Austria - Turn up your speakers, these hills are alive with the sound of music! | |||
| The drive into Austria was amazing, once you see this country you begin to wonder why anyone would ever live anywhere else. |  |  | |
 This little view is just the view from the back side of a rest stop along the A1 (A1 highway, not the cell phone service or the F1 track) | |||
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 |  On the way to Vienna we stopped at the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp. |  One of the first concentration camps opened by the SS it had over 81 000 inmates. |  and was established on August 8 1938.. |
 Russian inmates where kept separately as they were at high risk to escape. The Russians lived outside in the mud filled yard and were forced to lie down to allow SS officers to walk upon them during inspection; to keep their boots clean. |  The Russians were the only ones to launch a successful escape. Many where captured, however a few made into the town of Linz where a few sympathetic Austrians hid them from the Nazis. |  Each morning all inmates would be lined in this square for a headcount. When the dead were accounted for. |  |
 |  The camp held mainly Jewish and Russian inmates. |  They where forced to work in a quarry, excavating stones and carrying them up 'the stairs of death' - so named because if one inmate fell half way up everyone beneath him would fall to their death. |  |
 49 permanent sub-camps and approximately 10 camps that lasted for some weeks. |  |  |  The estimated number of inmates gassed in Hartheim is 30 000 |
 |  |  | On May 5 1945 Mauthausen was liberated by the US 11th. armored division. What they found was beyond description. |
 On to Vienna, perhaps the greatest city in all of Europe. The Hapsburg created a city to cater to their vanity and desire to stick it to the French. Austria's natural beauty and the pure magic that has been in the air since the city drew in Mozart and Beethoven quickly took us in. | |||
 |  Does that sticker say what I think it says? |  'My child and my money go to Bock University' |  |
 Schönbrunn Palace- The Hapsburg's summer palace. They heard that Louie the 14th had built himself an even larger place outside the capital, Versailles, so the Hapsburgs went looking to build a place in the suburbs. | |||
 Hmmm, rich people looking for a place outside the city where they can build an even bigger home to show of their wealth - sounds like Markham. |  The walking path around the beautiful ring-road around old downtown. Vienna had it's city wall torn down very early, so the ring road itself feels very historic. |  Jaguar E-Type - 16th century Austrian architecture, 1960s British automotive styling - I can't imagine how amazing it would be to tour Austria in a Jag! |  Edelweiss beer: makes you want to sing. |
 Vienna by night - we had skipped the optional dinner and took the metro into town and were blown away by Vienna at night. |  |  |  |
 The Winter Palace |  |  Parliament. |  If there place looks this good they must know what they're doing! |
 |  |  The Opera House |  City hall. |
 We bought a 24 hour metro pass which no one ever checked. |  |  Schönbrunn Palace again. |  |
 The twin Obsolesces in front of Schönbrunn Palace. |  |  |  "Hurry up, we have a city to explore!" |
 |  Another skate park! |
Into the core of the old city. |  |
Rettet den Stephansdom. |  Now Adam's Deutsche is better then mine, but I think< that means 'really impressive cathedral' |  | |
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 |  I can't say that I agree, but here's to free speech |  Horses: "Damn Tourists" |  |
 Back side of Imperial Schönbrunn Palace |  |  I think this part is the stables of the Imperial Schönbrunn Palace... |  ... but I'm not sure. Looks good regardless. |
 Those Austrians and their sense of humour. |  Mozart's statue/monument - clearly constructed after his death as I'm sure he would have objected to that statue. |  |  |
 The museum of art. |  |  |  |
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 Imperial Schönbrunn Palace again. |  |  |  City hall. |
  Blick auf die Votivkirche in Sigmund Freud Park |  |  The outer hall of city hall. |  Blick auf die Votivkirche |
 |  This is the gentleman who owned the schnapps factory we toured. |  He was very animated. | |
 |  We tried a number of different schnapps, including Absinthe, the crazy juice that Vangouh was on! |  | |
 Outside the schnapps 'museum'. |  We tried out the go karts and the Wien Fair on our second night. | ||
 Parliament again. |  One of the squares in the centre courtyard outside of the modern art museum. |  |  |
 |  | Our last look at the beautiful scenery before we headed off to Italy. | |
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