Hofburg, Wien. The former royal palace.

Time to go.

It was time to embark the bus that was going to take us from Budapest to Wien, or Vienna. A strategic decision had been made the evening before; to set the alarm quite early and by this avoid a crowded and noisy breakfast restaurant. It is also one of the pleasures of traveling; to be able to sit in comfort and have a lengthy breakfast; trying out all sorts of delights. Custom made pancakes, bacon and scrambled eggs, fruit juices etc.

How to pass a border in style.

Fellow world citizens. This is how a bus full of people with different nationalities crosses a border. No one fiddles with their passports. The bus slows down to 30 km/h and just rolls through without stopping. A small electronic device on the front window sends some information and the bus company gets charged the fee. A good thing of being a part of EU.

The world famous Lipizzaner horses, in their stables in the Hofburg palace.

Detail of wall art fountain. Beats graffiti if you ask me.

National history museum. As you can see the buildings in this town are small and unassuming, bordering to plain.

Not at all decorated... To have a whole town full of old, or very old buildings heavily decorated and bombastic architechture. Who needs that?

The sun does not shine all the time.

During the lunch a rain storm swept over the city and brought with it some nice and low temperatures. Remember that as a Swede I'm far more used to cold than to heat. Going to large cities in the middle of summer is not alway preferable.

A strange looking house.

The Hundertwasser House in Vienna is one of Austria’s architectural highlights. The house designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser draws visitors from around the world.

A traditional meal at Grinzing

Apparently this area of the town has focused on taking in busloads of tourists and then offer them a big meal, all you can eat and drink, and further make a lot of noise. You know; humpa - humpa with accordion and string instruments. It sounds daft but is really nice. The level of engagement is directly proportional to the intake of wine and beer.

I think this is a Helga. She is bringing in drinks and food at a speed that shows she has done it before. I could not lift as many large beer glasses as she can. At our table was a group of 6 Taiwanese people. They were a bit reserved at first but loosened up after us scandinavians downing a few cans of wine. I think it went well...

The food. Ah, yes. Excellent! Different meats, sausages on top, sauerkraut and other vegetables below.

On the way out to the bus. Nice colors. My wife is casually posing.

Outside the Restaurant in Grinzing.

Tram

The Hotel. ARCOTEL Wimberger Wien. I can absolutely recommend this place.

Schönbrunn Summer palace.

Schönbrunn Palace is one of Austria’s most important cultural assets, and since the 1960s has been one of Vienna’s major tourist attractions, drawing millions of visitors each year.

A model, the real thing and something fishy in between.

You are not allowed to take pictures inside the palace, so this is a paper end pen drawing I made from memory. Just kidding. I must have slipped and accidentally hit the button on my camera...
Go have a look at the place at Google Arts & Culture

Merchandise in the shop.

A part of the garden. It was so hot we decided to take the tram back to the city center and visit one of the famous cafes in Wien.

Even the stations are beautiful.

Cafe Demel

There are several very famous cafes in Wien. Schacher is one but it was crowded. So we walked a short while and ended up at Demel.

The Demel has been creating delicious treats for over 200 years; choose from cream cakes, tea scones, apple strudels, Sacher tortes and cakes. Sip your coffee, enjoy a sweet treat, and indulge in the company of great friends and a beautiful café!

Mmmmmm

The Opera

Mozarts house

This is where he lived. You can almost here tones from the piano coming out of the open window.

Yup. Don't say a word. We'll arrest you.

Public transport.

Lederhosen.

The worlds best ice cream

I could not restrain myself. With a sign like that I just had to walk up to the window and ask her: Is it really true? Do you serve the worlds best ice cream? She looked at me, rolled her eyes and smiled a bit and shrugged her shoulders. I had to make sure. I'll have one! Here -take my money. and it was good. A very good tasting ice cream. The worlds best? Heck, how should I know? I have to go all over the place and try them all just to compare...

The Classical concert.

Included in our tour ticket was a classical concert at the former royal palace. It was at night and the lighting makes everything extra nice.

We managed to get great seats close to the musicians. I can recommend such a concert if you are in town! Very nice.

The end of Wien.

After this we call it the night and heads back to the hotel. Next morning we are in for a short bus trip, approx 1 hr, to Bratislava. Capitol of Slovakia.

Also see earlier posts in this tour:

https://steemit.com/travel/@lazzelazer/the-grand-central-european-road-tour-part1-budapest

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