An April 20003
Trip to Vienna, Austria
Business, in its infinite wisdom, gave me an opportunity to spend a week working in Vienna.
I looked forward to the trip, having been told many good things about Vienna, all of which turned out to be true.
How could they not be true when this is the place where boh the bagel and the croissant were introduced to the
world? Beethoven, Mozart, Hayden, and even Mahler were prominent in thse parts. That is pretty good company,
one would think, until one reads some of the biographies. Nevertheless, Vienna and its surroundings met and exceeded
my expectations this first trip.
Work was quite demanding the first three days, then tapered off leaving me some time in evenings
and one afternoon to play tourist. What I decided to do with my touristic time is see a bit of Vienna, experience
a concert, and take several trips out of town to nearby sights.
My day of arrival, staying awake until evening would have been a challenge had I stayed in or even near the hotel.
That bed was very enticing after an overnight flight:
That window overlooked a giant chess board, 
which gives one the idea that there is something different about Viennese hotels. Mine was the Nordbahn, very comfortable, and it has a website of its own that has good links to the national, regional, and local tourist offices of Austria (click here to go there).
To stay awake the first day I jumped on a train and went to the town of Baden to take a walk in the Viennese woods, the Wienerwald. And to see its gardens too.
I wanted to stay awake, I wanted to do a little hike. Why? Because just the day before leaving I had taken a hike in the Spring Range in Nevada, and thought the contrast would be a fun entry into the website. So here it is, the story of my Baden hike as well as the tale of two Spring hikes:
Go To Baden (Second Hike, in Two Parts)
Of course I did go to dinner in the city and do a few other things to see some of the place. Here are just a few of the things I found interesting:
Then came Friday afternoon, no work, and a chance to see some other places: I jumped on a train to Melk to see its monastery (prominently featured in "The Name of the Rose" by Umberto Eco).
I had to watch my time, because I had just one chance to take a boat down the Danube to Krems, through the visually pleasing hill country around the river called the Wachau, where hillside vineyards, hilltop castles, and small hill-hugging villages with big histories are the scenery.
Of course all trips come to an end, so if you have seen all you want to see you can go back using either of these two links below: