Vienna, Day 1

April 11, 2012 - Vienna, Day 1

Welcome to Vienna!  After about a 3 hour bus ride, we arrived in Vienna, Austria.

The lady at the front desk to our hostel even gave us cute little chocolates as we got settled into our rooms.

We were staying at the Happy Hostel and boy was it Happy!!!  The rooms were fantastic, clean, very comfortable, would highly recommend it to anyone!

Thea and I pausing for a quick picture inside the hostel.

Elin and I ... still my favorite roomie

A picture with all of us ladies on the trip. :)

We then went on a walking tour of Vienna.  Definitely a bigger city than we were used to or maybe it was just more spread out and we walked the whole thing.  The architecture was incredible.

We even walked past the winter palace and the grounds.  We did not go into the winter palace but I can just imagine what the inside looked like.

Mozart statue guy was in LOVE with Alyshia!

We then went to St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom).  I did some more searching on the cathedral and found out that it stands on the ruins of two previous churches and was finished in 1160.  It was being renovated again when we were visiting.  They had these big screens up showing us what it looked like or will look like when finished.

Jan was our tour guide for Vienna.

Jed and I taking a moment for a picture.

Inside of St. Stephen's

Then we went to lunch.  Our friend Fabian made us a list of best places to go and this was one of them.  We had a bit of a wait but it was supposed to be the place for the best Schnitzel ... it was so worth it!

We saw this ad display after lunch and this was the place we had gone to and that guy in the picture was actually our server too!  Love it!

We were a bit excited to finally see a fountain that had flowing water.  So far it had been too cold for the fountains to be on.  Lovely!

A mini break before continuing on our way through the city.

Statue dedicated to Mozart.

Jan then took us to this old but beautiful church as the last stop of the day for our group activities.

In the church was a giant rendition of the Last Supper, pretty cool.

We found a little bit of home in Vienna.

A recommendation of Fabian ... a little coffee house with amazing strudel!

Thea wanted to be a guard again ... those points were very sharp!

Getting back out ... a bit more difficult!

Our first day in Vienna was great!  We got the chance to explore the city a bit, the weather was decent and got the opportunity to experience some of the local flavor and culture.