The first thing we explored was a closed clock museum (still waking up fairly early :D) and some graffiti.
Next a modest castle!
From the castle you can see an old Soviet built housing complex. Note the long strip of identical buildings behind the one taller (newer/non-Soviet) building.
Also note the "UFO" bridge.
Outside the castle there was a restaurant with an *awesome* menu. Sadly it was a bit hot for beef cheeks so we didn't get to eat there.
By this time the clock museum was open. The clock in this scene really tells time!
Back in the heart of town we found a tower we could climb, climbed it, and got a nice view of the castle overlooking town.
European fast food is awesome. This place has free wifi and 1 Euro beer. We didn't eat there but perhaps we should have to show support. Anyway, it looks awesome.
And then ... train to Vienna time!
Note that the window opens.
After checking in we thought we'd pop downtown by train (free courtesy of Vienna card) to look around. We saw the ugliest car ever built while looking for the train station.
Having only read the half of the directions that fit on the eeePc screen Rod helpfully led a wild goose chase that ended at a different station than we were looking for (not the closest one!).
The first building we saw on emerging from the train downtown was this modest number.
Viewing this made us thirsty; luckily there was free water. Free water is surprisingly hard to come by in Vienna. Waiters love to add bottles of ~3 Euro water to your bill and hate bringing tap water despite the fact it's very good in Vienna.
Near the fountain there was a pile of stuff.
Indeed, it seemed that even looking down a random alley or street there was always something impressive.
Vienna is generally a bit overwhelming. It deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Rome, and yet from what we recall back home it generally isn't.
In the early evening a charmingly racist and patriotic Albanian chap sold us tickets to see a Mozart and Strauss performance in a room Mozart actually performed in with his sister. This guy thought it a good idea to bring his wailing child along.
Dancers and singers, oh my. The performance was VERY good. Much better than the one we saw in Krakow ... which was very good in it's own right!
The male singer and the lead violin, who rather awesomely conducted with his eyebrows and upper lip, were particularly good, as was the pianist.
Not bad for an arrival day in a new city. The only downside was that we were both exhausted and footsore again. At some point we're going to take a day off but so far every planned day off has been an epic failure, in that we end up doing something.
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