Bus Tour

A few saturdays ago we went on a fabulous Bus tour of Vienna. It was a great opportunity to get out and see more of the city than we've been able to. It was also good for me to get a slightly better idea of my surroundings... Directions are not a strength of mine! I think the best way to show this trip is just through pictures and captions... so here goes!

We started out at the Kunsthistorisches Museum which is the largest Art museum in Vienna. The building was built specifically to house some of the most incredible pieces of art in the world. Directly accross from it is a twin building that is the Natural History Museum. Both of these I'm sure I'll be blogging about more later.

Here you can see St. Stephen's Cathedral in the distance, as well as a nice view of a typical Viennese street.

Next was the Belveder Palace. Here we got a chance to get out and look around. Two HUGE palaces built for Prince Eugene of Savoy as a summer home... the first building was more of a "guest house" for friends to party in. These two now hold some of the most influencial pieces of art you can find, including a vast amount of Gustav Klimt.

We also took a ride around the central ring of Vienna which took us by all sorts of famous buildings. Here is the Parlament Building.

The Imperial Palace and Imperial Treasury.

We went through many little districts, including some small "Pub" sections of the city. These little suburbs are famous for their home-made wines and beers, as well as great food in the summer time. From there we went up through the Vienna Woods to a peak above the city. This was by far the best view of the Vienna as a whole that I've seen so far!

We crossed over the Danube to check out the Danube Island and beyond...

We also visited a few of the buildings created by Friedensreich Hundertwasser (look him up!). He is a famous Austrian architect who believes that buildings should be able to be a part of nature, rather than destroying it. He also doesn't believe in straight lines. Even the floors in these apartment buildings are slanted and dipped. You can see trees growing out of the roof and walls. Even the ground outside the apartment building is choppy and rolling. And yes, people really do live here!

Of course, we saw a million more things as well! The fun thing about this bus tour was that it inspired my desire to explore the city even more. There are so many museums and sights to see. Freud, Schoenberg, Mozart... they all lived and created here and left much to be explored!