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| The arrival at Vienna Schwechat Airport. Big smiles from the bride and groom!! :-) |
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| First stop after getting checked in to the hotel…….St. Stephen's Cathedral in downtown Vienna, under beautiful blue skies. |
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| We scoped out St. Augustine's church, where we ended up going for Sunday mass and heard wonderful music. |
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| Just some typical Viennese architectural beauty! |
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| Saturday night we went to an evening concert by a youth choir from Canada - fabulous acoustics for this delightful choir in St. Peter's. |
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| After the choir concert, there was an organ recital in the same church, so we definitely got our dose of fine music performances!! The first couple of numbers were nice, but we left before the end when some of the modern music didn't trip our trigger. Viennese ice cream cones were calling our names!! :-) |
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| A Julius in Vienna!! :-) |
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| The Vienna Opera ---- On Sunday after church, we took a tram tour around The Ring to see Parliament, City Hall, and many other sights. |
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| Next we took the subway to Schönbrunn Palace - one of our favorite places in Vienna. |
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| Steve and Joan took the formal tour of the palace (which we had already done twice), while we went outside and explored the gardens more. |
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| Steve and Joan agreed with us that Schönbrunn was lovely - inside and out! It's definitely one of the most beautiful palaces and grounds in Europe. |
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| Looking back at Schönbrunn Palace and the gardens, from behind the fountain. |
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| Heading up the hill to the Gloriette, on a mission to get to the top. |
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| We made it!! And the views were great from up on top of the hill. |
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| Back at the front of Schönbrunn Palace on our way out. |
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| We found the little back-alley pita restaurant that Ellen had taken us to about a year ago. It's definitely not a tourist spot, but very popular with the locals. That's probably because it's so hard to find, tucked away down tiny side streets. |
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| This picture is for you, Ellen! Thanks for sharing Kolar and its delicious pitas with us! We were thinking of you and Beth, and our fun times together in Vienna! :-) |
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| After dinner we went back to see St. Stephen's at night --- its a LONG way up!! :-) |
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| Definitely one of the most beautiful cathedrals in Europe, with the tall spires and colorful tiled roof. |
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| The first day with the car, we drove to the little town of Melk. This is one of the little side streets leading from the town to the Abbey. |
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| Of course, a regular part of our daily routine was finding pastry shops!! Steve and Joan never saw a pastry display case they didn't like!! ;-) |
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| For some reason we always ordered more pastries than there were people!! YUM!! |
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| Next we walked back up to Melk Abbey for our tour. This is one of the most valuable treasures in the Abbey |
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| One wing of the Abbey, with its graceful arches. The Benedictine founders of the Abbey practiced hospitality, so they welcomed travelers for overnight stays and meals in this enormous facility. |
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| The grand dining hall at Melk Abbey |
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| Views from the balcony at the back of Melk Abbey. |
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| This spiral staircase had a mirror at the bottom, so those are our four heads peeking over the balcony down the stairwell!! |
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| The gorgeous baroque chapel at Melk Abbey is one of our favorites. |
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| Too bad this was blurry, but I still have to post this darling "selfie" shot!! :-) |
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| The organ and ceiling of the Melk Abbey chapel |
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| The wood of life --- I liked the way this was put! |
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| Cousins at Melk Abbey!! |
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| The guys taking in the views of the surrounding countryside and the Danube below. |
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| Enjoying the views! |
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| I got the idea of this balcony shot from Joan!! :-) |
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| Another view over the balcony at Melk |
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| Then honeymooners at the end of our Melk Abbey tour. |
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| Looking through the gates and into the interior courtyards. |
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| After our tour, we continued on to the gardens at Melk Abbey. |
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| We saw (and took time to smell) lots of roses in the gardens everywhere we went. |
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| Joan got stung by a bee on her palm back on the first day in Vienna - sad face. :-( |
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| More pretty gardens behind Melk Abbey. |
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| We really loved the trees and bushes that were trimmed into perfect geometric shapes. |
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| We were a few minutes late getting through the gardens before closing time, and the exit gates were locked! |
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| So we just hung out for a while until the gal returned to let us out! |
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| We drove by several fields of gladiolas which were spectacular. |
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| As we understood it, these were 'self-pick' fields. On the other side, there was info about picking and paying for the flowers. Just like some Iowa sweet corn / tomato stands! |
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| Unfortunately, Joan stepped in some thick mud checking out the flowers, so her gallant husband helped her wipe the mud off her shoes!! |
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| "Here, Steve, have another wet-wipe!" |
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| Let's make sure it's all off, honey!! Aren't they just the cutest couple of newlyweds ever? :-) |
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| Our rental car was supposed to be a Ford Focus 'or similar', and this is what we got ---- a Mercedes!! So, that means our Ford Focus at home is similar to a Mercedes, right???? |
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| Steve had to stop along the road a few times to check out the crops in the fields. This was a field of sugar beets. |
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| Enjoying breakfast on our last morning at the hotel in Vienna. |
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| On Tuesday, our second day with the car, we stopped first in Tulln, one of the oldest towns in Vienna. We admired the beautiful flowers in window boxes all along our journey. |
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| We stopped to see this church, which looked old and interesting. Steve heard organ music coming from the open doors, so we went inside and enjoyed listening to the organist practicing for a while. |
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| It turns out, the church was originally built in 1014, and various additions and reconstructions occurred in four more architectural/historical periods. |
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| Out behind the church was this Baptistery. |
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| It reminded us a lot of similar Baptistery buildings we had seen in Italy this summer. |
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| Next we headed down to the Tulln riverfront area along the Danube, where we saw this salt storage tower, built back when salt was as precious a commodity as gold. |
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| All along the riverfront walkway, there were beautiful rose gardens. |
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| The town hall on the main square in Tulln. |
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| And, wouldn't you know, there was a wonderful pastry shop just calling our names, right on the town square in Tulln. |
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| Then we headed north on the other side of the Danube to visit Kreuzenstein Castle, which dates back to before 1100. |
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| Like most castles, it has had many different owners, (including the Habsburg royal family), fell into ruins and was destroyed at different times, and was reconstructed and added onto through the centuries. |
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| Cousins clowning around on a staircase in the Kreuzenstein Castle! |
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| The cool thing about this castle is that it was reconstructed in the 1700's by a Polish royal family, using huge portions of architectural structures brought from other castles they owned, to make it an authentic castle showcase. |
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| The displays were extensive, and we saw the largest private collection of medieval weaponry in Austria. |
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| Kreuzenstein Castle has been used in the filming of many movies too. We can see why!! Very cool place to visit! |
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| This shows the spectacular setting for the castle, high above the surrounding villages and countryside. |
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| Steve, the navigator, found a scenic route back to Vienna, winding up through the hills on hairpin turns. We stopped at several scenic overlooks. Beautiful! |
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| Finally, Steve and Tim took the luggage to the airport hotel and returned the rental car, while Joan and I took the subway to meet the guys at the airport. (Luggage for four people only allowed two passengers to ride in the car!) Then Tim and I bid the honeymooners farewell, took a train to Bratislava, and continued on a night train back to L.M. We had a fabulous time with our cousins in Vienna!! |
