Vienna

We had a 4 day weekend soon after we arrived back in Germany. They have lots of bank holidays over here! So we went to Munich the first day and saw IronMan 2 at a cinema that shows the English version. Yay! Then we drove on to Linz, Austria where we stayed for the night.

The drive through Austria is gorgeous with the alps and green valleys. It rained on us much of the way, but once we arrived in Vienna the next day (called Wien here in Europe), God held back the rain and gave us two beautiful days to see the sights.

We hopped on the HopOn-HopOff bus and soon hopped back off to see the buildings up close and take pictures. We saw this palace, now a government building, where Marie Antoinette grew up before she became the ill-fated Queen of France.


We visited the Parlament building, where the fountain was awesome.


Then the impressive Rathaus building.


Vienna is one of the most beautiful cities we've seen. There are so many parks, and colorful trees and flowers.

And fountains! There are thousands of fountains all over this city, fed by waters flowing down from the alps. There are drinking fountains all over the city as well, so for the first time it was easy to get clean "trinkin wasser".

Next we jumped back on the tour bus, and visited the center of the city, where we saw this amazing mosaic on the roof of St. Stephen's Cathedral.


And here's a wild looking train for dad.


We ended our first evening of touring by walking to Schloss Schönbrunn, near Hotel Viktoria where we stayed. It is one of the most beautiful palaces in Europe, modeled after Versailles.


And I love the old lamposts, especially at night.


It was a gorgeous evening...