Vienna

Vienna was a beautiful and well preserved old town. The 18-19 Century buildings in the city center was very clean and well maintained. We unfortunately only stayed there for one night, and was not able to fully explore this charming capital of Austria. From my brief observation, Vienna seemed to have a chill, layback - hanging out in café sort of atmosphere. It is somehow more cheerful/less depressing than most of German cities I've visited before. Yes there was a lot of tour groups, but not as overwhelming as it was in Prague.

We stayed in Hostel Ruthensteiner (highly recommended - also recommended by Lonely Planet) was amazingly clean and lively. It is conveniently located between downtown and Schloss Schönnbrunn. We spent our only day in Vienna basically just strolling down the city, since the major sights are in walking distance. We started by walking by the Altes Rathaus (old town hall), then making our way through the Museum Complex and then Hofburg. Hofburg was one of the highlight of Vienna. Unfortunately due to renovation of the Sissi museum, we didn't go inside the Kaizerapartment museum, a house where Emperor Franz Josef I and Empress Elisabeth (Sissi) used to live. Next to the Hofburg was the State Library. Not only this library has a massive collection of books, but all of them was organized neatly and look like one of those old-school libary that you'd see in movies. I wonder if I will ever read enough books in my life to make a library like this (well maybe a little smaller). After Hofburg, we went strolling down the Naschmarkt. This was so far the best street food market I have ever seen in Europe. Not only because of the eclectic kinds of food you can find there, but also the high quality of the food there. They have all sort of cheese store, bakery, and spice stores there. This is exactly the place where I want to buy the ingredients when I am cooking. I want to live in a city with this kind of market, where I can just ride my bike in the morning to buy my grocery, fresh from the vendor.

We had lunch at Schnitzel Wirthaus and had an authentic (and gigantic) Wiener Schnitzel. Seriously that thing was gigantic. If you thing that American portion is big, this Schnitzel will change your mind. I had a viennese Knödel and local viennese Beer with my Schnitzel. Knödel is a traditional german/czech/viennese dish made from flour, and look like a giant tennis ball.
After lunch we headed to the Zentralfriedhof (Central Graveyard) where we found tombstones of Mozart, Strauss, Brahms, and Beethoven.

An afternoon in an 18-Century decorated viennese Café completed the whole viennese experience in this town of the Habsburgs.