Who would’ve thought that little white boiled sausage would be so good?

We just got back from dinner out, at some place downtown. It was a nice little bierhof, with some good beer and trad food. I had two little white sauages, boiled and white, very mild but with a delicious mustard. Yummmm! And a nice weissbeer to go with it.

Vienna gets even more beautiful at night, if that’s possible. Everything’s lit up, lots of people are out…awesome. We even stopped on the way home for some ice cream; there were crowds of people there, so we figured when in Vienna…and we were right. Nellie didn’t like her vanilla much, but the GIL and I loved our chocolate. Again…yummmmmm.

Oh, and I forgot one of the best parts of today: before we saw the Belvedere we walked through a square where the Russians left a huge statue in 1955 (when they officially relinquished control of the city) that read something like, “We shall return.” Aah! Can you imagine if a brutal occupying force left something like that behind? S’a little creepy, no? Anyway, the Austrians were too scared to tear it down so they built a giant fountain in front of it. I thought that was just…it was very…you just don’t see shit like that in Canada.

OK, gotta go pack and get some sleep. We leave for Budapest tomorrow morning.

I’m glad I’m in Europe today. I think if I’d caught any footage of the Canadian concert I’d be depressed. All they’re showing here is London.

Speaking of London, they’re currently showing Pete Dougherty approaching an O.D. live before the whole world.

Forgot to mention that on the way home we happened across the front of the Vienna pride parade. We stayed and watched for a bit; even though we only saw about half an hour worth, it seemed much tamer than Toronto’s. No naked people!

Christ, do our feet ever hurt. This might’ve been our fullest day yet, and it’s barely 6PM.

I got up early with the intention of going to the Votivekirche for some pictures, but it was raining fairly hard so I figured I’d wait until tonight. We met the other two downstairs for breakfast (including mimosas!), and hit the bricks by a little after 9:00. First up: the Stephansdom.

It’s a huge gothic church, one of the most recognizable features of the city, with one enormous steeple. We didn’t seem to be able to climb said steeple (there’s construction going on), but we did go down into the catacombs. We started with a mausoleum — nothing special — but then we got to the internal organs (in jars) of the Hapsburgs, and then came the bones. The church is built over a graveyard, so there were rooms filled with bones of the dead, some like cordwood. There was even another room where, during the plague, bodies were just thrown down from the square into a giant pile below. Coooooooool.

From there we headed to the Hofburg, the palace (or, rather, series of palaces) that the Hapsburgs built. We didn’t see all the buildings, but the ones we saw were beautiful. We only went into the Schatzhammer museum where we saw an emerald the size of my fist (2,000-odd carats), a ruby the size of a plum, a bunch of “religious artifacts” and so much gold and jewellery that it became almost mundane.

We stopped long enough to have a coffee and some strudel, then poked around the Augustinekirche for a bit before walking to the Staatsoper (opera house)…which was closed. Apparently they only do tours in the morning. Dang. So we went shopping instead — I got myself a shirt from the Boss store — and had lunch at a little italian place.

Two annoying things about Vienna: the stooges in old clothing who pester you to come see a concerto (we must have been asked 10 times in two days) and Americans who don’t seem to speak at any volume but a low roar.

Anyway…we chose to visit the Belvedere quarter rather than the Schonbrunn Palace. It’s a huge estate in the city where they showed a 50th anniversary celebration of Austrian independence exhibit, along with an art gallery (many Klimts, a few Monets, a Manet, a Van Gogh, a Rodin, etc.). There’s also a very impressive garden between the upper and lower palace.

By this point we were beat, and ready to go home. We tried finding a tram route, but couldn’t. It was too far from a U-bahn station. We walked to the Ringstrasse, but as we got there the trams stopped running because of the pride parade. So we hailed a cab, which was driven by…a madman. This guy, impatient and frustrated by the traffic, drove around queues, reversed down streets, nosed into traffic…it was crazy. In the end he just dropped us off somewhere. While we tried to find our bearings we turned a corner to see…the Votivkirsche, the very church I’d planned to photograph earlier. Funny how fate works.

Anyway, it was about a fifteen minute walk home from there. I tried to get some snacks, but everything’s closed. Nellie had a bath to soothe her achy and blistery feet while I wrote this essay and watched a bit of the Live8 footage. In about half an hour we’ll head out and try to find some food.

Tired.

After a quick trip to the grocery store to ward off starvation, the GIL (girlfriend in law) arrived on the scene. We were unsuccessful in our attempts to find what seemed the nearest restaurant recommended by our guidebook, but down an alley we did happen to spy a beisl that was itself recommended. It was a good dinner: lots of traditional Austrian fare, wine, laughter (mostly about Cambio the change weasel) and a chance for the GIL to show off her German skills. I’m glad she’s here; it’s a helpless feeling not speaking the language.

On the way home we stopped to take pictures of a church. They light the churches up at night, so it’s an ideal photo op, and Nellie snapped a few of the spire she’d gotten earlier in the day, just for contrast. The innere stadt of this city is just beautiful.

I got up early this morning to go take a picture of another church, but now I’m more inclined to go tonight after it’s lit up. And hopefully by then the rain will stop; it’s still pissing down out there right now, dangit.

Hey…happy birthday, Canada!!

Wow. WOW. Vienna is absolutely amazing. Even though it’s pissing down rain, we had a great afternoon. We found a greasy diner for lunch (I had some chicken shnitzel) and a weissbeer, then when it began to rain we came back to the hotel to grab some raincoats and the umbrella. We very nearly just called it quits then, but Nellie convinced us to press on. I’m glad she did.

As we walked around Stephansplatz and the Hofburgh quarter, I was amazed. Every building was beautiful, though some were rather glaringly commercial at street level. We saw the Stephansdom and walked past the opera house and some museums; Nellie just had to stop taking pictures of buildings since every building was gorgeous. Eventually we decided to stop at a cafe out of the rain. The other two had cappucinos; I had a hot chocolate. I was in heaven.

Nellie really wanted to see the Freud house, so we walked over there. It was interesting without being cheesy…another good stop on the afternoon. But as we left the weather turned nastier and we decided to head home, out of the rain, to relax and rest our tired feet until the girlfriend-in-law arrives.

After traveling by foot, tube, train, monorail, jet, airport bus and taxi, we’re in Vienna! It was an early morning, but we’ve arrived safe and sound at the Rudolfsplatz. It’s a nice little room in a very pretty hotel. We shall now go explore a bit while we wait for the girlfriend-in-law to arrive this evening.

By the way, the flight was Air Berlin but was run by something called “NiKi”, whose slogan is “double satisfaction”, and whose sandwich containers say, “take a bite of NiKi”. Cheeky, these Germans + Austrians…

Man…the train from Liverpool station to Stanstead takes you past bunny central. We’ve seen literally dozens of rabbits in the fields by the train, sunning themselves. It made Nellie happy.

Christ it’s early. The brother, Nellie and I were up at 4:30 to catch the many trains to Stanstead for our Vienna flight. I need more sleep.