VIE: Last Day in Vienna.

Breakfast this morning was at the Tyrolerhaus, and old coffee shop, where the waiter wears a suit and bow tie, and the Wieners come to read the paper and eat toast. The cakes still come in glass cabinets, the chandeliers are real crystal and service after you get your food seems very, very, relaxed... it's the same as it was in the 30s when coffee was a bit more luxurious than now.

The big rush for me was getting a front row seat at the Spanish Riding School, where they train the horses every morning at 10. This is their front door.

The American woman from the walk yesterday was here too...


You are not supposed to take pictures, but I sneaked a couple because everyone else was... At least I did not use the flash... Amazing they think it will help the picture when they are so far away...

I just love how they maintain the old shops...


Back in town to St. Steven's cathedral to say a prayer for you all in your cold wet spring weather back home....lol

It is 27 degrees here today! So off to climb a tower... Which I immediately regretted as I hate heights and the stairs are narrow and the place is so old it will topple over no doubt with my extra weight...



You can see some mountain tops in the distance here...


I swear to G*d that this town is so clean, these roofs and buildings...look how spotless they are, no garbage in the streets...

Off in the distance you can see the modern side of the city on the Donau.

Next stop was Schonbrunn Palace, the Hapsburg summer palace.

No pictures allowed inside, although a few were sneaking them in, the stadtspolizei were right outside, so I chickened out. Beautiful rooms inside, they are your fairytale image of royal rooms... Or those TV historical dramas...

This is part of the 'back yard'.

I met the Singaporean woman here from yesterday's walk, what a small town! I had a latte here and apple strudel in the Hapsburg's garden...

The tulips are nearly done, summer has officialy begun.


Schonbrunn is so big it even has its own U Bahn station. Except it's out of the city so it's above ground...

Then the final hike for the day Belvedere, with it's advertised biggest collection of Gustav Klimt pictures, the most famous of which is 'The Kiss' They also have Monet, Rodin and others, but Klimt was a local and like Picasso he developed a world of his own...

The front of Belvedere.

Looking toward the city from the front:




Tis woman has a lovely house!

But hold on, several Klimt's were missing and now I find out they are spread across at least 2 other galleries in town... So no more Klimt for me this trip.

These last couple of pictures are for the roof top condo conversions, note how they excahnged glass for some of the roof, rather clever I think...

And that was Vienna pretty much, I am eating my dinner as I type this up, then up in the morning for the Railjet train to Salzburg.
I like Vienna, but as of 9:14am tomorrow I will be a Wiener no more, depsite what you may say. Everyone should come here, it's probably the most impressive city I have seen in all my trips... At least so far.
You can all be Wieners too.
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-BlogPressed from my iPad. Click on pictures for larger version and gallery. Copyright 2012 TinyFrontalLobeWerke AG., Zurich.

Location:Vienna, Austria.