Danube - Riesenrad - Prater (Wilder Mann)
7/6/98. Prater, Vienna. Just finished having lunch with the Landeskunde group, at "Zum wilden Mann" in the Prater. There are 22 in the group, including 15 Americans (both high school and college), 2 Poles, 1 Romanian, 2 Irish women, 1 Croatian and 1 Finn. We're staying at the Don Bosco Haus in Vienna, which is quite nice. While here, there will be lectures on the Austrian school system and on Austrian literature.
This morning, we went on a tour of downtown Vienna. Stephansdom is still being worked on, as was the case last time I was here 25 years ago. For me the most impressive sight was the Hundertwasserhaus, an innovative, organic architectual project by Freidensreich Hundertwasser; hard to capture in a picture.
Lots of great places to eat and drink in Vienna, especially pastry. Sunday night we went out to a Heurigen for dinner and wine.
We saw at Schönbrunn a special exhibit on Sisi, Kaiser Franz Josef's wife; quite interesting to see how restricted her life was, but yet how she found ways to do what she wanted. Lots of compaison on TV and in the media with Princess Diana.
