No Kangaroos in Austria.....

V-I-E-N-N-A

We arrived in Vienna with busabout at about 4.30pm and for once Google directions paid off and we got to our hostel no problems, only a 5 minute walk from the drop off point so that was handy. Our room in another renovated apartment building, this one has two bedrooms and a shared kitchen and bathroom. It also has really good wifi in the room which is always nice :-) We are staying at Happy Hostel and definitely recommend it if anyone plans to come to Vienna. I ended up napping for a few hours after we got here (apparently sleeping the whole bus trip wasn't enough for me) so at about 8pm we ventured out to have a quick look around and get some dinner. we were both starving so ended up at the first cafe we found which happened to only serve pasta. It was OK but definitely not authentic Viennese food.
Our first full day we went on a bike tour we booked through busabout. Sadly this is the worst tour we have done so far. Firstly it was bilingual so half the time the guide spoke in German half the time in English. Secondly the guide just told you the facts he didn't make it interesting like most guides did. Thirdly he didn't have any flowers on his bike like our guide in Amsterdam. Fourthly you only rode maximum of one block at a time then stopped for a talk then rode another block then stopped again it got kind of annoying after 3 hours of this. Anyway enough of my whinging we did get to see some pretty incredible stuff.
The tour started at the Opera house which while open for tourists to have a wander through is closed of performances for the months of summer. the rest of the year it is home to the famous ballet and opera performances and is usually completely booked out every night of the week. We didn't get to see inside the building but the outside was incredible.
For most of the tour we rode on a road called Ringstrabe. they built the road to replace the city walls. the road is circular and encloses the main area of the city that hosts most of the sites.
We saw the Mozart Memorial in the Burggarten (a public garden). In front of the statue is a bed of flowers in the shape of a treble clef.
We stopped outside the Natural History and Art History Museums. Back when the city wall was still up the space where the museums now sit was open space so that when canons were fired from the wall the cannon balls did not make it far enough to damage any buildings. Once the emperor of Vienna felt safe he had the museum buildings built. Or possibly it was an Empress i don't know. I do know that there is a statue of Empress Maria Theresa in the square in between the two museums.

This is the Spanish Riding School

We saw the Hofburg Palace (home of the Hapsburgs back in the day and currently summer home for the Austrian president) which is more like a complex of buildings with multiple wings. The Hapsburg family were the rulers of Vienna for a couple of centuries.
This was in a church we went into, the Hapsburgs hearts were places here after they died...
They had one major flaw throughout history:inbreeding. After a few generations of inbreeding they started to have jaw issues (they started resembling cave men), some not being able to chew their food due to the jaw not been quite right. There was also a number of other issues including hemophilia. The message here people is that inbreeding is BAD!

The library

We saw the parliament building, university of Vienna and two statues of horses. One is only supported by two legs which is apparently a bit exciting as usually these statues need three points to balance correctly. Our guide told us this is the only one like this you would see anywhere but I'm a bit skeptical about that.

One horse statue supported by its two back legs and tail
The other horse statue supported only by the back two legs

After the tour we got some lunch and did some shopping, my new favourite store is H & M hopefully it comes to Australia soon, i got bathers for only $4 euros! After this me and ewen went our separate ways for an hour so i could get his birthday presents, wish me luck hiding those for the next two weeks.

A human statue, these are everywhere in Vienna! At least four on most of the busy streets

After we met back up we got drinks and apple strudel (local desert) and then jumped on the metro and went to Prater Park home of the worlds oldest Ferris wheel.

The entry of Prater Park
The oldest ferris wheel in the world
This one is for you Darcee
Ewen having a tea party

It turned out to be a rather large theme park, much bigger than Luna Park. We walked around looking at the different rides for a while and got beat the high score on the wack-a-mole game then it was Ferris wheel time. This Ferris wheel is a bit different to normal ones, you sit in a rectangle box i suppose, they look kind of like mini tram cars and there is about 8 people in each one i think. the ride was good with nice views over the theme park and out to the rest of Vienna.

Me & Ewen on the ferris wheel
The view

We then got the metro back to the shopping street near our hostel and stocked up on books for our Croatia sailing trip in two weeks.
Then it was noodles for dinner and back to our hostel to watch Hot Tub Time Machine. Has anyone seen that movie? It is crazy!!!
Today we plan to go to Danube river and hopefully go swimming and have a picnic. Its 11.30 and Ewen still asleep so we'll see how that goes.