Day 4: We Skip the Country

So, it's only been two weeks since my last post, right? And what a two weeks it has been. I really have to finish posting all these photos from our journey before I go into all that. But, as a preview here are the things we've done:

• moved to an apartment
• cleaned my parent's house (ugh)
  
• another trip to Rexburg
• welcomed my parents home (YEAH!)
• and nothing else exciting...

Anywho, let's talk about our country-hopping adventure. Since Brno was only a 1 to 2 hour train ride from Vienna, we snatched the opportunity to visit.

First stop (after the delightful train ride, that is - trying to explain your tickets to someone who doesn't speak your language is fun, isn't it?): Belvedere Palace home to lots of famous people over the centuries (you know, Maria Theresa of Austria and the Archduke Franz Ferdinand) and filled with lots of important museum stuff. (We actually only walked through the gardens and viewed the upper and lower Belvederes from the outside.) However, it was worth just that short stroll:

A welcoming gate, don't you think?

Gorgeous gardens in front of the Upper Belvedere

the hubby and I looking very tiny on the stairs

Seriously, I only posted a few of the many shots I took at this place - beautiful, beautiful!

Not too many obscene water fountains either :)

Facing the other direction, a view of the Lower Belvedere

TT with the fish-head fountain. You can't see it too well, but the top center waterspout is a very excellent fish sculpture - click to enlarge, you won't be sorry :)


Random gold-roofed building. Looked cooler in person.

Just outside the Belvedere is a really big water fountain. I know nothing about it. Except it spews a lot of water up really high.

Our next stop was the Vienna State Opera House (aka Wiener Staatsoper)

I started taking photos and we hadn't even gotten inside yet!
We timed it just right to get a tour in English of the inside - so worth it.


We got our photos taken with some excellent outfits - only mine didn't turn out so well. The wig was a bit frightening.


The view up the marble staircase to the first floor


Trust me, it looked a lot better than my poor photos show.

Here are some random inside shots - apparently I like archways (the tour guide was so fun - I love people with accents).


I'd look up info about these, but I prefer to call the one on the left "the room of musical busts" and the one on the right "really old tapestry" - I remember it depicts scenes from La Flute Magique and I had to pick and choose my photo so it didn't have unclothed people

This is a pretty famous room - called the tea room. Rich and important people would take tea here between acts - I guess not a lot of people have seen it (you have to be invited by the richies or go on a tour apparently) so I thought I'd post my fuzzy picture anyway

The opera house was hit by bombs during WWII, and the only parts that were ruined were (of course) the stage and auditorium. They were my favorite part, though! (Stage was under construction and didn't look that awesome, so no photos for you.)

View from the center box

view of the center box (from the floor seats)

Building on a street in Vienna (I think an art museum)

One of the buildings in the Hofburg Palace complex, which housed our next stop

The state treasuries housed in the Hofburg complex were so cool! They had crown jewels (literally) and other gold relics. It was really hard to take good photos, since they were using very low lighting to preserve this stuff. Trust me, it was cool.

Imperial regalia (aka, their fancy clothes) and their fancy cribs

Their fancy baby clothes (for a boy, of course) and crazy grown-up clothes

Some of the decorations they had were pretty awesome - these are a few of my faves

We finally made it to the Stephansdom quarter, which houses Stephansdom or St. Stephen's Cathedral which apparently has some interesting outer decor

Always very beautiful inside!

the pilgrim's pulpit where impromptu testimony meetings took place (loved the carvings on the stairs)

More gorgeous architecture

After getting ourselves some fabulous ice cream (sigh) and delicious strudel (double sigh) we made our way to the last stop - perhaps a little off the beaten path (certainly less crowded)

The clock museum (Uhrenmuseum) which houses (you guessed it) clocks!

I really loved looking at all of the different clocks (though, really it doesn't sound that thrilling)

These were my favorites - astronomical clocks!

Ornate, gorgeous, but probably impracticle

Not enough cuckoo clocks for my taste. We were really disappointed when there were NO clocks that rang out on the bell. (Lots of the clocks aren't in working order.)

And that was the end of our tourist adventures in Austria. Well, sort of.

You see, we had a really hard time actually finding the train station entrance. We took a tram back to the general area and wandered the streets, searching while our train departure time crept nearer and nearer. Being the stubborn, hard headed person I was, I kept sticking to my map and wandering. My husband asked for directions. Go figure. We made it (though we also managed to put ourselves in first class without realizing it). Who knew that coach class actually looked like the Hogwart's Express with compartments and everything?

I promise will try to get more photos up in the next few days.