Back in Vienna!

After our mountain weekend, we had a nice slow-paced week in Vienna.  One thing that has been interesting to Shannon and I is how Vienna has started to feel like "home".  When we arrived in the train station we felt this strange familiarity with the place that was just nice.

The local movie theater was having a ski film festival so we had to check it out, they showed both this year's Teton Gravity Research movie (recommended) and a few local films (also recommended).  We learned that crash reels and their hilarity cross all cultures.

We also went to check-out the local hockey team, the Vienna Capitals.  The Capitals had a good game and won 3-2.  The style of play (much less physical than in North America) was the same here as in Salzburg.  We learned that part of the reason is that the rink is wider so they have more room to skate/less conflict.  Jury's out on how we feel about this (we may have been caught yelling "JUST HIT SOMEBODY!" a few times, it can be difficult to see your opponent skating around unimpeded).

We also got around to touring St. Stephan's cathedral, the biggest church in town.  It's quite impressive inside, although I particularly appreciated the cannon-ball that (as Rick Steves described) is still lodged in the building from some distant war... another sign that Vienna is trapped between Eastern and Western Europe, this particular ball came from a Turkish invasion.  The church itself has some fantastic gothic architecture and the South Tower is really impressive.

And of course, we enjoyed Vienna cafe culture.  One bike ride (of a few) took us around the downtown ring path to a beautiful cafe where we had this chopped up pancake dessert called "kaiserschmarrn" and beers/wine.  It seems like this is pretty normal for the Austrians to do on any given afternoon.  It's the good life.

Our next adventure would take us officially into Eastern Europe first to the Czech Republic (Prague) and then on to Hungary and Budapest!