I thought I would have a look at the historic centre of the city - we normally try and book hotels as near to the historic centre of cities but it is difficult to find reasonably priced hotels in Vienna "old town".

The transport system is so good in Vienna that it was not too bad getting into the central area luckily.

The central area near the river is know as Schwedenplatz - it's not the main danube but a canal loop that diverts from the main river but it's still quite wide.

This is the riverside area

There is quite a lot of graffti along the riverside which adds a bit of colour

After walking along the riverbank I headed back towards the old town with its narrow streets

this hotel looks very cool and is just off the main square at Stephansplatz - it's called Hotel Topazz

This is a shopping area just off Stephansplatz

It's possible to climb the north tower of the central cathedral and the views are really good in all directions

This view is south south west with the large green roof of the opera in the middle distance and with the Vienna business park in the distance, about 2 miles from the centre near Miedling station.

People taking pictures near the central shopping area

Some of the narrow back streets to the west of the central square

stencilled street art in the narrow paved streets

as you get nearer the ringstrabe the buildings get a bit grander and the streets are wider - there are quite a few artists sketching here

a grand shopping arcade

a busy street corner - there were quite a few markets near here

next to the ringstrabe there is a very grand building which is vienna university - it's not really set up as a tourist attraction but the building is very grand and the whole building was pretty much accessible to the public

The university had quite a few levels - this was a high corridor on about level 5 which had a lot of lockers and linked the 2 sides of the building - i actually passed a student on a skateboard who was working on a laptop computer as he skated along the corridor.

By this time I was a bit more familiar with the tram routes with the help of the pdf tram map I had downloaded so took the tram back to the hotel

This is the tram stop just one block from the hotel - very handy!