I had my FIRST visitor in Amsterdam! Kristin bought her ticket before I even got to Amsterdam - as she said, "I've been very carpe diem lately". She flew in on Wednesday morning on the same flight my mom and I took, direct from Philly. However, unlike my mom and I, Kristin had HOURS of tarmac delays...and I spent a few hours pacing around the airport.
Given the lateness of the flight and the fact that I still had to go to work, I intended to send her off with directions on which bus stop to get off at and a map to get to the apartment. While we were on the bus from the airport, I drew what is probably the world's worst map...I've saved it, so you can see how terrible it is when you come to visit. Fortunately for Kristin, the bus route was different than I expected, so I walked home with her and then biked to the office. I asked her when I got home, would you have made it and she solemnly shook her head, "No, not a chance". If you come to visit, I promise I will provide a better map...or save yourself the trouble and fly in when Wes or I can meet you at the airport.
Kristin had a mission while she was here, she was determined to see as much of Amsterdam as possible before we left for Vienna on Thursday night. I biked off to work (in the rain no less, I learned to bike while holding an umbrella that day) and she set off to see the city. We met back at the apartment for dinner at an Indonesian restaurant, one that my mom and I found on one of our first days in the city. On a side note, this day, Wednesday June 15, was my mom's birthday and I forgot about it...SORRY MOM!!
Thursday was a blur as we both got up early, me to go to work and Kristin to get in one more day of sightseeing...I came back to the apartment around 5ish. With our flight to Vienna being at 8pm, we probably should have left around 5:30, but it ended up being closer to 6pm and we were at the airport closer to 7pm. Considering we weren't checking a bag, that security was light and the flight was delayed, we ended up being just fine, but I think next time I won't cut it that close! I thought this guy was kind of amusing, he was just chilling right under the jetway.
The flight to Vienna was about an hour and a half, and when we landed it was already full dark, which is completely odd for me because in Amsterdam it doesn't get dark until about 22.30 (10:30pm for you non-Europeans). We took a cab to our hotel, the Hilton Vienna. Kristin has only recently downgraded from the highest level of Hilton precious metal status, so of course we were in the executive floor with access to the executive lounge. Let me tell you, access to the executive lounge = clutch. Awesome breakfast and free drinks + snacks all day long.
We woke up the next morning and realized we had no plans for the next three days...for two accountants not having a plan is a serious problem. So after we oohed and aahed over our view, we got ourselves some awesome breakfast (executive lounge, baby!) and got down to business. Our plan for Friday started with the Kunsthistorische (Art History) Museum. We wandered our way from the hotel to the center of the city, where the museum is situated. We walked around Stadtpark, which was right next to the hotel (In fact the street address of our hotel was Am Stadtpark, which if you know German means "on Stadtpark".) On the way, we walked through Hofburg, which was the winter home of the Austrian imperial family, the Hapsburg dynasty.
Vienna has many amazingly detailed copper statues. The oxidization is beautiful However, as you can see in these two shots, as we walked by there was a couple "enjoying" the monument. Like a few seconds before the shot on the right, she had her leg straight up in the air...it was a bit unreal...The shots that I was able to take around them were less uncomfortable and quite a bit prettier....
The building housing the Kunsthistorische Museum sits across from an identical building which has the Naturhistorisches Museum. The buildings, along with the Austrian National Library, are magnificent, incredibly grand and imposing. They were commissioned Emperor Franz Joseph I and opened in 1891. The two museums were commissioned in order to find a place for the Habsburgs' art collection and to make the collection accessible to the general public. This museum had the most ornate decorations I have ever seen. Like the lobby was a work of art before you even got to the art itself. Leave it to an emperor to have the entry to their museum look like this -
We spent hours wandering in the museum. It was organized into rooms, connected by hallways. We didn't see 30% of it, which is a shame.
This room was my favorite. I loved the organized chaos of it. I hope at the end of these two years, if I can fill a room (or a wall) in my house with pictures I've taken, that I can make it look like this.
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Kristin did a happy dance (literally) when she realized that this was a Caravaggio, which is her favorite painter. Earlier in the day, she had mentioned hoping to see something by him or in that Italian school. When we walked into this room, she immediately identified this painting as having the same characteristics...shocking when it turned out to be exactly what she thought it was.
After severe hunger dragged us out of the museum, we found the Visitors Bureau and bought our Vienna Cards, which entitled us to free public transport and discounts for 72 hours. We also bought tickets to hear the Vienna Boy's Choir! Vienna is the capital of classical music and the Boy's Choir was established in July of 1498. As I mentioned before, the severe hunger drove us to have lunch at Cafe Mozart, which was right next to the visitors bureau. We both thought we were in for a tourist trap and were pleasantly surprised! Kristin is as much of a aspiring food photographer as I am, so our meals all began with a camera. Forget about the meals, for us Vienna was all about the desserts. We asked our waiter which we should start with and without hesitation, he pointed us towards the Sachertorte. It lasted about one minute...may be two.
After the dessert, we decided that we wanted to see the Danube. We were a bit too far away to go to the river, so we plotted a path past St. Stephen's towards the Danube Canal. St. Stephen's is the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna. The canal had some really funny "beach" bars, complete with sand and tiki huts and beach loungers. There was also some great street art (graffiti). Look a picture of me! But only because the graffiti looked like it said Abi.
St. Stephen's was under construction, but what was really amusing about that, was the scaffolding. Whatever coverings the government had put on it, was a picture of the cathedral, so you could only after looking for a minute tell that it was scaffolding. 
Inside the cathedral, was more amazing than I could have imagined. You can't tell from the outside, but the stained glass doesn't have patterns, just colors. And inside the colors mix in the ethereal fashion to give the ceiling of the cathedral an unparalleled look. 
After the church, we found one of the city's many concert cafes, Cafe Schwarzenberg, for a coffee and another dessert. Yes, I had a coffee...I was in Vienna, I had to...can't say that I'll have another one again for a long time, but it did offset the sweets really well. The sachertorte we had earlier in the day was the #1 Viennese dessert in Kristin's guidebook, so we had #2 (the Gugelhupf, first picture and my overall favorite dessert) and #4 (the Esterhazy) with our coffee. Both were excellent, however the Esterhazy was on the really sweet side! 
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