One of the first places we visited in Vienna was the Karlskirche.
Climbing the scaffolding to the top of the dome was both exciting and terrifying.
It was a new experience to be able to stand in the center of the dome at the level from which it springs, instead of along the walls like any previous dome I've climbed.
A detail of the interior of the Karlskirche dome
Vienna's busy main pedestrian street was lit up for the holidays.
St. Stephen's Cathedral
Vienna's Stadtpark, City Park
The entrance to the Kunst Haus
I didn't know anything about Friedensreich Hundertwasser before coming to Vienna, but I've been very interested ever since.
I traverse an undulating sidewalk to stand on an elaborate staircase at the architect's most famous work, the Hundertwasserhaus.
The exterior of the Church of St. Francis of Assisi was quite impressive!
The facade of the St. Francis of Assisi church
The Elizsbethkapelle, the Elizabeth Chapel, is dedicated to Empress Elisabeth of Austria, nicknamed Sisi, who was assassinated in 1898.
This is the front of the main portion of the Schönbrunn Palace, the summer home of the Habsburg Dynasty.
The rear facade of the Schönbrunn Palace
I would have loved to see Schönbrunn's gardens in the summer. Here you can see the Orangery at the top of the hill. 
At Hotel Sacher, we tried the original Sacher cake with cream! Very tasty!
The Hofburg is the Imperial Palace of the Habsburg family. The complex was massive and consisted of many buildings of different uses. The cover photo above is one courtyard of the Hofburg, while this photo, the Michaelerplatz, is another main area around the Hofburg.
One of the buildings on the Michaelerplatz other than the Hofburg, is the Loos Building. The upscale department and apartment building, designed by Adolf Loos, reflects the change in attitude from historical context to modernism during the turn of the century.
Another building that my previous architectural history classes covered was the Postal Savings Bank, by Otto Wagner. It also reflects the changing times, attitudes, and construction techniques.
During my last few hours in Vienna, I fulfilled my dream of owning a dirndl. I didn't want to take it off!

New Year’s Day we woke up early to head to the airport. There, we said goodbye to my dad and grandma as they were heading home, while my mom and I were headed to Vienna! Our flight was delayed so we arrived in Vienna in the late afternoon. We checked into the hotel, grabbed some snacks, and set off to see the Karlskirche, a baroque church I had learned about in architectural history. Inside we climbed up to the cupola! Instead of climbing stairs inside the structure of the dome, like all of the previous domes I’ve climbed, this time the stairs were on scaffolding inside the church, allowing for a great, albeit scary, view of the interior of the dome! We then walked along the main pedestrian shopping street, passing the Vienna Opera House and ending with a stop inside St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Afterward, we went back to the hotel for dinner, planned the next day, and called it a night!

Tuesday morning we got up, ate breakfast, and caught a bus tour of the city. The first stop was the Kunst Haus, the Art House, a museum designed by artist and architect Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Not too far from the Kunst Haus is his most famous work, the Hundertwasserhaus. The building is a creative, colorful, apartment complex that plays with curving surfaces and green spaces. Friedensreich Hundertwasser is something akin to an Austrian Antoni Gaudi. From there, we continued past the Prater, an amusement park that was originally imperial hunting grounds. We stopped briefly at the St. Francis of Assisi Church. The tour then crossed over the Danube where we saw a complex used by the United Nations. We stopped and got a quick lunch in the Naschmarkt before continuing on to take a short walk around the gardens of the Schönbrunn Palace, the imperial summer residence of the Habsburg dynasty. Next, the tour drove passed the Belvedere Museum, a complex of palaces that now holds an extraordinary art collection, including the largest collection of Gustav Klimt paintings. The tour ended by going through the Museum Quarter and around the Ringstrasse. After the tour we went to Hotel Sacher and had the original sacher cake with creme as a sweet treat to hold us till our traditional Austrian dinner later that evening.

The next morning we started at the Hofburg Palace, the main imperial home of the Habsburg family. We toured their expansive silver collection, saw an exhibit on Empress Elisabeth, nicknamed Sisi, and explored the imperial apartments. After that, we crossed the street to the Albertina Museum. Inside we saw a special exhibit on Raphael, a modern art collection called “From Monet to Picasso,” an exhibition on architectural drawings, and a contemporary art collection. After the morning museum visits were over, we swung by the “Looshaus,” a mixed use apartment building designed by Adolf Loos that I learned about in architectural history. We then went shopping and I fulfilled a lifelong dream of owning a dirndl! A dirndl is a traditional dress from the Alpine region of Germany and Austria. It is the female counterpart to lederhosen. I was able to buy my own authentic and festive dirndl at an traditional clothing store. After shopping, we went to visit yet another building I knew from my architectural history classes, the Postal Savings Bank, designed by Otto Wagner. We then went to back to the hotel, grabbed our things, and caught our bus to Prague!