First Vienna Blog

When the train arrived in Vienna, the first thing I did was buy a ticket to Mainz (I leave Saturday morning). Next, since it was 9 am and the hotel check-in time was 2 pm, I decided to see some of the city and walk to my hotel. I didn't have a map, so I just kind of guessed, and it worked out well enough that by the time I looked at my first map (at a souvenir shop), I realized I was only a few blocks away from my hotel. I saw some interesting things along the way, including Vienna's version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame (they put stars on the sidewalk for composers). Here's Dmitri Shostakovich's:


Thanks to priceline, I'm staying at the Intercontinental (three nights cost the same as my overnight train ticket!). The view out my window is great. I can see the Stadtpark (the Vienna city park)


and St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom):


So after a quick nap, I had my plan -- walk through the Stadtpark on my way to Stephansdom!

The park is quite nice -- it seems one of every kind of tree grows in it. There are also monuments to various composers. Here's the nicest, the one for Johann Strauss:


Then it was on to Stephansdom (I actually took this picture later in the day):


It's hard to look at cathedrals the same way after the Vatican, but this one has many nice features. I climbed the south tower (the tallest one) to take this picture of the roof: