The trip did not start out well, however. I flew from Cedar Rapids to Detroit and wandered around the airport for a few hours until my flight to Amsterdam, which I was looking forward to (it was supposedly only half full). Unfortunately, the previous flight to Amsterdam had not left by the time my flight boarded, so our half-empty flight became completely full with refugees from the other flight. This caused the plane to leave 2 hours late, and me to miss my connection in Amsterdam. I got very familiar with the Amsterdam airport, and lost 1/2 day of sightseeing time.

Instead of arriving at 3pm, I arrived at 10:30 and immediately ventured to my hostel to get some sleep. After sleeping off most of my jet lag, I awoke at had about 4 hours to wander around before the meeting started. So I took the underground down to the central plaza, Stephansplatz, to see the cathedral of Stephansdom. This is a reasonably large cathedral in the center of a smallish pedestrian-only square that is chalk full of tourists and natives out shopping, all trying to avoid the street entertainers.

I wandered inside Stephansplatz to get away from the people (unsuccessfully), find a seat to look at my travel book, and take a look at a Viennese cathedral. I was impressed that the inside was quite beautiful, and not filled with memorials to 1000 dead people (as often seems to be the case in European churches I visit). I was even more impressed that not only were numerous tourists visiting, but five or ten groups of local schoolchildren were wandering through the church absorbing their local culture.

After paging through my travel guide to put together a plan, I waited for a schoolchildren-free picture of the front of the cathedral and then headed for the tower entrance. Supposedly the view from the cathedral tower was worth the 4 euro admission, so I thought I'd climb up to the top. Surprisingly, there was an elevator! Getting off the elevator was a bit disappointing, because there was a cool breeze and only the shorter north tower was open, so the roof blocked the view to the south (though the roof itself was quite amazingly covered in multicolor tiles). I stared out the city, trying to orient myself to various landmarks (quite unsuccessfully) and admiring the relatively constant six-story skyline. When a possie of schoolchildren invaded, the platform became rather too small, so I decended and made my way out of the church.
On the way out, I noticed that Stephansdom's south tower was covered with a large ad (which I found quite tacky). Later on, I was told by a colleage who read German that the ad was solicitating donations for the church's upkeep.

I then wandered around the square and the adjacent pedestrian-only street of Graben looking for food. I suppose I should not have been surprised to find a very large assortment of wiener stands, especially considering the fact I had noted the "Vienna Sausage" stands in various U.S. airports earlier this year. However, I simply had not attached "Wien" and "wiener" before. I guess it's simply not something I would be proud of. Since I wasn't in the mood for a hot dog, I found a pastry stand and did what I do whenever I don't speak the language: pointed at something that looked good and kept an open mind. I was a bit disappointed to get a pastry with some pizza-like filling.

As I wandered down the pedestrian area, I came to a large monolith-like thing in the middle of the road with various gold statues on it. Not understanding a thing printed on it, I was a bit confused. After talking with others and reading my travel book, I discovered this was the Pestsaule, which celebrates the passing of the Black Death. I guess that certainly qualifies as something to celebrate.

Further down Graben, I took a turn down a side road and saw before me
Petersplatz, a very tiny square mainly taken up by the church of St. Peter, with enough space left over for a narrow one-way road on each side. I wandered into St. Peter's only to discover a priest leading mass. I watched for a few minutes, but mainly admired the interior of the church. The church was very small, but completely covered in marble, tile frescos, paintings, or ornate statues. I was so impressed that I returned later in the day after the mass ended so I could take a photo. Here, you see roughly half the pews, and I'm standing at the back of the church looking towards the front.

At night, St. Peter's looks quite impressive as well!

After visiting Petersplatz, I continued down the pedestrian mall, peering into various shops until I reached the Hofburg palace. I couldn't get a picture I felt did it justice during the day, but the palace is lit up quite nicely at night. On the right, you can see Michael's plaza and the road next to the palace. The statue on the palace (center left) is also lit up spectacularly
at night, as you can see on the left.

Continuing, I wandered along the narrow road between the Hofburg and the rest of the city, passing through a number of additional squares before entering one of the Hofburg's gardens. Unfortunately, it was a bit barren due to the time of the year, and the palace next to the Burggarten was a bit boarded up due to some renovations (which seemed to be going on at many of the sites I visited).

However, the garden did contain an ornate statue of Mozart. Evidently, he's quite
popular in Vienna -- I had to wait about 10 minutes for my photo while the group before me had each individual photographed with the statue.

After leaving the Burggarten I came upon the parliament building, which has a large statue of Athena standing guard, in addition to numerous other statues. Across the street, which used to be the city walls, is the Volksgarten. This garden had a few flowers planted already but was still relatively barren. From the center of the garden, I
got an excellent view of the Rathaus. Unfortuantely, by this point I was running out of time before my meeting, so I headed for an underground station, found some food, and headed down to the university.

During the other days of the meeting, I did not get much of a chance to see the city. Mainly, we sat inside and discussed the (lack of) merits of various papers. However, we did get a chance to try some excellent Viennese sushi, and some more traditional Austrian fare as well.

In the evenings, after 10 or 10:30, I spent some time wandering around some of the same areas I visited during the day, to get a feel for the city by night. Generally, the important buildings are lit up impressively. On my first evening, I walked back to the center of town from the university. I passed through Karlsplatz, and took the photo at left, which shows the Musikverein lit up, with Karlskirche in the distance.

The night life was quite impressive -- virtually everywhere I
saw numerous people out walking around, shopping, taking photos, or traveling from nightclub to nightclub.
While I was out wandering around at night, I tried food from various street vendors, sandwich shops, and glace shops. One interesting
chain was "Nordsee," which sold sandwiches made with various fish, including some raw fish (which I accidentally got using my "point at something" approach to ordering). I had never had raw fish on a sandwich before -- it was kind of like a sushi sandwich. Not bad.

After being locked up inside for 2 1/2 days, I took advantage of my one free day before flying home. To compensate for the previous days of sloth, I spent virtually all day outside walking around -- starting at the palace Schloss Schonbrunn. This is a very large palace, along the same lines as Versaille.

Getting to Schonbrunn wasn't difficult, since the underground stops almost across the street. With three days of practice commuting from my hostel to the University, I was very familiar with the system. Emerging from the station, I made my way across the street, and walked along the outside of the palace for 4 or 5 blocks to the main entrance. In the courtyard out front included a large market, selling various foods, trinkets, and doodads. After picking up some food, I decided I would visit the palace gardens before touring the inside.
I made my way through the courtyard, and found an entrance to the garden. Once inside, I made my way through a couple well-manicured, but dormant, gardens to get to the back of the palace, where I saw the view on the left. This photo is taken roughly halfway between the back of the palace and the fountain in the picture. The garden continues beyond the building on the hill (the Gloriette). In fact, the Gloriette is maybe 1/2 way through the garden front-to-back, according to my map. While I did not get to venture into the back half of the garden (it was closed off for construction), that was fine as I spent 3 to 3 1/2 hours wandering around the front half. If the flowers would have been blooming and I'd taken the time to smell the roses, who knows if I would have done anything else all day!

Making my way up to the fountain, I took the a closeup photo (which you can see a bit larger at the top of the page) after
dodging a mob of students, who appeared to be a group of Americans on a band or choir trip.

It was a good thing I ventured into the garden when I did, because this fountain was off when I left a few hours later. I'm not sure if the water only runs for a few hours each day, or if they were simply testing the fountain out for the first time. After all, a number of
other fountains (like the impressive "Roman Ruins" fountain on the right) were either off or under construction.

As I was wandering around the garden, I was trying to compare in my head with Versaille. I decided that the
gardens were not quite the same magnitude as the one adjacent to Versaille, but there were just as well kept up, and perhaps better organized. For instance, many of the fountains (like the one on the left) were in the plaza where three paths through the garden met. Standing next to the fountain and looking down any of the paths let you see numerous other fountains and buildings in the distance. For this fountain, looking another direction showed the Roman ruins fountain in the distance with a large statue visible further along the same line, at the top of the hill.

On the other side of the garden was the Maria-Hietzing Kirche. I didn't wander inside this church, since the Sunday service appeared like it was just starting (or perhaps finishing). Instead, I walked past the Tiergarten (the zoo). After examining the entrance fee and looking at the line, I decided that I did not need to see a bunch of animals when I hadn't yet toured the palace proper.

Before going into the palace, however, I climbed the hill up to the Gloriette. The building is a large touristy cafe (and like many buildings was undergoing renovations), but is otherwise quite amazing -- particularly its size. This random building in the middle of the park is probably 4 or 5 times the size of my house, mostly
consisting of two large, covered porches.

Looking down from the Gloriette towards the palace gives some idea of its true size. However, the central part visible in the picture is only a portion of the full building. Two wings to either side are at least as big as the central structure (though they probably housed the servants and other courtiers). Plus the large, front courtyard is surrounded by palace buildings as well.

The tour I took looked at the royal chambers on just one floor of this central building. It visited fifty rooms over the course of roughly an hour, all ornately decorated. I must admit that while the gardens of Versaille were larger and included significantly more fountains, I was much more impressed by the palace Schonbrunn than the palace at Versaille.
After spending 5 hours on the palace grounds, I left and decided I'd visit various parks and gardens that were marked on my map. Basically, I decided I'd just wander around for a bit to get a feel of the city.

In one corner of town, I found a little outdoor arts and crafts type market. Various vendors were selling handmade candles, decorated eggs (for Easter), wood carvings, cheese, wine, baskets, pottery, and other things. I tried to find something that I could take home that would a) fit in my house, b) travel well in my limited luggage space, and c) not break the bank.
Unfortunately nothing fit the bill, so I continued on my way.

Before heading back to get some sleep for my 7am flight, I headed out to the Danube River. There's a little island in the middle of the river that was evidently reclaimed from the river and is now a recreation area. There's nothing particularly special about the area -- it looks like most modern parks in the U.S. or elsewhere. However, it did show me a different side of Vienna. The region of town out by the river was a much more modern part of town, with apartment complexes, office buildings, movie theaters, and a lighthouse.

After getting my fill of the river, I made one last stop at Stephansplatz to enjoy the evening and to pick up a Sacher Torte (which I'd never heard of before I wandered around with some colleagues who stopped at the Hotel Sacher to buy one). I must admit when I tried it at home, I was quite impressed.

In the morning, I woke up at 4:30 in order to catch the first (5:30am) bus to the airport. Security at the Vienna airport was excellent -- you don't go through the metal detectors until you get to your gate. When they start boarding your flight, you go through security. This means you'll never miss your flight due to a slow security line! Unfortunately, a burnt out warning light in the cockpit (very important, I guess) delayed our flight for two hours. This again caused me to miss my connection in Amsterdam. After a couple hour delay and a detour through JFK, I finally got home at midnight. About 8 hours late.