Wandering in Wien...

Hi All, I feel like I have been blogging quite a bit today. Its because I have in order to catch up before work begins tomorrow. Today was a pretty one in Vienna, Sunny, Temperature was in the mid-60's. It was a great day to go explore...

My day began with a light run on the Danube. There are all kinds of trails the run along each side of the river and even in the middle. I chose the one closest to my hotel. It was nice out, not much traffic on the trails as today was the Vienna Marathon. I believe they had over 20K competitors. I saw a few of the exhausted stragglers cross the line as I explored later.

St. Stephen's Cathedral

Around noon I left the hotel to see what I could find. I went to the corner where I can catch the Metro (Vogarternstrasse U1). Oddly enough people were just coming and going, but I punched my ticket for what could have been a free ride. It was only a handful of stops to City Center. It took less than 5 minutes, less than ten from my hotel room. Very nice. When I exited the Metro at Stephansplatz, I was surprised to see thousands of people in the plaza enjoying the afternoon. Stephansplatz is Stephen's Plaza where St Stephen's Cathedral is located. It is without doubt one of the most popular places in Vienna. Few of the shops were open, however the cafe's and restaurants were happening. Several coffee's and beers being sold all around. I passed today, only so I could keep moving to see things.

So what next?? I wondered to myself as I got lost time and time again in the streets. There are very few street signs here, and even when there are, its hard to keep track of the names because they are names Americans are not accustomed to. Thanks to my iPhone I could track my location on GPS. Lets find these marathoners, so I walked a few km until I found the path next to Stadtpark. Near there was a Marriott Hotel the boasted, Champions Sports Bar. Now we are talking I thought. I was too hungry to tackle a foreign menu without Reinhard...American items in English, perfect. Chicken Wrap please. Well, they tried. It wasn't great, but then again I didn't expect it to be. They did have ESPN America, which shows NHL re-runs (so thats what ESPN did with those hockey rights). It was the only sports bar I have ever saw that had a Bart Starr jersey next to Troy Aikman's and a painted portrait of Sugar Ray Leonard above the bar. So I enjoyed the experience.

Looking north up Karntner near Vienna Opera

All fueled up, I was ready to go again. I decided to head back through City Center. District One is the name of the area in which City Center is, its similar to our Time Square, the buildings aren't as tall and there are not as many lights, but its a major commercial area. I ended up walking back to my hotel and skipping the metro. It was a nice walk on a nice day. Also its good to know that City Center is only 3km from my hotel making it feasible to run to and back when in search of a new route.


Today, I didn't speak to hardly a soul outside of a Danke, Bitte, Est tut mir leid, Thanks, Sorry, Wasser, and Chicken Wrap. It was a good day though, I saw so many things that I have never even imagined before...even a bearded bum break dancing. He had some moves, but thats not reflective of the city at all. Everything is extremely clean and the people are largely proper. New adventures begin tomorrow at via donau...good night!

So happy to see this for three reasons: 1. No Euro will
 ever convince me Europe is more sophisticated. 2. It
proves Miley's dad is at least trying to make his own living.
3. Billy Ray still knows how to put keisters in the seats!