Vienna: Day 2

Hello from Hungary!

We are about an hour or so away from Budapest, so I want to write about Vienna: Day 2 before we arrive.

Yesterday, we had a free day in Vienna.  Since our hotel was so far away from the city center, our Contiki bus took us into the city at 8:30 AM. We arrived around 9:15 AM and walked into the middle of the "ring" area.  We saw an amazing and beautiful palace and the place that the Spanish Horses perform. I have never heard of them, but they are apparently world famous.

We continued to walk and eventually we arrived in the main shopping area of the city.  Our tour group had an entirely optional tour of Svowrski (I know I spelt that one wrong!) and we were able to look around.  Since it is an Austrian company, this was their headquarters.  

Then, the group split up.  I met up with a few people and we went to have a coffee on top of a rooftop bar with amazing views of the whole city.  The coffee was only €4 which is apparently cheap for Vienna. Austria is up there in terms of wealth with Great Britain and Germany, so the whole city is ridiculously expensive. The hotel wanted over €120 to do a load of laundry for me! 

Back on topic now, after coffee I split up from the group and went to the Stephensdom, the main church of Vienna.  It is a massive building and is absolutely beautiful inside.  It was about the only place in Vienna that was completely overrun with tourists.  I saw a flyer inside for a concert that the State College Area High School Choir will be performing in Vienna on June 18!  Talk about a small world!  For those of you who don't know, that is the high school next to Penn State!

Then, I walked back down to where the bus dropped us off so I could walk around part of the "ring" and take pictures.  I saw a lot of beautiful buildings and parks. After that, I walked back to the main shopping area to buy my souvenirs. Then, I walked to the Hotel Sacher to have a cake that they invented. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing called a Sacher Torte.  It was phenomenal. After my cake, I headed back to catch the bus to the hotel.

When I got back to the hotel, a few of us decided to use the pool, sauna, and steam room to relax a bit.  Some of the people were surprised that the sauna and steam room were coed and that it was mandatory that you be naked. A few people cheated and wore towels.  It was very relaxing, though.

After about an hour, I got changed and caught the bus back into town for our dinner and classical music concert at the palace we stopped at the night before, the Schönbrunn Palace. The dinner was pretty good and the concert was all right.  I do not consider myself a classical music fan, but figured I would go for the experience. I saw about 95% of the performance, but had to take breaks every few songs because it was so hot in the concert hall.  I lasted a bit longer than about half of the group, so I can't complain. 

After the concert, I headed back to the hotel and went to bed.  

Today, we have a bus tour of Budapest followed by a dinner cruise on the Danube River. It should be a lot of fun.

Michael