Vienna #2

Vienna's buildings have a ridiculous amount of detail. Every pillar, archway, roof and everything in between is scattered with ornate details. It looks as if each building took at least ten years to build. It is gorgeous.
Second day in Vienna was better! We woke up to pouring rain and had to walk in it for about half an hour, but then it let up and it was a beautiful day by two pm. We had a latte and snack at Cafe Museum, a nice cafe downtown. Cafe's in Vienna are like an extension of the living room. They have very comfy seats, an intimate setting and delicious pastries. After we took a break for sweets we walked to Stephan's cathedral, one of the most famous sites in Vienna, and hopped on a site-seeing bus. This took us around the city and showed us all the major sites of Vienna. It did not explain a lot about the history of each building or Vienna itself, but at least we got to see what was out there. This took from 230-530, in which there was a break in between and we ended up buying sketchy tickets to a symphony tonight, I hope they are actually tickets.
While we were walking back, we come across a movie cinema and we notice it is playing Harry Potter. So we get in the line and start to get very excited when we realize it is playing in English! And it is out two days before it comes out in Canada! Double score. So we get our tickets, pick up some popcorn and beer (yes you can drink basically everywhere in Europe) and watch the movie. Which was amazing. I had the 'tingles' the entire movie, and cried at least 3 times. It was exactly like the book, and we were just very sad that all the books and movies were now over, we grew up on reading Harry Potter and it finally came to an end. Everyone better go see it, it was amazing.
Walking home after the movie we decide to go and check out what is happening with the jazz festival (a whole area set up downtown with high class food stands, drinks, and then a stage with a big projection screen-do check photo's later) downtown. So we head over to the site in front of the town center (which looks like an ancient cathedral-very ornate details, gothic design) and end up watching part of a symphony. A perfect end to a night!
This morning we went to the train station and booked our night train tickets to Venice- another 11 hour train! Crazy how long trains are here. I guess we are crossing whole countries but this is crazy. After that we walked down one of the most popular shopping streets, pretended to have money and found our way to the museum quartier. We then went to the kunst historisches museum- where there is a lot of art. But not only art but the building its in could be an exhibition on its own. Vast marble staircases, marble columns, ceilings plastered with artwork, as well as ridiculous detail work are found in every nook and cranny. The entranceway gives the impression that you are walking into a grand palace modeled after a cathedral- angels look down on you and the figurines carved into the upper walls cast a spell as you walk in. We saw many paintings by Ruebans and Van Dyck, breathtaking paintings. This museum also had an exhibition on Egypt and some Roman artifacts so we toured through there for a bit.
We walked around for about an hour after this trying to find a place which sold crepes. This was difficult, it always seems what you want to find never wants you to find it, we ended up getting lost. We did end up finding the holocaust memorial though, over 65,000 austrian jew's were killed in the second world war. We also found one of the most famous cafe's in Vienna, cafe diglas.  The crepes were very very sweet so we had to balance this out with a schnitzel. So we went yet again to a legendary Vienna restaurant, figlmuller. The schnitzel's were bigger than a dinner plate. And absolutely delicious. Thank you Austria for having such a great ethnic dish.
Now for the historic story of the trip.
Walking back we stumble upon a crowd at st. Stephan's cathedral. And yet again we go against mother's warning to stay away from crowds, because from our experience crowds equal great things.  So we see this crowd and wonder, what is this crowd doing here. So silly. But with our brain power we find clues that lead to the final answer. The kaiser of Austria and Hungary died last week, thus this was his funeral. Obviously we like history, so this means we like to watch history being made. Anywho so we make it in time to watch the march, where many different types of people wearing different types of uniforms march in line in front of the coffin. And yes we did see this coffin. And for those of you who know nothing of Austria (I'm guessing a large percentage) this man, Otto Von Habsburg, was the very last kaiser ever of Austria and Hungary. And he was 98 so wow he made it far. May his soul rest in peace. Which also means this was significant history. Very exciting. I believe this is the equivalent of the queen dying in our country (long live the queen!), so the people were very somber and a few were even crying. It was actually a very sad place to be. We ended up seeing one of his daughters (some lady told us) and we waved and she smiled, therefore we like austrian aristocracy. She was also wearing a sassy hat. Anyways we are now at this concert thing a street vendor sold to us which was suppose to be a symphony with dancers but the stage has 4 chairs and is the size of my bedroom. And just chairs put up in a room. So I'm sure this will be good.. Not.