Vienna Day 2

This was our first full day in Vienna and we spent most of it walking around this very walkable city.The historic centre is about 20 mins walk from our apartment,on the way we have to walk through a huge market called Naschmarkt which was very busy this morning with both locals and tourists.a very typical market with lots of fresh food, flowers and produce as well as lots of little places to eat.We stopped for tea and Viennese coffee which comes in small cups and is very strong. Here are a few pictures of the market.

Sausages everywhere...

Fresh croissants and stuffed dates to start the day...

The market ladies getting their stalls ready for the day...

Don says these look like NL rabbits??

 We then walked down through the city passing quite a few beautiful buildings.At least in this part they are very well maintained and are quite ornate.They also seem to be home to a lot of people as there are apartments in a lot of them.

Another thing we noticed is that the traffic is crazy so you dare not step off the sidewalk or be run over and if you don't walk on the right side of the sidewalk you will be run over by the bicycles in the bike lane.We are very impressed to see that there are bike lanes everywhere and many people of all ages ride their bikes everywhere.

We took a city bus tour to give us an idea about Vienna. As I said before the old part of the city is quite compact and outside of this there is a much larger newer city which surrounds the old district in rings so the traffic and trams seem to go around in circles.

Vienna has a population of around 1.5 million and has been here since the Roman days. It is the capital of Austria and has about a quarter of the population of the country.It is located on the Danube river and since it located at the crossroads of Eastern and Western Europe it is home to many types of commerce.

Vienna is also a city of great architecture, much of what we saw on our bus trip and will try to see by walking over the next few days. One place we did spend some time today was in the center of the city a plaza called Stephansplatz which is in front of Stephansdom,St,Stephen's Castle, a very famous Vienna landmark.

A side view of the cathedral

Notice the smokers!!

The square is filled with shops and people.It has wide avenues for strolling and people watching as well as many cafes where people stop for drinks and unfortunately smoking!! This is something we have to get used to as it has all but disappeared at home but certainly not here.People smoke everywhere!

Inside the cathedral

Don lighting a memory candle

A view of the square

Aren't they cute??

                                                   

To end the day I had a ticket to a Mozart concert, ( when in Vienna do as the Viennese do ) which was held at the Musikverein or the Golden Hall. This place is quiet a beautiful concert hall and even though I don't know anything about Mozart the music was lovely and I quite enjoyed it. By the way you noticed I bought only one ticket, no Mozart for Don!!

Below are a couple of pictures of the hall. I did manage to get a video clip of the concert but my attempt at uploading it to the blog failed.I will have to try another one soon.

People coming into the concert

There were opera singers as well.

Outside the hall

Well that's it for today.Tomorrow we move to a new location as we meet our fellow tour mates in the evening.That should be interesting....I will let you know in the next post.