Date in Vienna

These first few pictures are from St. Stephen's Cathedral. Joey and I climbed the South Tower. An ancient stone staircase winds it way up to the highest lookout point. I believe the first stone for the tower was laid in the 14oos. This was also the tower the gigantic bell was in. However, during WW II, the tower caught fire, and the bell plummeted to the ground. Something new that I learned is that the bell is made from left-over canon balls from when the Turks invaded Austria in the 1600s. The shingles on the roof of the cathedral make various patterns, including the Austrian Eagle.

These are a few pics from inside St. Stephen's.

This guy is the artist that did a lot of the work inside the cathedral. Instead of signing his work, he would sculpt himself into his pieces of art. Often, you can find him looking out a window.

One place I wanted to take Joey was the Estherhazy Keller, which is an old wine cellar in down town Vienna. The Estherhazy family was a royal Hungarian family that helped the Habsburgs take control of Hungary. They have a palace surrounded by vineyards east of Vienna, and this wine cellar only serves wine from their vineyards. I love this cellar because of how rustic and far underground it is. It is dark. It smells of wood, wine, candles and old Viennese cooking. The roof is a low brick arch, which basically makes the main sitting area a long brick tunnel. We were surrounded by the silence of the underground world, and the soft melodious whispers of the Viennese dialect.

This is the Ruprechtskirche. It is the oldest church in Vienna, dating all the way back to A.D. 740. However, most of what is now standing is from the 11th Century. I like it because of its simplicity. In all of my time in Vienna, I have never actually been inside. So, maybe this time around, I'll get to see what is behind the ivy and dark walls.