Vienna

It was a bit longer trip to Vienna than scheduled with a flight delay in Washington that caused us to miss our connecting flight in the very nice Frankfurt, Germany airport.  We were re-booked on a flight four hours later but then it was delayed due to weather closing one of the runways in Frankfurt.  So five hours late to Vienna but with our bags in hand this time.

Those who know us will appreciate the irony of this.  We have a nice two bedroom sixth floor apartment in the Innerstadt directly above a Starbucks.  How did that happen?  So after our 24 hour journey we managed dinner at an Indian restaurant around the corner before settling in to an extended night of recovery.

Although we started our Sunday quite late, the switch back to standard time saved us an hour for touring.  The downtown area is very impressive with its combination of winding streets and spacious squares that filled with an incredible selection of retail establishments, much of it very high end.  We visited the Stephansdom, a cathedral that is more impressive on the outside than the inside.  On a site that has been occupied by a church for over 800 years, the outside is beautiful (and in the process of being cleaned and restored) but pretty ho-hum on the inside.  We moved on to the Peterskirche which apparently received the interior design budget that Stephansdom did not.  Very beautiful.

After a bit of walking on a very cold and blustery afternoon, we settled into the Hofburg Quarter with most of our time spent in the Sisi Museum which tells the sad history of Empress Elisabeth, wife of the long reigning Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph.

A wonderful dinner at Weibels Wirtshaus (http://www.weibel.at/wirtshaus01.html) and done for Sunday.