Vienna, Austria

This past weekend we drove about 41/2 hours with a few other people in the 561st (the unit I'm attached to) to Vienna, Austria.  We spent 2 nights there and got to see alot of the city.  These are some of the pictures that we took.

The first day we found this outdoor market with all sorts of fresh food. 

St. Stephan's cathedral built in 1147.  The roof is all tile.

Inside of St. Stephans's cathedral.

One of the highlights of the trip was to visit the Imperial Treasury at the Hofburg palace.  We really had no clue what to expect, but were blown away at all of the Austrian Crown Jewels.  The most amazing part were the Christian relics that were displayed.

This is the Imperial Crown worn by the King of the Romans, the rulers of the German Kingdom.  Its dated around the 10th century.

This was originally the crown of Rudolf II and is now known as the Crown of the Austrian Empire.  It was made in 1602 in Prague.

This is the Cradle of the King of Rome and was given as a gift from the city of Paris to Napoleon and his wife at the birth of their son.  It was built in 1811.

According to the display, this was the tooth of the Apostle John.  You can see it hanging inside of the glass casing.

According to the Catholic church this is a piece of the "True Cross" of Christ and has been viewed that way since about the 4th Century.

Again, according to the Catholic church, this is the nail used to crucify Christ's right hand.  Whether or not this is true, it was still very fascinating to see these relics.

This is the Vienna State Opera and was finished in 1869.  It was bombed during World War II.  

The is the inside of the Vienna Opera.

This is a view from near the Opera house.  If you look close you can see the Starbucks.

This is another church we went into.  It was fairly small, but very intricate.  This is the ceiling. 

The same church.

I don't know how this car would hold up in a high speed chase.

This was a museum opened in 1891.

This is a wing of the Hofburg Imperial Palace.  It has been the seat of government of various empires and republics since 1279.  It is currenly the home of the Austrian president.  It is also the birthplace of Marie Antionette in 1755.

This is the Rathaus, or city hall, of Vienna.  We went there our first night in Vienna.  There was a huge screen at the base of this building with a video feed of a classical music concert.  It felt like we were back in the days of Mozart and Beethoven. 

This is the Rathaus during the day.

We went to this famous cafe called Sachertorte and had its famous sponge cake that was created in 1832.

My new Ferrari.

We went to the Opera at the Schonbrunn Palace. 

This piece of music was signed by Mozart himself.

We had a great time in Vienna, there was so much to do and see.  By far its the best city we've been to. (ha, its really the only place we've been) The history and culture was great.  Two days was not enough time to see everything, but enough to really enjoy our time.

On a side note, completely off the subject of Vienna, we have finally figured out our housing situation.  We are going to be living in a new government owned house in a town called Netzaburg.  Its brand new and looks really nice.  The down side is that it about a 45 min drive to work.  As I mentioned before there is a big housing shortage and this was the only thing available to us.  It should work out fine.  We will post some pictures as soon as we move in.