Vienna 2019, Part 1: The Adventure Begins

A month after I returned from Amsterdam last year, I was playing around on Expedia and found a deal that could not be missed. My next February break was settled--on beautiful Vienna, Austria. Because it is a hot spot in the history of Western classical music, I would be accompanied by fellow music nerd Summer.

We schemed and planned for months, until finally, the day arrived. Off we flew to...Chicago. First, Chicago. Where we promptly got lost in O'Hare's endless terminals.

Sunrise over Europe

Austria

The Alps

But all was well--we made it to our terminal with plenty of time to spare and one uneventful eight-hour flight later, we landed in Vienna at 7:58 AM local time (according to the flight attendant). And check this: by 9:18 AM, we were sitting the lobby of our hotel, having left our bags with concierge. We were gearing up to go explore a bit and find some food while our room was readied, but as it happened, the room became ready around 9:30, so we happily went upstairs to shower and relax for a few minutes.

Then, finally, it was time to explore.

With help from the lady working the front desk, we found out that the Praterstern station near our hotel had a direct Ubahn link (that's the subway) to Stephansplatz. A glimpse of Vienna's most famous church (of many famous churches) seemed a good idea, and it was near a prominent shopping and dining area.

The subway was easy for this London Girl, and took maybe ten minutes. As we exited the station at Stephansplatz, we looked up in expectation.

No church.

So we walked several yards, looking around at all the buildings, seeing no church, until we walked around a slight corner and...Oh.

St. Stephan's is stunning, and of course, the sun shows it in all its glory.

The buildings around it weren't anything to laugh at, either.

This adventure was brought to us by the word "hunger," so priority number one after a few pictures was to find Cafe Mozart. A short-ish walk down a pedestrian-only street delivered us to Hotel Sacher, and, in that same building, Cafe Mozart.

But along the way, there were some lovely little sights.

The doorman was very obliging, letting me take a picture.

Across the street from Cafe Mozart: the Albertina, a wonderful art museum.

I ordered a Mozart Chocolate--hot chocolate with a drizzle of chocolate sauce and pistachio sauce on the whipped cream, and served with a Mozart Ball candy.

For lunch, I had beef goulash with a sweet pickle. The goulash was just the right amount of spicy, and delicious.

After lunch, we wandered just across the street to Vienna's famous Opera House. We did not go inside, but the outside gave us plenty to look at.

 By this time, we were feeling delirious from jet lag, so we headed back to the hotel for the rest of the day.

 Of course, no trip is complete without some sign pictures. Here's a few from Sunday.