Day 1 Vienna - Getting our Bearings Straight

We arrived at our hotel long before check-in. Lo and behold our room was ready. I like this place already. After removing airplane cooties and collapsing for a couple of hours it was time to figure out where we were in Vienna.

Luckily, the hotel sits near the biggest church in the old city, St. Stephens. It is massive and baroque ornate, a very useful landmark.

My favorite part was the pulpit mid-way up the aisle. One could spend hours examining the ornatene details and facial expressions around the pedestal. The rail going up the steps surprisingly contains carved frogs and lizards. The architect is peaking out from under the stairs.

There was an organ recital which I tried to capture, but the acoustics just can't be captured by my recording device.

Cameras were not allowed in the crypt, another fascinating place. Final resting place of bishops and other clergy. Final resting place for the Hapsburg royal vital organs, the bodies being interred at another Viennese cathedral. Final resting place for thousands of paupers over hundreds of years. At one point the smell was so bad parishioners avoided services, so prisoners were conscripted to wash and neatly stack the bones. Now there's a deterrent to law-breaking.

The North Tower was open for photography. The roof burned in a last air raid in 1945. The bell and roof were quickly redone. To give you an idea of the scale, that bell weighs 21 tons. The clapper weighs 1 ton.

There's a lot to see here. That was just the first stop. Tomorrow we're taking advantage of the beautiful weather to check out a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Wachau Valley.