DAY 98 - Vienna: The City of MUSIC (Part 1)

June 25 - My Favorite Composers all Lived Here

We walked down from our host's home to the train to Vienna and on the way we saw lots of big caterpillar bugs.  There were several squooshed ones and many others crawling around after the rain and subsided.

I don't remember ever seeing one of these before.

He really gets long when crawling out - eewww

When we got to the downtown area, I decided to start taking pictures of anything that was having to deal with music. 

Lots of souvenir shops since Mozart spent so much time in Vienna and died here.

A cool kind of Music Machine

"Unsere Garten" (Our Garden) - a functioning clock at the City Gardens

Johann Strauss was a good violinist and a great composer

A music guy, but oops...I forgot to write it down.

Strassenbahn - we enjoyed a pass on this system for two days to see the city

Schubertring - of course we've all heard of Schubert

Beethoven Park and here is the man himself

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832). He is considered by many to be the most important writer in the German language -- and one of the most important thinkers in Western culture.

Goethe Monument

So proud to stand next to my favorite composer - W.A.Mozart

A side view of Mozart's monument

Another lion?  They are in every city!

"How is your back?  After 300 years of this, I'm ready for a different job."

The Spanish Riding School

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Beautiful stained glass windows

We were hoping to hear an organ concert here, but we couldn't find it in time.

Another Medieval City in the middle of the city

We went to a cute little local cafe for lunch and had a delightful soup and I found a couple of children's books to read in German. "I love you" was this one.  Gazpacho soup originates from Spain and you serve it cold.  It is a tomato-based vegetable soup.

Gazpacho and a child's book to read....so good

The waiter and chef was so nice and spoke a little of English

Hungarian Goulash which is popular in Austria as well as Hungary.

Wiener Schnitzel & Potato Salad - a typical Austrian dish

And for dessert....we MUST have Apfil Strudel - FANTASTIC!

Schloss Schonbrunn- the former Imperial family's summer residence.  We took a stroll around the gardens and hiked up to the Gloriette.  We took several pictures from different views - simply breathtaking.
                                      
                                          

The Garden had some mazes that were very cool