Wien 2000      Last Updated: 27-May-03

Due to the weather forecast of heavy thunderstorms for the next few days, Yolanda and I took Rosi's car to Vienna. We stayed with Roswitha's cousin Beate and her husband Karl in Kaltenleutegeben near Vienna. Their brand new condo was darling and comfortable, and even had its own little Rapunzel tower. Thank you so much, for taking us in!

After visiting some of Roswitha's favourites in Vienna, we ended our sightseeing right at the center of Vienna at Stephans Platz. Not being able to tour St. Stephen's tower, we found an elevated, appropriate restaurant with a view of the Cathedral and wonderful food.


Beate and Karl on their balcony before waving us good-bye 
Standard visit in Vienna is the - centrally located - Upper Belvedere...  ... and the Lower Belvedere. Both tend to have very interesting Art Exhibits in addition to the gardens and rooms 
Watching tourists climbing the fountain near the Hofburg is always fun  Karls Kirche - One of Roswitha's favourite churches in the world. It is huge, baroque and still cozy 
Very close to the Karls Kirche is the Subway Station Karls Platz, a wonderful Art Deco Building  Detail 
Around the Naschmarkt and along the Danube one can find several other Art Deco Buildings  Another example 
Of couse if one likes Art Deco, one has to visit the Wiener Secession with the Beethoven Fries by Gustav Klimt  Cross Section 
Above entrance it reads: Malerei Architektur Plastik (painting architecture sculpture)  Dome detail 
Exponat of the ongoing exhibit while we where there. It was about 4 m (12 feet) high. Unfortunately, photographing the Beethoven Fries was prohibited 
Stefans Platz  While photographing the reflections of the cathedral, we were wondering - Are there umbrellas on the top floor?  Yes there are! 
What a view!  Of course we had to photograph the food, which was delicious  More reflections 

We won't get into Scott's adventures of the Swissair flight from SFO to Zurich and Vienna, except to say that they paid Scott a fair amount for it, and I'm glad that the airline eventually went belly up, but only after I was able to collect on the voucher (after trying in many places, and finally finding someone to take pity one year later in Amsterdam). That's all I'm saying. No more.

Scott was met in Vienna by Roswitha and Yolanda, who was about to head back after her adventure - a passenger/hostage exchange. Here we celebrated the end of Yolanda's trip before we brought her to the airport, and picked up Scott. The next day Scott and Roswitha met up with our Munich friend Richard, who was being visited by Angela, a friend from the Bay Area. They were in Vienna for a concert. After breakfast, we all took the elevator up St. Stephen's (Stephansdom) - for most of us for the first time. It was a beautiful day, and we had great views of the city.

Richard  Dali sculpture  Angela 

We took the elevator up the tower at St. Stephen's  Breakdancing makes it to Austria  Stephansplatz  View of Vienna from the roof of Stephansdom  Stephansdom has a very colorful tiled roof  Classic gothic architecture 

Ween visited the Hundertwasser Haus (with his wacky architecture) in Vienna before heading back to Graz.

Roswitha loves his architecture, which also reminds of Antonio Gaudi, but never really liked the Hundertwasser paintings  OK, Scott, you can stop flying now  Tile columns  A fine day for a milkshake  Even the bathroom fits  Wake up!  A great museum shop - as long as you don't stumble on the floor  More tiled columns 

 

Roswitha and Yolanda had driven up from Graz, so we got to deal with heavy traffic on the way back. We languished for a few days in Graz, collected together all of the luggage, and stuffed it into the mosquito. We did not have a specific itinerary planned, other than some scheduled reservations with cooking schools. Like the first part of Roswitha's trip, the plan was to decide where to go, land, and then open the guidebook to find a hotel, and do some sightseeing and eating.

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