On to Vienna

We seemed to take a very round-about way to Vienna in order to stop at a little village called Cesky Krumlov.

As you can see to the left, (H4-11), it was very rainy that day. But rain wasn't to be our worst disaster on this stop. The scenery was very nice as you can see to the right. (H4-12) You can just make out Elaine's blue raincoat at the bottom of the picture. Does anyone seeing this know how to use gradients with the brightness control in PhotoShop?

There was lots of boating activity on the river to the right.(Top, H4-13),bottom (H4-14) and looking back on the bridge revealed a huge castle we never visited.(H4-18).

The town was really pretty but the restaurants were totally unprepared for serving lunch to two double deck bus-loads. We waited at one restaurant until the waitress said it would be too long. (Right H4-15)

Left( H4-17). We eventually found a little store which had cheese and crackers and we bought a bag lunch which we ate on the bus after we left.

These are the two hotels we stayed at in Vienna. The one on the left is the Hotel Falkensteiner (H4-22) and the larger one on the right is the Hotel Ananas (C5-27) which we needed because the Falkensteiner must have overbooked. We were at the Ananas and liked it very much. The picture below, (H4-20), shows what we saw looking out our window. The Wein River separated us from the buildings to the right and there was a metro line in between. This is a very clean city.

The next morning, we left for our bus tour of Vienna. We managed to capture the front seat of one of the busses and had a very good view out front and even an interesting view to the back, as the picture below shows. (H4-23).

Our first stop was the Schönbrunn Palace, the front of which is pictured in the panoramic picture below. (P4-25)

The back balcony below (H4-29) was used to get the picture of the back gardens to the left. Top, (H4-28), bottom (H4-30)

"Marv, you never hold me that way anymore!" (C4-33). Top Right, tree tunnel.(H2-31)

Seeing the above (C4-32), Knight Kiplinger said he better understands the French Revolutionary spirit. I think it represents what 200 years of a flat tax would do.

The rest of our driving tour took us to many places in Vienna. In our drives and also our walks to and from the city center, we passed this market many times. (H4-35)

Our most interesting stop was Hundertwasserhaus, a very colorful set of buildings that was built to bring some color into Vienna. Below is the main apartment building. (H4-38).

Above (H4-40)........................ Below (H4-39)

Elaine visited the ladies room that was part of this complex and insisted on taking her camera in with her (!) to photograph "Mr.LU LU." The picture to the left (H5-32) is that creature. The men's room was also very ornate but I didn't attempt a photograph.

On the right (H5-31), see an attempt to photograph the whole building from a bit farther away. I guess you will have to visit our house and see the beautiful print we purchased from the little shopping mall pictured below. (H5-01)

This is a church I photographed from the bridge going from the old to the new part of the city. Does anyone remember what it is? (C5-02) Alison thinks it contains a reproduction of the stable and manger where Jesus was born.

The new part of the city is dominated by the magnificent U.N. building, one of Vienna's "highscrapes," as our guide described it. He said that Vienna will eventually be centered in the new part. (H5-04)

Of course, Vienna is noted for it's original Ferris wheel, but this is as close as I got to it. (C5-08)

The picture above (C5-11) is the famous Vienna Opera house which was our bus collection point. Sure wish we had time to see the inside.

We met up with Susie and decided to have a pizza for lunch - but we couldn't pass up fresh raspberries. (H5-13)

Remember, Elaine is taking this picture. (C5-14) and below are our witnesses, also waiting for a pizza. (C5-15)

Here are two pictures of St. Stephen's Cathedral. (Left, P5-19, Below C5-20) I thought there might be some way I could use PhotoShop to stitch these two together to get one picture. However, the angles are simply not consistent. I'm sure it could be done with some sort of algorithm, but I'm not up to it.

Below (C5-24) "Late 19th Century Art Nouveau residential building with colored floral ornamentation on majolica tiles" (from Otto Wagner)

Below, walking toward our bus pickup. (H5-38)

Right, (H5-39) the pickup point was in front of the opera house. Craig asked us what that little sign said just below the statue. Although this Wunderlich doesn't read much German, I saw the word "Vogel" and concluded it was "don't feed the birds" and not "keep off the grass". So, there you see Craig snuggling up to the stone attempting to photograph the statue from an interesting angle. Can't wait to see that picture.

Below, we board our busses the next day for Budapest.(H5-40)