Exploring the American Landscape
Architecture and human creations
My previous post focused on the palaces and museums of Vienna, which were some of our daily destinations during our week-long stay. But what really defines the experience of visiting Vienna is walking through the wide avenues lined with elegant buildings and punctuated by open squares and lovely public gardens. Today’s ambiance was made possible … Read more
Prepared for a week in a large city after our breather in Salzburg, we headed off to Vienna on our easiest train journey yet: just under 2.5 hours on an Inter-City Express with just a handful of stops before reaching Wien Hauptbahnhof. From there it was a short ride on the U1 subway line to … Read more
En route from the Dolomites to Vienna, our other main destination, our train journey passed back through Innsbruck (where we spent three nights a week earlier) and Salzburg. We decided to break up the trip to Vienna with a brief two-night stay in Salzburg to spend a day exploring the city. This also gave us … Read more
Our stay in Innsbruck, Austria covered Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, and this year Saturday was Maria Himmelfahrt (Assumption), a national holiday in Austria. We knew that some destinations might close for the holiday, and that we might encounter unusual crowds, but with a little maneuvering we made it work. After two enjoyable days in Munich … Read more
We’re off to Europe! Our first stop was the somewhat unlikely destination of Munich. While Munich is an important commercial center in Germany, its most-visited attractions — things like BMW-Welt and a completely over-the-top Oktoberfest — are not exactly our jam. Add to that the fact that the majority of Munich was destroyed by bombs … Read more