Vienna, Austria...it's Naht a Tumah

So today we rolled into Vienna at around 8am on our overnight train. The overnight train was pretty cool. For around an hour and a half we were just the 4 of us in our own private room, but the rooms were 6 person so we knew we would most likely eventually lose our privacy. We had some dinner we had got at a market before hand and just hung out. We ran into some people who were in our room at Naples the first night we were there so we talked to them a bit. Eventually 2 guys got on and then we put the beds up and all went to sleep. I know the others had some sleeping troubles but I slept pretty well, I like overnight trains.

We got in and made our way to the Hostel. It is located like right next to a metro stop so that is good. We got there and checked our bags before hitting the city. We first decided to go to go to the Schoenbrunn Palace. We got there and found that you could wander around the gigantic garden for free, so we spent a few hours exploring the grounds. While we were there we found that there was a hedge maze, so we paid to go into it. Not only was there a hedge maze, but there were three hedge mazes! It was totally awesome. We ran around and successfully navigated the first one. We wen't into the second one and it was a shorter one, kind of for kids, but it had all these cool things inside it at different parts you had to find your way to. There was a little mirror hall, these pump things, a body of water you had to hop stones to get across, and these panels on the ground that played musical notes when you jumped on them. After navigating out of that one we got to the third one, and it led first to a climbing pole, which Dave and I climbed up (like climbing up a real big fireman's pole to a bell) and saw where the end of the maze was. We got there, a raised area of land with a tree in it, and then got back out.

We left there and looked around the park a little more until we made it too the palace. When we were back at the palace, Dave and Jen decided they wanted to go check out Sigmund Freud's museum/house and we were going to go to Stephansdom Cathedral. So they left and we headed up that way.

The cathedral was really cool, but naturally - like everything else we seem to see on this trip - it was covered up and heavily under refurbishment. But one side and half the spire were showing, and they were cool looking. The inside was pretty impressive, and such a pure example of Gothic architecture. Very cool. From there Sharon and I wandered the area a little, it was a pretty hopping area. We ended up getting a late lunch and then headed back when it was finally time to check in so we could check into our room.

The hostel we are staying in is very cool. It has a good common room and stuff and people are around so we will probably hang out here for the rest of the night (I think my Blog usually displays the time in USA Eastern, but here as I'm typing it is 8:15 so it will post a little after this). Our room is so big and nice, has a private bathroom, and even has a TV. This is only the third time we have had a TV, and the first time it didn't work, so we watched a little in German because it was funny. We saw an episode of Family Guy, I liked it a lot haha. Peter sounded so angry.

So tomorrow we will be going to the Czech Republic to visit Prague, and we will be there for 2 nights before heading into Germany. After a few days in Germany, we will be going to Belgium for one day, and then finishing up for 2 days in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Then after our over night layover in Reykjavik, Iceland we will be home! Everything goes by so quickly...