Just Landed in London: Vienna

After a cold and rainy weather in Salzburg, we arrived in hot and sunny Vienna. It was hot and dry. Our airBNB was across the street from Belvedere Palace. After we dropped off the bags, we went straight to there. There was a restaurant that was conveniently located next to Belvedere entrance. It had good reviews and served Viennese cuisine.

The beer in Europe has not disappointed us

Ribs, white sausage, pretzel and sweet mustard and basil/ tomato/ mozzarella salad

The food was pretty good. I think because we were starving also. After that, we went next door. Belvedere has upper and lower sections. The ground was huge and quite pretty with nicely trimmed hedges and tiered fountain. The Belvedere was built during 1600's, a period of extensive construction in Vienna, which at the time was both the imperial capital and home to the ruling Habsburg dynasty. This period of prosperity followed on from the commander-in-chief Prince Eugene of Savoy's successful conclusion of a series of wars against the Ottoman Empire.

In Vienna, we also experienced a pretty extreme change since we came from Prague and Salzburg when the weather was rainy and a bit cold (around 60's F), I wore a jacket pretty much every day. Vienna was hot and dry that week. Walking around in Belvedere ground where there was hardly any shades was a torture. The good thing was it was quite breezy.

Upper Belvedere

Ceiling painting of the Marble Hall in the Upper Belvedere by Carlo Carlone

Lower Belvedere

I'm with you, Kyle. It's quite boring.

After that, we walked north to St. Stephen's Cathedral, located inside the ring. It's the most important religious building in Vienna, St. Stephen's Cathedral has borne witness to many important events in Habsburg and Austrian history and has, with its multicolored tile roof, become one of the city's most recognizable symbols.The funeral of the Italian composer, Antonio Vivaldi was held in this cathedral.

We walked around the area and decided to go home while stopping by at Cafe Sacher.

I don't think there's anything special with Sachertorte, the chocolate cake was dry. Later on, I watched Anthony Bourdain's show when he was in Vienna. He said the same exact thing. The cake was dry. The apple strudel was much better.

The next day we went to Schonbrunn Palace, which is a former imperial 1,441-room Rococo summer residence built in 1600's. The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.[

Love the manicured garden in Vienna palaces!

From the back side

The building in the background is called Gloriette.

Woohoo.. I'm in Vienna!

From the maze

We walked uphill to Gloriette. The view didn't disappoint. The walk wasn't long but it was just so hot that day. Thank God, it was quite breezy.

Taken from the Gloriette. Nice view from the top.

This is the small palace besides the main palace. It looks like a miniature version of Schonbrunn.

A bit random but they have a couple of orange trees in the miniature garden.

Beautiful manicured ground. I'm glad we went. I wasn't used to the heat since living in mild England climate in the past 8 months. It was lunch time and since we planned a visit to Naschmarkt. We decided to eat lunch there. The market was with food vendors, restaurants and some fish and vegetable stalls. I wasn't impressed. Borough market in London was better. After lunch, since we were not sure what to do the next, we decided to go to Hofburg Palace.

Hofburg was just okay. They held a lot of Habsburg's massive collection from silverware, ceramic, dining sets, and decorations. It was boring.