Cruise Brochure
Welcome to Vienna, the “City of Waltzes” – Austria’s capital city – and home to great minds such as Mozart, Beethoven and Sigmund Freud. Today we will see Vienna’s world famous Opera House, Burgtheatre, Spanish Riding School, Town Hall, St. Stephen’s Cathedral and the Hofburg Imperial Palace.
The Architecture is not bad either with the world famous Opera House, the Hofburg Imperial Palace, and the Schonbrunn Palace to wow you on your tour of Vienna.
Today’s “extras” – Exclusive Viennese concert with music from Mozart and Strauss and/or Schönbrunn Palace tour (extra expense)
Today was a busy day and we did lots of walking ! Jo and Steve and Adrienne and I had opted for the Schonbrunn Palace tour and after a quick light breakfast we were on the bus at 8.30am for the trip across the city to the Palace. Our guide was very good today, giving a commentary on the sights from the bus as we battled the early Monday morning traffic.
The front of the Schonbrunn Palace
When we arrived at Schonbrunn, there were already large numbers there. The Palace is certainly huge ! Our tour took in about 20 of the rooms in the palace – from the fancy reception rooms to the private quarters – but this was a drop in the bucket as there are around 1,200 rooms in total in the Palace ! Again, unfortunately, no photos allowed inside. After the formal tour, we opted to take a walk through the gardens – not at there best as they were in the process of changing the planting for Spring/Summer – across to the enormous fountain and up to the conservatory overlooking the estate – quite a walk.
In the gardens looking to the fountain
Looking back down across the gardens to the palace and the city beyond
We headed back down again through another section of the enormous gardens and had a quick coffee before heading back to the bus. We took up the opportunity of being dropped in the city centre instead of going back to the boat immediately. Shuttle buses were organised so that there would be regular pickups during the afternoon back to the boat so we thought it would be a good chance to do some of the city sights having missed the normal walking tour in the morning.
St Stephen’s Cathedral
A tiny section of the enormous Hofburg Palace
St Stephen’s Cathedral was our first stop – impressive with its zig-zag roof tiles. And the square in front of it was packed with guys dressed as Mozart or Strauss trying to flog off tickets to concerts ! We then moved on to the Hofburg Palace – which seems to take up half of Vienna itself ! We walked through the interior courtyards, passed the Spanish Riding School and the National Library and then through the Burg-garten. We then cut back toward the way we had come in where we stopped at a small bakery to pick up some nice breadrolls for lunch before making our way back to the shuttle bus collection point.
A musical planting for Mozart’s statue
We then pretty much put our feet up for a while as we would be heading out again after dinner for the special Viennese concert . After an early buffet dinner, we set off again on the bus. I have got to say that with all the size and magnificence of the buildings and architecture in Vienna, it has impressed me as a city.
The concert was in a room in the art museum, the Kunsthistorisches Museum which is across a huge plaza from the Naturhistorisches Museum with a statue of Empress Maria Theresa between them. These two buildings are enormous however they pale in significance to the nearby Hofburg.
We climbed the grand stairway and enjoyed a glass of bubbly together before heading into one of the gallery rooms for the concert. The ensemble of 7 musicians, a soprano and tenor treated us to an excellent presentation of well known tunes from Strauss, Mozart and Lizst – a wonderful evening !
Our excellent musicians !
After the concert it was back to the boat where they had put on a light supper for us as we finished the evening with a couple of quiet drinks, entertained again by the reliable Mr Reno in the lounge. Tomorrow we reach another capital city, and our second last stop, Bratislava, in Slovakia.
Today’s “Tour Trivia” – The song “Vienna” by British band Ultravox (you young ones might have to Google it!) was kept off the UK music charts number 1 spot by that classic Australian novelty hit “Shaddap Your Face” by Joe Dolce !