Brrrrrrrrr!!!
Yesterday I was cocooned in my hotel room, not knowing how cold it was outside.
My first hint today was at breakfast where I could see from the windows the new fallen snow and the trees blowing in the wind. It was a brisk 27 degrees with no wind, a couple of days ago, so I knew I'd need to bundle up.
Sho' nuf, when my face hit the door, there was a blast of freezing cold air.
It was 23 degrees, but with the wind chill, it felt like 13!
Now, I could have been better prepared with wool scarves, but I don't like buying heavy clothes that I will very rarely wear. So, I decided I'd just layer.
That worked until my feet got wet from the snow. My cute boots were no match for the slushy snow. Once my feet got cold and wet, I was cold all over.
I left the hotel about an hour earlier than I needed to, so that I could stop by that beautiful church, St. Francis of Assisi, to check and see if it was open. It wasn't.
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| Snow along the path to St. Francis of Assisi Church |
I then walked to the bus stop, but I still had an hour to wait. Too long to be standing in this weather, so I was headed back to the hotel, when I decided to stop in a cafe along the way instead. I had some steaming hot tea. That warmed me up.
After about 45 minutes, I headed back outside to the bus stop, but saw another shop I wanted to explore on the far side of the church. When I got over to that side, I saw someone going into the church, so I forgot about the shop and proceeded to check out the church.
It was simply stunning, but in a classic, understated way. I've seen Catholic Churches that are gaudy and over-the-top with gold and jewels, but this one was plain by comparison. It looked and felt like the neighborhood church that it is. I think I was in one of the small chapels, as the main doors were locked. I didn't take any pictures of the inside because there were others in there praying, and I didn't want to intrude on their time.
From there, I walked across the street to my bus stop and had to wait just a few minutes before the bus pulled up.
Once on board, I had to make a change a couple of stops later, to access the other route that I had not seen.
This was away from the center of town, and it featured the Schoenbrunn Palace, which I definitely wanted to see.
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| Snow-covered landscape of the Hofburg Palace |
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Hofburg Palace 2
This is the same place I photographed
in my previous Vienna post. |
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| Hofburg Palace Statue |
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| Hofburg Palace 3 |
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| Typical road sign, written in German |
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Schoenbrunn Palace.
It is surrounded by a wall of buildings,
so it wasn't easy to see.
It was way too cold to venture outside to get a closer look. |
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| The Arsenal Military Museum |
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| Online photo of the Arsenal above gives a much better view |
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| The Belvedere |
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The gates of the Belvedere - online photo
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The temperature was dropping by the minute, so when the bus stopped and there would be a half hour wait for the next one to take me back to my original stop, I cheated and caught a taxi to the hotel. That cut about an hour off my trip, plus I wouldn't have the walk that last mile or so from the bus stop back to the hotel in this inclement weather.
Well, that's it.
This concludes my Vienna adventure.
I'm thrilled to have had this experience.
As always, thanks for taking this journey with me.
Auf wiedersehen (goodbye).
