Vienna, Austria

This past weekend we went to Vienna. I can't really explain why I liked it so much, but it was one of the best cities I've been to. There were a lot of neat buildings, a clean city, a lot of open/green space even in the heart of the city and just an all around good atmosphere.

This is the Stephansdom. Saturday night I went to a really nice advent/Christmas concert inside the church that was put on by a few members of the city orchestra.

Downtown Vienna at night.

Schönbrunn Palace - built around 1700.

This was just the front of a huge complex called the Hofburg Imperial Palace. Part of the complex is used by the Spanish Riding School (Lipizzaner Stallions) and is also the home of the President of Austria. Marie Antoinette was born here.This is the home of the President and where Marie Antoinette was born.

Town hall. This reminds me a lot of the town hall in Munich.

Botanical Garden/park that would be really impressive in the summer, but was pretty bland in the winter!

Parliament building. The 2nd picture is showing the same place in 1918 (the end of WWI).

A statue of Mozart followed by the operahouses and theaters.

I went to see the Lipizzaner Stallions perform in the morning. I don't think I really remember seeing them when my grandparents took me when I was about 5, but I always looked at the program they got from that show when I visited them and have always wanted to go see a performance ever since.

This link is a video of an example of what they do. Pretty impressive.

http://www.spanishridingschool.com/video/index.html

They don't let you take pictures during the performance, but this is the building they perform in.

And of course the blog wouldn't be complete without a picture of my favorite traveling buddy. This is in the hotel and as you can tell, he made himself plenty comfortable on my pillow. His frog goes everywhere with him too. It was his very first toy and he can hardly go to sleep without it.

Thanksgiving in Frankfurt

EY sponsored a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in Frankfurt for all of the expats (the Americans on a rotation) working in Germany. There were about 25 or so of us and a few spouses and kids. Frankfurt was literally leveled during WWII, so the sightseeing there is fairly limited. They did rebuild some of the historical sites though.

This is St. Bartholomew's Cathedral. It was originally built around 1200 and was where all the German emporers were elected.

This is St. Paul's Church where the kings were crowned.

This is the city hall and was originally built in about 1400 (behind the big Christmas Tree). The other pictures were taken in the same area.

This is one of the many vendors at the Christmas market. Starting around December 1st, most major cities Germany and Austria have Christmas markets where you can buy hand-crafted ornaments, nutcrackers, etc. (the most famous one is in Nuernburg). All the locals tell me they go there more for socializing and drinking Gluhwein rather than for shopping. Gluhwein is a spiced wine served warm (like cider).

Castles and More Austria

This weekend I took a trip to some castles about an hour and a half south of Munich. From there I went to Innsbruck, Austria and spent Saturday night. Sunday morning I drove about 20 miles south of Innsbruck to the Italian border (what? Winston hadn't been there yet!). Now that he has a passport, I figured I'd get a couple stamps in it, but he's been to 3 other countries now and nobody has ever been there to check! I literally crossed the border and turned around, but hey, it was close, right. I then took a road about 10 miles south of Innsbruck into the mountains and again was amazed by the scenery.

This one was the basis for the Disney castle (called Neuschwanstein) and supposedly the most photographed building in Germany. It actually wasn't built until the late 1800's.

This one was "across the street" from the one above (called Hohenschwangau) and was built in the early 1800's. King Ludwig had the one above built and lived there. He grew up in the one below. From rags to riches I would say.

This one was near the Austrian and German border. I really don't know if this one is real or just a new "playhouse" version of one. It almost looked fake, so I am reserving judgement!
These are all taken between the German border (the castles) and Innsbruck.

This area was too good to pass up taking a quick video, but think it might be took big to post because it's been freezing up my computer. Maybe it will work if I do it by itself.

This is in Innsbruck.

I ate dinner on the patio of a restaurant in Innsbruck and had Winston with me. This is what the waitress brought out with my beer. HA!

These are just south of Innsbruck.

Here is a video of some of the area where I took the picture above. It's really amazing how many places in Austria there are where you end up in a valley surrounded completely surrounded by mountains.

Back in Germany. This is near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, which if you didn't remember was where the 1936 winter Olympics were (yeah, not sure I remember that one either). Anyway, I went to the ski jump and walked inside the stadium where they land. No way, no how are you getting me to do that! They do let you bobsled at the Olympic stadium in Innsbruck though, so I might have to go back and try that. Innsbruck had the winter games in 1964 and 1976. You'd think I was an Olympics enthusiast as many Olympic sites as I've been to lately. Actually, I really don't even watch them that much when they are on, but just happens to be a lot of them around here.

In and Around Munich

Rather than taking a day trip somewhere this weekend, I just decided to spend the day hitting some of the more popular spots in Munich. Winston was a trooper and walked with me the entire way. I bet we walked nearly 10 miles (which is quite the feat for the "not so little guy").

We started in Olympia Park, which is where the 1972 Summer Olympics were held. Munich is now trying to get the winter games in 2018, and would be the first city to hold both a summer and winter olympics.

Here's the Olympic Pool where Mark Spitz won his 7 golds (the 2nd picture is the outside of the building). It is now a public swimming pool.

This is Olympic Stadium (track and field, opening ceremony, etc).Next to Olympia Park is the BMW headquarters.
Then we went to Marienplatz, which is the city center and has most of the sites you see on Munich postcards. This is the Neues Rathaus (New Townhall) and has a giant cuckoo clock that works (2nd picture).

This is the Altes Rathaus (Old Town Hall), which was built in about 1450 and completely destroyed in WWII, but was rebuilt using the old design.

Theatinerkirche (fancy name for St. Cajetan's church) built around 1650 as a gift from the ruler of Bavaria at the time to his newborn son.

A statue of King Ludwig, who was one of the most popular Bavarian Kings. And whose namesake is now always in my refrigerator...the best dark beer I've ever had (König Ludwig Dunkel) - and Tim will back me up on this one!