The order of the day (apart from giving ourselves some time to recover) was to wander around the old city areas of Vienna. Mostly, this was done with mouths wide open. The architecture here is of a scale that is hard to comprehend, and again photos don't do it justice. The sheer amount of visitors to this city saw us escaping down the little alley ways that run adjacent to the main thoroughfare. We managed some window shopping and Gillian was reminded that we don't have any room for shoe purchases in our panniers.
That said, Kieran wasn't so impressed with the cathedral tower at St Stephen's which only had a little over 360 steps to ascend (we didn't do it!), many fewer than the 768 from Ulm.
Gillian's inner parliamentary nerd come out when we came across the Austrian Parliament building which is being restored. There was no opportunity for a tour, but she did manage a snapshot of the entrance sculpture, amongst the hoardings and fenced off areas. A short stroll from the Austrian Parliament, we happened upon a pop up summer festival full of food stalls. We stayed away from the traditional Austrian fare this time and opted for Japanese and Turkish street food. It is always interesting to sit and watch the locals pass by. We followed this up with a tour of the Rathaus (city hall) which is stunning.
A day of wandering also included a couple of iced coffees/chocolates, and meant that we were happy to get home earlyish at around 3.30 in the afternoon. Relaxation was the mandate for the rest of the day, with another brief trip to the supermarket to get supplies for a light dinner (and to ensure breakfast tomorrow can be arranged without heading there again!). Not eating out was a bit of a relief in then end, and the luxury of not getting ready to head off somewhere new tomorrow is a nice feeling.
More exploration of Vienna to follow over the next couple of days...
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