Viennese surprise - Day 1

I was pretty sure I would find interesting things on offer from a country which has been home to people like Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hitler. On one hand you expect Wein to be culturally super rich and on the other you expect to find freaks of nature.

The trip over to Vienna was very standard. Flight from Heathrow and then public transport in Vienna. Once in Vienna, we were greeted with a very warm and sunny day. We made our way to the hotel which was located in one of the most affluent residential areas of Vienna, right opposite a nice big park. The hotel itself was very fancy but comfortable with small number of really big rooms and good service. We checked in, dumped our luggage and headed out. There was a big party going on in the park just outside so we hung around there for a bit, eating some food and enjoying the band playing.

One of the things that never ceases to amaze me is how good the public transport is in any european city we have gone to so far. Wein has a, extensive network of overground trains, underground trains, trams and buses. Travelling to and fro anywhere in the city was a breeze. Our hotel was outside the Wien Ring Boulevard. Ring Boulevard is 4 kilometres long and circles the entire city centre with Trams plying every 5 minutes in either direction. It is amazing that the need for a ring road was foreseen and construction started about 250 years ago.

Day 1 continued on as we travelled on the trams 1 & 2 looking at the numerous sites on offer. The ring road is lines with important sites such as the Parliment, the Hoffburg, the Karlskirche, the Staatsoper, the Museumsquartier (6th largest cultural complex in the world) etc. The Karlskirche was being setup for the Life Ball 2008 celeberations and there were lights, speakers etc. everywhere. Working our way along the ring, we got to the HoffBurg. Once of the many parks of Vienna, packed with people eating, drinking and chilling on a warm weekend afternoon. There was a nice statue of Mozart in the park and of course we decided to take a Patel shot.

From here, we moved into the city to StephansPlatz which is centered around the 1157AD built StephansDom. This area is also adorned with high end shops and cafe's and is a good place to hang out at. There was a little street show going on with a group of young punks showcasing their breakdancing abilities. A fun show that lasted for about 10 minutes.

We took the subway to the modern, hi-tech Vienna. A dramatic change from the historical center and spent a bit of time walking around the tall buildings putting the finishing touches on the day. Tired and weary but happy, we got back to our hotel room to the comfort of our bed.