Austria

From Prague it was a pretty straight forward drive down to Vienna, a city that I had been fortunate enough to visit previously on my own. I really enjoyed it, but at the time wished I was there with Sue, so I was quite looking forward to visiting it again.

Last time I was there it was the middle of winter and at night the temperatures were 25 degrees below. This time it was the middle of summer and it was quite hot and humid and absolutely packed with tourists and school kids. Although I preferred Vienna when it was a little less crowded, it is still a stunning city with some amazing sites. Here's just a few of them.



Here's a view from Stephanslplatz down the main shopping street in town.

After a coffee and strudel we went for a stroll. This looked like an impressive old building, but I think it's pretty new but built to an old style. From memory it's the town hall. It had a pretty cool fountain out the front, so we had to do the 'tourist pic'.

Lots of semi-nude people wielding weapons, a must if you're doing a public sculpture.

Here's a shot of Stephansdom (St Stephan's Cathedral) with some of the local horses. It's a pretty amazing cathedral, but quite dark and imposing and is one of the many buildings undergoing restoration in Europe so was partly covered by scaffolding.

This was just a great statue. Some pretty interesting creatures and bad-arse looking dudes in this one!

I just love a good neon sign.

This cafe was on the same street as the Hotel Royal and it just looked cool, so I took a pic.

After Vienna our next stop was Salzburg, the only other fixed date on our holiday as we had to see Sue's aunt sing in the Salzburg Dom on June 30. We arrived the day before, found the hotel where Aunty Bet was staying and dropped in for a surprise visit. The day of the concert we headed in to Salzburg to explore this beautiful town.

Sue is a huge fan of the Sound of Music (I've never even seen it), so apparently we just had to go to St Peter's church. In the background on the top of the hill is the Hohensalzburg, the citadel that keeps watch over the city. Thankfully, those clever Austrians built a furnicular (a REALLY steep train track) that goes up to the castle. Much easier than pushing the increasingly heavier Luka up in the rapidly disintegrating stroller (thanks to all of the cobblestones).

On our first day in Salzburg we just strolled around looking at various buildings and tributes to Mozart. This building and its amazing manicured gardens is Schloss Mirabella. In case you're wondering, Schloss is the beautiful German word for a big fancy house. They're so poetic...

Walking back to the hotel we came across a whole line of odd looking vehicles stuck in traffic. Turns out it was the local Unimog club that must have come back from some kind of cruise. This was the oddest looking one and must the 'rat rod' of the Unimog scene. Very cool.

Salzburg is a very pretty city. Here's a pic to prove it.

The night of the concert we got to the cathedral nice and early and got some good seats.

Aunty Bet is fourth from the right in the back row. What do you mean you can't see her!?!? Aunty Bet's choir was just part of 400 singers and the concert was an amazing experience. The acoustics in cathedrals of this size is quite amazing and the notes reverberate for at least five seconds.

Look, I didn't get struck by lightning!

Here's the view over Salzburg from the top of the hill. The Dom is the large building with the green roof.

One of the things we read about in our Lonely Planet guide was the brewery run by a bunch of monks. That sounded like an ideal place to go for a late afternoon beer and bite to eat. This is the church part...

We're in a brewery, Luka's awake, so what do you reckon the next photo will be...

Whaddaya know!