A whole 7 days in Vienna and I haven't written a thing about it! I'll try to do this day-by-day:

We got there at the weekend. Our first night we didn't do much. Just chilled. Next night I think was Friday. Awesome night. Thought we might as well go out and have some drinks so we headed to a backpacker/student bar. Was quite small but pretty busy. A good vibe. We had a few and by about 12 the place was properly crowded. Got talking to a few local boys who offered to take us to a great nightclub they always go to. Just what we needed! So we all got the U-bahn to some random part of the city. Found the club. Was great fun! Lots of classic British music playing and we danced the whole night long. Even got a couple of requests in :D The boys left early and before we knew it, it was 6 in the morning and time to go home 6 in the morning! It was light outside, and we were both rotten drunk. Thankfully I'm brilliant and got us home through 3 seperate U-Bahns. Katie nearly fell asleep in a pizza shop. We didn't do much the next day...

Got up late for dinner. Went to an Aussie restaurant and had very nice (expensive) burgers. Finally caught a glimpse of some of the proper Viennese architecture too. Just stayed in the more modern areas before that so it pumped us up for sightseeing the next day.

Sunday - Plan - Walk the inner ring and see the sights...

Well, wouldn't you know it? The Wien City Marathon is on! There were thousands lining the streets, big market and lots of jollity. We couldn't really see much of anything but the atmosphere was electric. Never seen an actual marathon before so it was really cool to walk along parts of it. They were doing a good traditional market too. An Austrian band were playing and great times were had.

At some point we went to Schonbrun Palace. Lovely Estate. Massive gardens. You can see the pics. The maze was good fun. Friendly squirrels.

Went to a butterfly house too. We've both been to one before. This one was pants. Whatever.

Going by my pictures it seems we did Haus Der Musik next :p This was pretty cool. Big sections on the classic composers which got a bit mind-boggling and then some cool audio stuff. Interactive things too, but some could have done with a bit of repair work. Quite an odd place. Google it.

One of the things we thought we ought to see was the Kunsthaus. It was cheaper on that particular day so kind of a must-see. After getting off the U-bahn you come across Hundertwasser House first. This is a block of apartments designed by the artist of same name. Very prolific guy. SSome great work. His main philosophy I guess was bringing nature back into urban life to give us a more natural atmosphere. Great thinking and he did some awesome stuff. I got a bit tired of looking at all his paintings after a while though. Think he had his head in the clouds a bit too high. I really enjoyed the Photography in Politics exhibit above his though :D

The next day we discovered Prater Park. A big park with a massive theme park in it. Pratertern in my photo album is the highest chair swinging thing type doodah in the world. Looked a little scary. Place was a bit empty so we walked all way back to the hostel to return in the evening. Was a good walk. Discovered another park with awesome water features and some really crazy EU building district too.

Back to Prater at night. Still kind of dead. Determined to do some rides anyway. A disappointing ghost train followed by a similarly disappointing roller-coaster. The go-karts were fun though. I lapped Kate :D And we did do a cray Labyrinth thing together too. That was very fun. All-in-all, I'm sure it would have been much better on a weekend with more people. We still spent a few hours there. Although none of the stands had veggie food. We had to go to McDonalds afterwards. Or I should say McCafe. They're fancy here.

Last day - chilling in the park. Kate is learning to knit so she made a start there. Was very sunny so it was great to lie there together for a few hours and soak in some chilled atmosphere.

We enjoyed Vienna. I don't think either of us would say it was the best city we've been to though. Others have had more impressive architecture or better parks. Berlin mainly. And it seems to be a very rich city. Everything is expensive and all the people wear expensive clothes. Well most anyway, in the city centre. It doesn't quite have the down-to-earth feel of Berlin or Dresden. And it certainly doesn't have the kind of stunning views you can get in Salzburg. But the people are far more proud. I guess its the cultural history that does it. Anyway, I'd recommend any of the other cities over Vienna.

Maybe we were just there a bit too long. Maybe it just wasn't different enough. We're in Prague now. A bit more Eastern European. Should be a whole different ball-game.