So Vienna

After going to the Bermuda Triangle the night before, I still felt obliged to go on a quick jog the next morning. We were leaving for the Hapsburg Summer Palace at around 8:45, so I woke up at 7. My jog took me to the city center where I had just been the day before. Running in the morning really gives me a feel for a new city. There is usually no one around so you see things clearly without distractions, and you can see a lot of things in a short amount of time. I particularly like running down some of the back streets and seeing how the ordinary people in a city live. Also you can really see the architecture that is evident in most of these pictures:

When the buildings were constructed typically the ground floor was like shops or steps and the first floor was for the rich. This way they could just look at their window and see everything available and listen to what the people on the street were saying. They could hear the city gossip without even leaving their apartment! Also there were no elevators so the rich didn't exactly what to walk up a ton of stairs either. So the largest and grandest floor in most of these buildings was the first or second floor. As we know things are quite different nowadays with penthouses being worth millions in Manhattan. This was the view of the art museum on my way to the city center:

At the city center:

The winter palaces that I had seen yesterday:

Amazing architecture and design makes this now museum a great thing to look at:

The dome is the museum of Natural history:

The park behind the palace:

Another museum in the city center. I felt like I was on a private tour. There was almost no one out at this time:

I got back had some breakfast, showered, and packed up. Then we were headed to the Simmer Palace. We took a wrong turn and were headed through the park to the palace:

Such beauty:

This was my stern Asian tourist face. Apparently smiling in pictures is an odd western tradition that is actually rather new. If you see Asian tourists here they will not smile, and if they do they will put up two fingers in a peace sign:

Of couse the David pose is needed in front of the palace:

The Gardens next to the palace:

These things stretch on for a really long distance. Far away:

Then close:

The side of the palace with a beautiful clock:

The Gardens were stunning and seemed to stretch on forever. I wish I could've gotten to see them in the summertime. I'm sure they are splendid when all the flowers are blooming:

The view from the ground level of the back of the palace:

David again on the stairs to the back entrance:

Me on the back balcony:

The view from the back balcony. I could wake up to this in the morning:

School groups were everywhere:

The fountain in the back of the gardens:

Hiking up the hill in the backyard of the Summer palace. Darcy and I took a quick break:

We are almost to the top:

It's so beautiful:

You can see the whole city from here:

How much money did these people have?

The other fountain:

This was a squirrel. Apparently Austrian squirrels are a little different than Maryland squirrels. It's ears were huge and it's tail was very black and shorter. It came right up to me. If I had food with me I would've fed it. Sadly I did not. He was friendly though:

After the palace trip, we went back to the hostel, but we stopped at wiener stand and I got one of these bad boys. I think it was a schnozzle. It was like a giant hotdog with cheese inside. It was so good!!! The roll only had one hole so your schnozzle wouldn't fall out. They should have these in America: 

Vienna was pretty great. Anyway who says they don't like it is a liar. It's a pretty cool place. I would love to spend an extended period of time in this city. But we're headed to Salzburg.