Auf Wiedersehen Wien

We (Joey and I) finally convinced Jim to let us sleep in today....it was delightful! The weather was terrible here today (pouring rain and high winds).

Our 1st stop this morning was Mozarthaus, which you will recall is right next door to our hotel. It was a pretty quick tour as the house does not contain any of his personal possessions. They say that he composed 'The Marriage of Figaro' here.

We purchased an umbrella at the gift shop, but it didn't last long, as it was destroyed a few hours later in the wind.

As we were scooting through one of the passage ways to get out of the rain, we stumbled on another great cafe. So....we made a stop and enjoyed lunch, and some fantastic dessert. Joey had EIS (ice cream) lasagna and I had an After Eight sundae. Jim, had his usual, a beer!

Next stop...Stephansdom. This is a majestic cathedral. This first shot is taken outside from the side of the cathedral. The roof is tiled with over a quarter of a million yellow, blue and green glazed tiles.

We had hoped to take the English guided tour, and the elevator up the North Tower. Unfortunately, the English guided tours were cancelled today, and the rain prevented us from going up the North Tower.

However, we were still able to take some good pictures from inside the cathedral.

Then...it was off in search of some souvenirs from Vienna. Joey had his heart set on a pen set he had seen at the Hofburg Palace. Thankfully, the rain let up long enough for us to stroll down there. We had heard that the Albertina gift shop is one of the best and biggest. What we did not realize was that the gift shop was attached to a wing of the Palace (the State Rooms) we had not seen yet. So, we took a tour of the State Rooms. Your ticket also allowed you to view a number of pieces of art work.

The top picture was Jim's favourite by Paul Signac called 'Venedig, die rosa Wolke (1909)'. The bottom picture was my favourite by Paul Delvaux entitled 'Landschaft mit Laternen (1958)' - Landscapes by Lantern.

We also made a quick stop at Cafe Demel to pick up some chocolates, and Sisi's favourite sugared violets.

In the continuing quest to find the best chocolate in Europe, I picked up a few more kinds while I was here ~ Xocolat, Demel, Wiener Schokolade Konig and another one that is actually from Paris. The verdict is still out on the best kind ~ plus we have to wait to try Italy's chocolate.

Instead of eating at the hotel's restaurant when we arrived almost a week ago, we waited and ate there tonight. The restaurant, Konig Von Ungarn Restaurant in Mazarthaus, had excellent food. Surprisingly, Joey had veal goulash and not veal schnitzel (must be because he had it at lunch and has eaten schnitzel about 10+ times on the trip so far). We all agreed that each city gets better and better on this journey.....we really enjoyed Vienna.

We need to be up and at'em for our train which leaves just after 6:00 a.m. tomorrow morning.