Wein, Weib und Gesang

The Wednesday after I arrived in Prague, my family set off again, this time on a somewhat shorter haul. We headed over to the Main Railway Station, where – being the bourgeois airline travellers we are – we got confused by very counterintuitive signage and almost missed our train. Just a minute before its departure, we sprinted on board of the locomotive heading for Vienna.

Our transportation troubles, however, did not end on the platform of the Main Railway Station in Prague. As we navigated the train station in Vienna, we discovered that a section of the metro was being reconstructed and we had to follow a confusing tram route to circumvent it and get to our hotel. We were not dogged down, however, and I refused to let negativity spoil my first time in Vienna, the birthplace of Johann Strauss, Franz Schubert, and Gustav Klimt. For a good part of our travails, I hummed Wiener Blut, and after an hour of confusing queries and nervous tram riding, we finally made it.

By then, the sky had already started to get dark and we did not have much time to do everything that was on the itinerary for the day. We took the scenic tram that loops around the old city, a journey which, to my great surprise, lasted only half an hour. After that, we walked leisurely around the city, taking in the sights around Schwedenplatz. As we ate dinner at a rather fancy restaurant, I was amused to find that the Austrian president, who was seated at a nearby table, tried to order the wine which had just been finished by my dad. 

Detail of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
 Hafnersteig
 Church of Saint George
 The outside of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
 Inside the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church
 The Johannes Gutenberg Monument
 Plague Column
 Plague Column and Christmas Decorations
 Saint Peter's Church
 Viennese Street
 Viennese Café
 The University of Vienna
 Kirche am Hof
The monument to Gotthold Lessing on Judenplatz

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