Rock me Amadeus

Well, we've now arrived in Vienna and checked into our hotel. To say our room is big is an understatement; we must be staying in a spare ballroom as we only occupy a small portion of the total space (and that's with a reasonable amount of furniture). What's worse, there are no tea & coffee facilitites in the room!
After settling in, we headed on the U-bahn (underground) to the main square - St Stephens. Here we were not at all surprised to find the cathedral encased in scaffolding, it happens everywhere we go!
We walked in a loop down towards the imperial palace (Hoffburg) and then back up to St Stephens. On the way, Victoria got a couple of books (she's nearly finished Heidi) to keep her going. One of the books is about a family known as the von Trapp's (they sound familiar)....

We eventually made our way to Mozart's Viennese residence (just behind St Stephens). Here we not only learnt about 18th century Vienna, but also about how prolific Mozart was here. In fact, we also found out about his death! Sadly, it seems he worked himself to an early grave, although the copious drinking and gambling probably didn't help...

With the rain coming down, we decided to grab some dinner, eventually finding a small restaurant off KartnerStrasse. Here we both had a soup (really tasty) followed by beef goulash (served with a single, large dumpling). This too was really tasty and filling, leaving us with no room for dessert (despite the abundant temptations on offer).

We are now back at the hotel relaxing and planning our day tomorrow. We may head to the imperial palace (yep, more than 1 here) at Shonbrunn, and will also attempt to find Haydn's residence. Of course, our plans all depend on what the weather does....

Location:Mariahilferstrasse, Vienna, Austria