Rathaus, Vienna, Austria June 29, 2009

This is probably one of my favorite "artistic" photos that I took while in Europe. We came across this lovely building during our marathon walking tour of Vienna. Armed with a small tourist map showing some of the city's cool buildings downtown, Heather, Daniel Jackman, and Daniel and Tina Adams and I headed out for a day on Vienna, thrifty style. We seriously walked ALL DAY LONG! Our hotel was relatively close to the old downtown district, so we meandered down to see this group of buildings. Of course, Heather, Daniel, Carson, and I had already been downtown earlier that morning checking out some of the sights. (We had to return to the hotel to move our bags out of the rooms and into the front breakfast area; technically we were checked out, but they were kind enough to let us store our luggage there for the day.)

We came to the Rathaus around 1 or 2 in the afternoon, pretty thoroughly tired already. It was such a beautiful building that I had to try for a few glamour shots. Walking past the front of it, we saw it was set up with a giant screen. Apparently there was a film festival going on in the city, and this was a viewing area. Some musicians were on stage doing a sound and tech rehearsal, so we stopped on the front to sit and listen to them. They had some great rhythms going on-- I think we decided they were from India or Nepal or somewhere with similar influences-- and honestly we were happy for any excuse to sit down for more than 5 minutes. It was a big, beautiful sqaure where the chairs were set up. I would have liked to have known what it was like normally, but I loved the rest and the great music. By the end of the day my knees hurt so much that I could have sworn an 80 year old woman had taken mine and given me hers instead. Also, our attempt to find a kebab was pretty much a failure, although we sure tried and ate something very distantly related to one. Heather and I capped off the day with some Austrian pastries-- I had a most delicious apple struedel (although the one in Slovenia trumped it, in my eyes). But that's okay.