cheese. Yum!
- After lunch, wandered around Rathaus Platz (that´s the town hall area). Tried to get picture of Rathaus but giant movie screen in the way due to movie festival.
- Walked around Volkesgarten.
- Walked around Museum Quartier. Looked like a happening place to be. Lots of people hanging out, sunbathing, reading, napping, whatever. Went in to gift shop and saw two art books; one with a topless women on the cover, and one showing a big, real picture of a man´s privates. With young kids in shop. Only in Europe!
- Ran into Gay Pride Parade. Apparently it´s following us around Europe. Noticed one woman topless covered with body paint in parade. Also noticed most of crowd was straight. Tried to take some pictures, but also had other things to do.
- Found Sacher Hotel, home of the famous Sacher torte. Will have some probably tomorrow.
- Walked to St. Stephens Cathedral. Did not go in (will tomorrow). Huge, beautiful building. Walked around the area around the cathedral, which was a bunch of pedestrian streets with entertainment (such as a man wowing crowds with his diabolos) and many high-end shops. Took quite a few pictures.
- Walked to Prater, where there was a little amusement park. Rode the Riesenrod, which was a giant ferris wheel. Saw great views of Vienna and took pictures of view and of park.
- Walked to the Danube River. Pretty area, but water was muddy-looking.
- Rode metro back to hotel area, where we had dinner at Illy Caffetteria. Had American food, but we were so hungry we just wanted to eat. Will have more authentic food later.
- Have noticed that the waiters and waitresses are nicer here so far than the other cities we´ve been in. Hope that continues.
Okay, that is all from today. If I can get on the computer tomorrow night, I´ll update again.
Just as a warning, I will NOT be updating on Monday. We´re taking an overnight train that night to Zurich, and I won´t have time to hop online before hand. So I´ll post two entries on Tuesday.
Happy Independence Day again!
(This post was actually posted at 10:15PM Vienna time).
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