Second day in Vienna

 We woke up early to try to get hotel breakfast because it was reportedly delicious. We ran into a couple from Salt Lake City who were excited to see so many missionaries. They had two children serve missions in Guayaquil and Hong Kong. After breakfast we went to the Young Adult center which is like an Institute building. The managers and specialists all gave us training and we enjoyed some incredible pizza at Via Toledo, one of the best in the world.

After training we went to the Christmas Market and enjoyed listening to music and shopping at the little booths. We could rent ice skates and wander around this rink, but we weren't feeling that adventurous.

I loved seeing so many creches. It is a blessing to serve in a Christian country.

This is our fearless leader, Helmut Wondra. He asked us to all meet under the heart tree, and eventually we all arrived. It was like herding cats.

Helmut gave us a tour of the city and pointed out certain historical buildings and areas. So we left the Christmas Market and started into the downtown core.

Historically, Hitler stood on this platform to announce he had annexed Austria at the beginning of World War II.

Helmut pointed out the memorial against war and fascism. Here stood the Philipphof, a representative large residential building of the Gründerzeit, which was destroyed by a bomb attack on 12 March 1945. Hundreds of people who had sought shelter in the cellars were killed. Some of the buried could not be excavated; only 180 bodies were recovered. The exact number of victims could not be determined. The ruin was leveled in 1947, the property owned by the state was no longer developed.

At the front of the square stands the Gate of Violence. It is made of granite, as it was dragged by thousands of prisoners over the death stairs in the quarry of the Mauthausen concentration camp. 

We loved the area around St. Stephen's Cathedral. The weather was cold, but pleasant, and the area was full of happy Christmas revelers.

Erected after the Great Plague epidemic in 1679, this Baroque memorial is one of the best known and most prominent sculptural artworks in the city. Paul mentioned that the plague was represented as a woman.

We ate at Melker Stiftskeller for a couple hours and sampled all sorts of great Viennese food. I was grateful to finally get some sachertorte. It was another late night and we fell into bed.