Ed and Annette's Excellent European Adventure: Vienna day one

Welcome to Vienna! Rough start arriving on the train. Our hotel is only two blocks from the train station but who knew there are four train stations in Vienna. We are lucky that Vienna, like most large European cities, has great public transportation. From the station to the hotel was actually a quick jaunt (if you don't count one small error in reading the map). It's Sunday so most stores and many restaurants are closed - very unusual. I remember those days.... After checking into the hotel we zipped across to the other train station for a slice of pizza for lunch. (I know, kind of weird going to a train station for lunch) Our hotel is quite nice and really is conveniently located on the Metro line.

It sure is nice to be back to using Euros: Czech Crowns and Hungarian Forints had my head spinning trying to convert into understandable US Dollars. It is also nice to be back to the German language - at least we know or can figure out the words a little easier.

We headed toward the inner city of Vienna to see if we could get an overview and plan our three days here. Vienna has a very compacted historical area and should be easy to get to get around. We took the ring tram to encircle the area, getting off in the middle to walk and see the buildings. We took a preview look at the Castle, Parliament, City Hall and other official government buildings. After a good deal of walking we happened upon a plaza area and noticed that the tables were packed with people enjoying various types of ice cream sundaes; some were pretty large and extravagant. Being 5:30 in the afternoon we found it very odd to have this so close to dinner. Oh well, we gave in and decided to join them. We had ice cream sundaes for dinner! As we finished and began planning our days here a rain shower hit but luckily only lasted a few minutes.

We've noticed that smoking here is off the charts. No matter where you go, the Viennese people are puffing like crazy. We have struggled to have a complete meal without someone lighting up.

As we headed back to our hotel we decided to go one more stop to the other train station, get a latte and go back to the hotel. Much to our surprise the tenor of the crowd had drastically changed. We are not sure if the rain brought in all the street people or if it is a normal gathering place but there were dozens of toothless, heavy drinking, kinda dirty looking guys all hanging out at one end of the station. We skipped the latte there and headed back to our hotel. Fortunately they serve lattes in the bar; a much nicer environment. We spoke to the bar tender who was very gracious as we quizzed him on things to do. He also told us that the collection of homeless in the evenings at the train station was a fairly new occurrence and the hotel and businesses nearby are not too happy about it.