Vienna - home of Sacher Torte

Once again I was lucky enough to be sent by my work to the annual SAP TechEd conference, this time in Vienna. Over three days I crammed as much new stuff into my tiny brain as possible, and strangely enough I quite enjoyed it.

In our spare time, my colleague Gill and I did a bit of sightseeing, taking in some of the local Art, and trying out the local cuisine. Shane joined us for the weekend and we packed in as much sightseeing as we possibly could over two days.




Seeing as Vienna is famous for its Opera and Opera houses, we bought some last minute tickets to see The Sound of Music at the Volksoper. Ok, so it's not exactly an opera, but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Somehow I was able to pick up bits and pieces of German (the whole thing was said/sung in German) and could tell that the translations of the songs weren't quite the same as the words made famous by the film!

Being the chocolate fiends that we are, we couldn't pass up the chance to try Sacher Torte in its home town. Better yet, one of the places where we sampled it was the hotel where it was originally made!



On our final day, we visited the Prater, the world's oldest amusement park. It's an old school fun fair, complete with all the usual "House of Fun"-type amusements, but also some newer, shinier roller coasters. The park is also home to one of Vienna's most famous landmarks, the Reisenrad, a huge ferris wheel which has some of the best views of the city. Given its age, it definitely gives the London Eye a run for its money!