Random Memories in Austria: Belvedere Palace to Salzburg

Sometimes all you need is a good beer. And a good view. Stiegl is one of the most popular beers served in Salzburg, Austria and you can find almost any local or tourist drinking it. After walking around the castle for a couple of hours you really work up a thirst. My dad, my sister, and I all sat at a corner table so we could enjoy 180 degree view of the mountains and the city below. Before being to Austria I had never been to a castle before and was completely amazed at how they could construct such an intense structure without any modern day machinery. The history will impress even the most cynical and the beauty will encourage even the most down and out.

This picture was taken wandering around the streets of Vienna, there are all these little staircases and random walkways leading in between buildings creating secret passages within all the greenery. It was so fun to explore the these areas just to see where they lead, sometimes you find yourself in a quaint neighborhood with tall trees or a bustling city street with trams and cars everywhere. Since Vienna has such amazing public transportation it was easy enough to get wherever you wanted to go, even if you didn’t know where that was yet.

Everyone knows about Schonbrunn palace, it’s an icon and highly visited palace in Vienna. The day we visited the sun finally came out, but the wind was blowing at about 20-30 mph, it was quite difficult to get any selfies taken and virtually impossible to spend any amount of time outside. We opted to go have some coffee and deserts at the cafe located inside the building pictured above. Over half this building was destroyed in World War II, but was restored at a later date to include the windows, bathrooms, and the cafe. One thing that is very unique to Vienna is that there is a large amount of historical buildings and landmarks that weren’t destroyed in the war. There were also many buildings, like this one, that were only partially destroyed and then later reconstructed either to mimic the old architecture or completely redone to include ‘modern’ touches.

This photograph was taken out one of the window’s at the Belvedere Palace located in the museums quartier right in the heart of Vienna. This museum is especially known for housing the famous Gustav Klimt piece called The Kiss. We did, in fact, get to see that particular piece (which was amazing by the way) however, they have a very serious guard who keeps watch over the piece in case anyone tries to sneak a photo of it. I pulled out my cell phone to try to get a picture when they walked into a nearby room, but was quickly caught and asked to put my phone away before I could even open the camera. They don’t play around in this museum; take illegal pictures, get thrown out. They are also incredibly strict about wrapping up any wet umbrellas and anything else that might drip, it was built in the 1600’s so I kind of understand where they’re coming from.