Sunday, August 3, Vienna day two

Well, some days just don't seem to go as planned, this being one of them.  The plan, to continue where we left off yesterday and visit the Nasch Market.  This is a famous market in the heart of Vienna where locals go to shop for postcards and knick knacks for their mantels.  Well we took the D tram over, only to find the market is closed on Sunday's.  Whose running this show anyhow?  Sunday should be the big cash cow of the week.  On the way to the market we passed through the museum quarter with museums on every side and a fountain in the middle.  More museums that we avoided going into, but they were lovely on the outside.

Panorama of the museum quarter

Huge fountain in the middle.  We couldn't tell who the figure on the top was.....no English subtitles.

Well, we continued our trek, and trek it was as the temp was hovering at 31 (90 + )with a relative humidity bordering between heavy sweat and sopping wet.  Each step was becoming a challenge - I just thought I was becoming the "weakest link" when I looked over at Kat and realized she was suffering as much or more than me.

We walked to a park and sat down at one of the local cafe's, just to find shade and our breath.  We decided to take it easy on ourselves and just walked from park to park, enjoying the green expanses, gigantic buildings all around us, colorful foliage and chatting with like minded tourists from England, Germany, Netherlands and the U.S. of A.

I ordered sausages, but got two footlong hot dogs.....not exactly what I was expecting

My new friend Joe

Showing the soaked through armpits.....it was hot and humid

Another park, another beautiful church

Mozart statue in Mozart park

Complete with Treble Clef flower arrangement

Fountain in the park by a cool and shady pond

Glasshouse building

Across the park

Backside of the huge Hapsburg palace.  We never got around to the front....it was too big

Entrance to the butterfly house.  We didn't want to pay the fee or get even more hot and humid

 It started to cool down in the afternoon but rolling thunder and lightening had our attention.  We split up for a time, Kat to check out one more church, me to try my luck at the local casino.  Note to self - do not ever gamble when you cannot read the directions on the machine due to language barrier - a sure recipe for disaster or in my case, losing 27 euro (about $30)

Finally, a better Vienna sausage

Lot's of relatives lived in the area

After the story came out, Peter went on to get his Doctorate

So question and apologies to the Beatles, if you stay here and have a restless sleep, do you roll over (at the) Beethoven?

The annual parade of Muslim Women in Pedi-cabs

Kathy's panorama of the St. Stephens Church square. 

The spire so high, it was almost impossible to photograph

The inside was kind of disappointing.  Very dark and packed with wet tourists.

We returned to the Bellevue for showers and our afternoon nap and then decided to dine locally, near the hotel.  We found a Japanese restaurant where I ordered a Seafood Ramen dish.  The waiter in passing mentioned it was a spicy dish which I tend to ignore - hey, bring on the spice!  Well, I was able to take two bites before I said "Uncle, Aunt and cousins". This stuff could strip varnish.  The waiter gave me one of those knowing looks like, "Ha, bagged me another crazy American"

Too hot to handle!