For the first two nights, I stayed at a hotel situated in an alley, which had a nice European feel.
As nice as the cobblestones look, they are kind of a pain to walk on.
I went to the Albertina museum, which had some drawings by Rubens and Rembrandt. They also had Albrecht Duerer's Young Hare, as well as some paintings by Picasso. Unfortunately, I wasn't allowed to take pictures.
I went for a nice long walk on Saturday, much of it along the Donaukanal (the canal that connects old town Vienna to the Danube).
Many of the trees along the canal, like the one on the right bank, had ball-shaped plants living in them. I'm not sure what they are.
On Sunday, I walked around Prater park, a huge park across the canal from my hotel.
The park is home to the Riesenrad, or giant wheel, a Ferris wheel built in the late 1800s.
According to Wikipedia, it appeared in such movies as The Third Man and The Living Daylights, which I guess is the large Ferris wheel in this movie poster.
At this pond, there was a strong smell of ozone, so I took this picture then promptly left the area.
Note more of those plants in the trees.
Also on Sunday, I moved to a hotel near to the conference site. I had a nice view of the Kaiserwasser out my window.
Of the nine days I was there, only three or four were sunny.
At the end of the week, thanks to a birthday present from Sara, I went to the Volksoper to take in the opera, Die Fledermaus.
It was the first opera I've seen. There were subtitles on the screen at the top of the curtain (supratitles?), but they were more of a general paraphrasing of the action, so I missed most of the jokes and subtleties of the dialogue.
Overall, it was a fun trip. I never quite got over my jet lag, so hopefully I won't have to readjust too much now that I'm home!
