Vienna Beginnings

After a few nights in Salzburg, it was time for us to slide along to our home for the month of October, Vienna.  Our time in Vienna was strategic with easy access to the Alps and parts of Eastern Europe.  It was also a big enough city that we were able to find a great deal on a studio apartment complete with kitchen, dining table and chairs, and a washing machine.

During our first week or so in Vienna we explored the city slowly, we were both recovering from a bit of a cold and enjoying not being on the move every few days.

Eventually we did a city walk and saw beautiful buildings like Stephan's Cathedral (more on that in a few posts), the Hapsburg palace, and the overall beauty of downtown Vienna.

Vienna is well known for it's cafe culture and we enjoyed stopping for a Sachertorte on one of our downtown treks.

Later that week, we headed to Schonnbrun palace   which was originally a hunting lodge before being summer accommodations for the Hapsburg dynasty.  The Hapsburgs ruled in this area for almost 7 centuries (from around 1200-1900ish).  Schonnbrun was a pretty interesting look at the upper class lifestyle by Vienna royalty.

Really the biggest impression it had on me was reminding us how about 100 years ago Austria (and other parts of Europe) were ruled by Kings of hereditary descent.  Hard to imagine as an American.
The Palace has a huge adjacent park/garden area and we (ok, maybe just me) really enjoyed the laybrinths they had built.

On top of this slower paced sight-seeing, we've also been nesting in our home.  We've gotten to know our favorite grocery store (and foods), picked out some clothes that will be helpful later on the trip, mastered public transit, figured out the washing machine, etc.  A great first week in Vienna.