Vienna Sightseeing, Part 1

We started Saturday (our first full day in Vienna) off right with some yummy pastries at a local bakery and a big ol' coffee for me.  Then we met our awesome tour guides (my distant relatives, Traude and Gerhart) at 10am to start our full day of touring the city!

A yummy start to the day.

After taking the tram to the old city center (what used to be a walled city) we walked around the border and admired the beautiful architecture.  We stopped to look through the old university buildings, passed the town hall, and wandered off through the museum section (without stopping to see the insides -- my favorite part of museums are typically the outsides ;) ).  After reaching the parliament building we found our way to the pedestrian area of the old city and enjoyed wandering the streets.

One of the museum buildings

The Parliament building.

Another take at the Parliament building.

The pedestrian area was the one part of Vienna that really sparked some memories of childhood visits.  I enjoyed following Traude and Gerhart through the streets and hearing the history of each church as we ducked inside for a quick visit.  Since Traude studied history (and amazingly remembered it all) she was a wealth of knowledge.

The pedestrian area of Vienna.

We took a quick pause for lunch and hopped on the subway to eat near T & G's house.  It was a great break to thaw our fingers and eat way too much pizza.  Then the game plan was to take the train out to the far end of The Belvedere, a palace surrounded by beautiful gardens (in springtime) just outside the old city.  By taking the train to the far end we were able to walk the length of the gardens and return to the city for more touring.  The Belvedere was very impressive; my favorite thing to do in places like that is to imagine all the grand things that happened in that very place. And I have a feeling this palace saw some pretty grand times.

The Belvedere

Me in the Belvedere gardens with Traude and Gerhart,
overlooking the city center.

Once returning to the city center our first day of touring was turning into night, and our toes were turning into icicles.  Boyfriend and I were desperate for a coffee (ok, that was maybe just me), but our tour guides had a couple places left for us to see.  A quick evening view of a few areas in the city center and we realized that only daylight would do them justice.  We bid farewell (until the next day) to T & G and found ourselves a warm coffee shop for defrosting (ok, it was Starbucks, but don't tell anyone).

Boyfriend and I had one thing left on the agenda for the evening even though we were completely worn out from the day full of walking: Wiener Schnitzel; the best in town, we were told!  T & G told us that Figlmüller is famous for its schnitzel, so we just had to try it.

Figlmüller, Vienna

The schnitzel came out of the kitchen overflowing its plate, just as we were told.  On the menu it actually admits that its famous schnitzel is made from pork, not veal as a true wiener schnitzel is, but this was the famous one, so that is what we went with (true veal wiener schnitzel was also on the menu, but we opted for the specialty).  And boy was it delicious!   We weren't overly hungry so we decided to share one, which was a great choice since it was so big!

Me with the famous Figlmüller schnitzel.

We were stuffed to say the least, and simply exhausted.  A short tram ride back to the hotel and we were quickly sound asleep, resting up for our next day of adventures in Vienna!