 Wolfgang Mozart was some sort of musician. He seems to be very popular in Austria for some reason. |
 The ornate fence and a very small portion of the huge Hofburg palace complex. The Hofburg was the downtown winter palace of the Habsburg emperors. |
 The Heldenplatz or Hero's Square in the middle of the Hofburg. Today the palace is home to half a dozen museums. |
 The clock tower tells time, the phase of the moon, and the current weather. For example, the sundial tells us that it is cloudy now. |
 We toured the Silver Museum, which displays the silver (and gold) utensils used by the emperors. |
 Meredith is hoping to revise the china pattern from our wedding registry. |
 You can't have a state dinner in the dark, so of course you need gold candelabras. Lots of them. |
 Brian poses near a subtle, understated centerpiece which informs visitors that the Habsburgs had some spare cash and some influence with the artistic community. |
 They hired famous artists to decorate their plates. |
 I wonder where they found room for food on the table. |
 This is why they shouldn't have mirrors in museums. |
 Either I became a Godzilla-like destroyer of the Hofburg complex, or we found a nicely done scale model. You decide. |
 Back outside in the Heldenplatz |
 The main entrance of the palace |
 All visitors had to battle a hydra before being allowed inside. |
 The Habsburgs like a little drama in their fountains. |
 We toured the Vienna State Opera house, which also had some nicely decorated rooms. |
 The bust of that Mozart guy, along with paintings of scenes from his operas above. |
 This is the emperor's intermission room at the opera house. |
 The main staircase is only lit during performances, but you can still see the paintings and statues that welcome the guests. |
 We got to go backstage, and we scared the hell out of this giant head used in the performance of the R. Strauss opera "Daphne". |
 The giant chandelier in the ceiling of the auditorium is a portrait of concentric circles. |
 Despite Vienna's world reputation for fine coffee, Starbucks manages to survive on a prominent street corner on the main drag downtown. |
 St. Stephan's cathedral, or the Stephansdom, is possibly the most famous landmark of downtown Vienna. It also provided a great view of the city. |
 A view from the cathedral tower down to the square filled with horse and buggy drivers. |
 Meredith enjoys the view with the famous tile roof of the cathedral behind her. |
 The Austrian eagle pattern in the roof tiles. |
 Another view of the city and the hills of the Vienna woods off in the distance. |
 A view of the ornate windows of the church. |
 A rare picture of Brian near a church without a constant barrage of lightning strikes obstructing the view. |
 Now to Schönbrunn, the massive summer palace on the outskirts of town. A human female stands in the foreground for comparison. |
 Brian strictly obeyed the "Keep off the grass" sign, unlike some people. |
 Naturally, you can take a horse and carriage around instead of walking the vast distances in the garden. |
 The amazing baroque gardens elicit the intended response from Meredith. |
 A sample of the gardens, with the Neptune fountain and the Gloriette gate on top of the hill. |
 A close up of the Neptune fountain. |
 A closer up of the Neptune fountain shows the detail of the statues and the tourists under the waterfall. |
 From the fountain, a view of the gardens that lead to the main building. |
 Did I mention the tourists under the fountains? This is the view they got. |
 Climbing the hill towards the Gloriette is rewarding for the amazing views of the palace and of the whole city behind. It's good to be the emperor. |
 The Gloriette gate. |
 The gardens even have these great statues that impersonated Brian's every pose. |
 It worked for Meredith, too! |
 Just when you think you've seen all of the gardens, there's more! |
 Meredith enjoys the rare Cocaine Roses. |
 They had roses of every imaginable type. |
 Lots of roses. |
 From this angle, the guy in the fountain looks like he's offering the other guy a drink. Those crazy Habsburgs! |
 Back downtown in the Museum Quarter, a statue of Empress Maria Theresa. |
 We went on a quest for memorials to some of Vienna's famous composers, like Johann Strauss, Jr. |
 And Ludwig van Beethoven. |
 This is the view of the Graben, one of the main streets downtown, from our hotel room. I highly recommend Pension Nossek for nice, affordable rooms in a superb location next time you are in Vienna. |
 Meredith settles into her train seat to begin our trip to Salzburg. |