On Thursday, after another hearty breakfast, we headed to the Stift Kloster Neuberg, an Augustinian monastery dating back to the 12th century. There are nice pictures and further information at the link provided above. After the tour and perusing of the gift shop, we were able to sit on the balcony that is adjacent to the building shown below, and enjoy the sun of a lovely afternoon and the pleasant food served by the kloster cafe. Naturally with all of that green grass, some of the students were soon engaged in frisbee and in the playground designed for smaller children - but alas, children will be children!!
After spending much of the afternoon partaking of the sun, food, views and great weather, we wended our way back to Vienna and the hotel. Diagonal from the hotel was a Chinese restaurant that Sophie, a Chinese student in our program, recommended - so Herr D and I had dinner, and Dr. Lerner joined up for tea. It was indeed a fine repast.
Friday morning - another nice breakfast and the departure for Scloss Schönbrunn - beautiful fountain castle - and the Imperial Palace "summer" home of the Habspurgs. Visit the link for a nice tour.
After an interesting guided tour, we hopped back on the U-Bahn and headed to Station Kettenbrükengasse for lunch at the Naschmarkt - what a place! Dozens of food stands and dozens of restaurants to choose from - one could truly nosh ones way through the Naschmarkt. Some folks were interested in seafood, others Italian, otheres ....., but I chose a simple salad, knowing that my caloric intake in Vienna was exceeding my caloric output.
After folks filled themselves, we headed back to the U Bahn for a trip to and tour of the Kapuzinergruft - The Imperial Crypt. Does not sound too interesting, but it was indeed fascinating to see the accumulated burial sarcophagi of so many important historical figures - Habsburgs dating back to the 1600's.
After wandering the crypt, we broke into two groups and our group visited the Sigmund Freud House. Not really much to show or to say other than the guided tour that we had made the visit very worthwhile. One bit of trivia that I learned was that Freud smoked about 20 cigars a day, which pretty much explains his oral cancer!
The last stop for the day was the Belvedere Museum - my favorite. So that will be the tease for Wien Part 3, coming soon.
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