Day 57-58: Vienna

I'll begin with the end of Day 56. We expected a simple night in, however, it took a bad turn. After making our last post to the blog it was about 6pm. We knew that grocery stores would be closed all day Sunday so we headed out to stock up for breakfast and dinner the next day (as many restaurants are also closed on Sunday). To our chagrin, both nearby grocery stores closed at 6 and we were not able to get any food, meaning we would need to fend for ourselves in a city shut down on Sunday. We tried to make the best of it and headed to dinner at a pub called Centimeter, ordering blindly off their all-German menu. While it didn't end up being the healthiest meal, it was tasty. With concern about our outlook for sustenance the next day, we headed home.

On Sunday morning, we slept in. Late. On the bright side, we slept through a whole meal, so that was one down. We ate some Nutella on flat bread (we had 7 half slices left), then geared up for our run. We had to run 8 miles, our furthest yet.

The past few runs have been a little hard for Jackie. Her hip has started hurting towards the end of each run, but this time her left hip began to hurt almost right away. Stubbornly she pressed through. We got through all 8 miles in good time, but Jack had a hard time walking back to the apartment after. We spent the afternoon in the apartment watching 'Gone with the Wind' (Jackie is reading it on her Kindle so she wanted to watch it again). When the movie was over (4.5 hours later), we set out for dinner. The first restaurant we came across that was open was Indian, so in we went. It was pretty expensive, but very good.

Today Jack woke up still sore so we took our time. Our first mission was to get to the grocery store, which was finally open. We stocked up on our breakfast supplies and food for dinner. After a late breakfast, we headed out again with the plan to do the Rick Steves' self guided walking tour of Vienna. A few blocks away from the house Jackie's luck continued to deteriorate as her boot heel fell off:

I'll give her credit for soldiering on. The first site we passed on the walking tour was the Vienna Opera House. We plan on doing a tour tomorrow so we did not go inside today.

We completed the walk, passing cafes, churches, and castles. The following are some of the highlights:

*South side of Vienna Palace

*Home of Vienna's famous Sachertorte (chocolate cake with apricot jam)

*A very fancy crystal shop ($400 napkin rings anybody?)

*South spire of St. Stephen's Cathedral

*St. Stephen's Cathedral is featured on the 10 Euro cent coin

*Inside St. Stephen's Cathedral

*Another shot inside St. Stephen's Cathedral

*Vienna is filled with horse drawn carriage tours

*Alter of St. Peter's Church

*Main gate of Vienna's Palace

*Statue of Mozart

*Fun Viennese mailbox

After our tour we headed into a cafe for a slice of cake and a coffee and tea, a Viennese treat. It was great. Then we headed to the House of Music Museum. It was fairly interactive, detailing the history of the Viennese Philharmonic Orchestra and some of Vienna's biggest stars such as Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, and Mahler. Following this was a section on the science of sound which could have been taken straight from our 'Signals and Systems' course in second year. It was all quite informative and more entertaining than Prof. Jernigan. At one point I even got to conduct the orchestra. They were willful but I led with a firm hand:

*It should be noted that the visitor ahead of me flunked out early and was ridiculed by members of the orchestra

*I did not purchase the certificate

Afterwards we took the tram back home. Jackie made carbonara, this time with all the ingredients. It was phenomenal.

On an interesting side note: Jackie has been wearing this yellow sweater (first worn during our engagement photo shoot) two out of every three days on this trip. Today, it was finally retired. Here it can be seen for the last time before interment.

Check out more from Vienna tomorrow. We plan to go to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in the morning to see the Royals' collection of art. In the afternoon, we plan to tour the Opera House and then catch a showing of The Third Man, a 1949 British film set in Vienna, which is supposedly a cinematic masterpiece. It is shown a few times a week at a local theatre. Should be cool.