Vienna

I have to admit that in all my research and preparation for this trip - I thought that our magnificent site seeing would BEGIN in Vienna. I was a bit afraid of wasting too much time in the big city and then missing out on some other things. When we arrived, I was honestly a bit let down after Budapest. Budapest seemed more like the real city and Vienna seemed more like the upscale, country club version. I saw one petite older lady walking down the street with white hair done perfectly, her strait gray skirt and black shirt (designer, I'm sure) her string of pearls, her black pumps and a little clutch bag. She reminded me so much of Brad's grandmother who was very socially connected and very prim and proper her entire life. This to me embodied Vienna. It was nice, not quite as architectually compact as Budapest but a bit more upscale.

St. Stephan's Cathedral

The tile Mosaic roof with the Hapsburg seal on the roof.

One of the things that I kept reading about was the Sacher torte. Apparently, this recipe has been famous for centuries - it was the favorite of Sisi - the beloved Queen of the Hungarian/Austrian Empire. So, I insisted that we visit the cafe and have THE torte. Well, it wasn't as fantastic as I had envisioned (my sister in law makes a killer chocolate torte so I've been spoiled). This is Chocolate cake with a layer of apricot jam type filling and then topped with a dark chocolate Ganache. The experience was fun though!

We then wandered the streets to find our car rental place - that was quite an adventure. The logo of our company was no where to be seen so we stopped to ask at a different place that was somewhat near the address we were looking for and they said we had found the place. We filled out the paper work and then they turned us loose - "Go down the street to the parking garage and your car will be down there." We asked if there would be anyone in the garage to show us where the car was and she said, "Maybe, just press your key and you'll find your car." Several streets and allies later we found the garage and there was no attendant and no beeping noise for the car location. We finally spotted the briefly flashing lights and started our grand adventure.