Katie and I eating pizza al fresco.
St. Stephen's Cathedral. The architecture was unbelievable!!!
Unbelievable detail in St. Stephen's.
Just an extra little tidbit about St. Stephen's Cathedral: For forty years, many years ago, any person that died in Vienna was buried in St. Stephen's catacombs. Katie and I didn't see the catacombs (it cost extra) but we heard about "rooms of bones." It so happens that I found this picture on the internet, which looks unbelievably similar to the picture that Travis (mentioned in previous post) took with his cell phone. Evidently the stench got so bad that they had to quit holding church there for a while. The church still holds services there today and it just blows my mind that people attend a church that has dead people in it..... A LOT of dead of people.
After St. Stephen's we wandered around Vienna even more and came across an awesome shopping center. Unfortunately, because it was Sunday, everything was closed so we decided to go back on Tuesday. Late Sunday we walked through a tunnel, then through an archway and stumble upon this:
We learned from our tour book that this where the president lives and this building also houses the Austrian National Library.
Sunday evening I was, again, pretty pooped so I decided to go to bed relatively early and Katie went out with several other State Farm agents.
Monday, the travel agency that planned the trip for all of the State Farm agents organized trip to a small town outside of Vienna called Melk. In Melk we took a tour of a HUGE monastery that is still active.
Monastery in Melk. Again, the architecture was breathtaking!
After the tour of the monastery we went on a dinner cruise on the Danube River. I have to say that this was probably the highlight of the trip for me....just floating down the river and coming across castle ruins, tiny towns with vineyards and even a palace!
A view of the Danube from the monastery.
Castle ruins.
A quaint little town with vineyards on the hill.
Katie and I cruising on the top of the boat.
A huge palace on top of the hill.
Tuesday was our last day in Austria. We got up fairly early and went back to the shopping area that was closed on Sunday. We hadn't done much souvenir shopping so that was our main goal for Tuesday morning. I am not much a souvenir person so I decided I wanted a Christmas ornament....something that I knew I would use and would be a reminder, every year, of my trip. Katie and I found a cute little Christmas shop and I picked out a "Christopher Radko-esque" ornament of St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is very much a symbol of Vienna. I also found a wooden wind-up carousel that played "The Blue Danube" for the baby's room since the baby traveled with me to Austria! :)
After shopping we went to The Belvedere. It was at one time a palace in Vienna but they have since turned it into an art gallery. This was also a highlight for me because I had know idea we would get to see original paintings by Rembrandt, Renoir and Van Gogh! It was awesome. The main attraction of the Belvedere is the Klimt display. Klimt was famous for the painting called "The Kiss". Klimt's art is very much representative of Austria.
I found this picture on the internet. I didn't get many good shots of The Belvedere because it was just SO big!
I did take this picture. This is a picture of the grounds on the opposite side of The Belvedere that is pictured above. The grounds were gorgeous!
Unique statue on the front of The Belvedere.
Tuesday evening we went out to a nice dinner with Stephanie, Kirk, Travis and Pat. It was a great way to end a fabulous trip!
Wednesday morning we were up early to catch our bus to the airport and thus began a VERY long day of traveling. I think after all was said and done with traveling home, I was up for over 24 hours and I had to get up and go to work the next day....NOT FUN! And I think I cried when I saw Preston in the airport because I was just so. tired.
Like I said before, this trip was absolutely amazing....definitely a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me and I will never be able to truly thank Katie for her generosity! Katie - maybe when we are old and retired we can do this again! :)
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