We headed out for our Vienna walking tour at 9am. The UBahn train station is a two block walk from our house, so it is super convenient to get everywhere from where we’re staying the next couple weeks. The girls showered and we were off!

Fourteen stops later, we were downtown, in front of the Opera house, and ready to find some person with a green umbrella to start our tour. Instead of a location, we were given directions like a Rhode Islander would give – take a right out of the station, go around the building and look for our green umbrella near the statue. We made a complete trip around the Opera house before realizing that Sarah had actually seen the person HOLDING a green umbrella (but we ignored her for some reason). Once we made our way back to the umbrellas (there were now two of them) we checked in and waited for the tour to start. There were Spanish and English versions of the tours and Sarah didn’t want to translate the whole two hour trip around the city so we opted for English. Turns out a merman is a thing (thanks Derek Zoolander).

Our tour guide Reiner brought us through the Albertina museum entryway and café to begin our tour on the Hapsburg Palace grounds. The Hapsburg family ruled Austria from 1273 to 1918 and amassed quite a bit of property around town. The palace had 2400 rooms and encompassed an enormous amount of area in the city. There were so many rooms that people actually rented out parts of the palace to live. It had its own public garden and what seemed to be a hundred courtyards.

The second part of our tour commenced in the non-palace part of the city. Sarah had her first Americano coffee and it was a roaring success. She attributed the success to the absolute exhaustion she was feeling at the time. I think it was the steamed milk.

Our tour guide showed us the location of Mozart’s death residence and other places the composer also resided.

Mozart died here.

Mozart lived here.

After the Mozart sightings, we saw Stephansplatz where the actually had a billboard hanging from the church because the company was paying for the renovation! Thanks Breitling!

The place was simply incredible and had lots of different gargoyles and spires to protect its roof.

We cut our walking tour short (after 2.5 hours) and went to a little Italian restaurant in the basement area of the street. Sarah chose the place because: a) they had an old sign outside b) basement restaurants survive because they always have great food and c) the menu was in Italian (and not German). The food at Cafe Romana was phenomenal and we ate like it was our job. We chose not to try the spaghetti with whipped cream. Maybe tomorrow.

The day was concluded with a nap and a trip to the neighborhood market where Andrée and I relied on the pictures on the labels to choose our food. Andrée was right at home, being a kindergarten teacher and all.

We also met a new friend. Puchi the parrot. Our friends are watching it for a few weeks. It’s quite a character.