Day 5 Vienna All Day

Sunday dawned bright and sunny, perfect weather for our day in Vienna. Our first of two tours was the walking tour of Old Vienna. It being Sunday, and Pentecost Sunday at that, absolutely nothing was open except the churches, restaurants and the odd "souvenir" stand. In other words a terrible day for "the ladies" and a perfect day for "the guys" and their wallets!!





Graben Str, one of the main pedestrian and shopping streets



A Lebkuchen stand outside the cathedral

After a short drive in from the pier, our tour started in front of St Stephen's Church, the oldest, and second largest, church in Austria. Of absolutely NO surprise to us, a full third of the church structure was covered in scaffolding!! Our guide explained that it was originally built with a lower quality, and very porous, sandstone which is a magnet for airborne pollution. She also said keeping it clean was a full time job and since coming to Vienna in 1983 she had NEVER seen it without some scaffolding somewhere, so we didn't feel so bad!

Some of our fellow cruisers, from North York of all places, had a close encounter with the Dalai Lama while they looked around inside the cathedral. Being Pentecost Sunday, there was quite a crowd going in to celebrate mass, so we didn't worry about trying to get inside ourselves (never mind that Larry wasn't sure that lightning wouldn't strike!). The Dalai Lama had been speaking to a large crowd in Vienna only a couple of days before, and was still in the city. Will got a pretty good photo of him, too.

Other areas of interest we covered included the home of the famous Spanish Riding School and Lippizaner Horses, at the other end of Hofburg Palace from the concert hall.

Two of the famous horses in their stalls

One of the more famous ways to tour Vienna - in a horse-drawn fiacre

Our tour covered pretty much all of the Old Town, ending in front of Hofburg Palace, scene of the previous evening's concert, and conveniently right across the square from the Sacher Hotel. The significance you ask? The Café Mozart in the hotel is the "birthplace" of a particular Viennese pastry called, surprisingly enough, Sacher Torte! This is a dense chocolate and sugar confection usually served with large quantities of whipped cream. Monica had been lamenting for days that our schedule would not allow us any time to visit Café Mozart, and she almost had to be physically restrained when we passed it the previous evening on the bus!!! So needless to say, when the tour ended right across the street, with an hour before we had to be back to the bus………………..

And while we somehow managed to NOT get a picture of Monica with her torte, herewith the proof of our visit!!!

Another of our fellow Canadians - Roy from Calgary - with his strawberry shortcake

After returning briefly to the ship for lunch, we were off on our afternoon tour to Schonbrunn Palace, the Summer Palace of the Hapsburgs. The palace is located at the foot of the Vienna Woods and when it was constructed in the 1700's it was actually "out in the country", and while it isn't "downtown" it certainly isn't in "the country" any longer. The Palace itself is modelled on the Palace of Versailles in France, although somewhat smaller and far less opulent. We toured 22 rooms of the palace, but unfortunately pictures are nor permitted, though Monica did "sneak" a couple.

After completing the inside tour, we then wandered the outer gardens, again modelled on Versailles, and again, neither as large or as colourful. They were still very nice and here are a few pictures.

The palace from the far end of the garden, near the fountain

Looking down the gardens toward the fountain and the Gloriette at the top of the hill

And on the way back to the ship for dinner, we passed (for the third time) a couple of other landmarks.



The Jubilee Church



The Ferris Wheel at the Prater Park - over 120 years old

 Completing our very full day in Vienna, after dinner we were again bussed out, this time to a winery for an Austrian Heuriger. This involves a visit to a local winery where the "new wine" is served, accompanied by breads, pates and music. Each table had two bottles of white wine and our entertainment was one gentleman with a violin and another with an accordion. A very good time was had by all and everything you need to know about the evening can be summed up in four words-

Monica
Polka
Chicken Dance