13 April 2017 Day 13 trip - Day 11 cruise - Vienna day 1 Carriages and Horses

The early morning was spent gliding along the Danube river into Vienna. We knew that Vienna was a large modern city and were looking forward to seeing the mix of architectures. London was so eclectic, Paris had been full of interesting older buildings and Barcelona had a style all its own, We thought that Vienna would be as beautiful as the other great cities we had been to. We weren't disappointed. Very cool towering buildings and lovely parks along the river. 

After a delicious relaxing breakfast of cheese and mushroom omelette, (it is so nice to have someone prepare your meals, what a treat), our chef is getting to know us all and our little likes and dislikes, we headed off to the main lobby to get our tour info.   

 The tour that day started with a bus tour around the centre of Vienna. There were gardens, a building called the Golden cabbage for obvious reasons, and various other points of interest like the Justice building with its great statues out front.

The Hofburg Palace and gardens were very impressive. the Palace more than the gardens around it although they were nice enough. Wikipedia says" The Hofburg is the former principal imperial palace of the  Habsburg dynasty rulers and today serves as the official residence and workplace od hw President of Austria.  It is located in the  Centre of Vienna and was built in the 13th century and expanded several times afterwards. It also served as the imperial winter residence, as Schonbrunn Palace was the summer residence.(We were going to see the Schonbrunn Palace the next day and were looking forward to that very much)

Since 1279 the Hofburg area has been the documented seat of government. The Hofburg has been expanded over the centuries to include various residences (with the Amalienburg and the Albertina ), the imperial chapel (Hofkapelle or  Burgkapelle), the  imperial library (Hofbibliothek), the treasury (Schatzkammer), the  Burgtheater, the Spanish Riding School, (Hofreitschule), (we were excited to see the riding school) the imperial meta Stallburg and Hofstallungen).

The palace faces the Heldenplatz (Heroes Square) ordered under the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph I  

It seems the Habsburg's were the reigning family for generations in Europe and held onto their power with great ferocity. A quick ride past museums and art galleries kind of a quick overview of the city. then back to our point to the start of the walking tour. We were dropped off at a point downtown for the rest of the tour which was walking and free time.


 The weather was pleasant so the walk to the Cathedral of St Stephens was very nice. Our tour guide was Paul and he was very knowledgeable and did not rush us along but did manage to keep us moving along. It is not a long walk, maybe 30 minutes.

Vienna has the cutest little subway trains or if you want you can rent a bike to cycle around on but we walked. up the street through the downtown area past some older buildings but  mostly newer. There were lots of great statues scattered about in small squares and in front of majestic buildings
  We went through the downtown area past some older buildings but  mostly newer. There were lots of great statues scattered about in small squares and in front of majestic buildings

The cathedral  is rather beautiful as cathedrals go, with a wonderful tiled roof which we could not see very well as the sun was in our eyes, but we saw it later and it was lovely. the area around it it is quite plain, the Stephansplatz,  is all stone and concrete, not even a little park around it but the cathedral itself is imposing in it size and has an impressive tall tower at one end with spires at the other. 

Wikipedia says  " St. Stephen's Cathedral (more commonly known by its  German title: Stephansdom) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna. The current Romanesque and Gothic form of the cathedral, was largely initiated by Duke Rudolf IV (1339–1365) and stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first a parish church consecrated in 1147. 

We were in the church for almost 45 minutes it was so interesting. With beautiful stained glass windows and stunning statues of saints and angels. We found and lit some candles and said some prayers for family and friends, admired the craftsmanship of long ago and marvelled at the big gothic architecture and very high arched ceilings.

Paul brought us outside and we continued on up to a wide pedestrian walkway with lots of shops and with fountains and statues in the centre of the square. He pointed us  towards the palace with the Lipizan Stallions. We had tickets to the show that evening and were looking forward to it so very much. I had missed the lippizan stallions every time they were in my home town for years and I was not going to miss them in their home town. 

Paul took us up the road up to toward the Palace and pointed out as we passed by one of the oldest bakeries in Vienna, the Demel, that served traditional viennese treats. Margie and I both thought that might be a great place for a Viennese coffee break.  We would try to remember where it was and come back to it.Paul dropped us off at the palace and we all scattered to the wind. Everyone on the tour had a different agenda.  

Some folks continued into the "Stallion behind the scene show "but Margie and I went back to the pastry shop where we ordered some of those traditional treats. It was very nice. They brought us to our table on the second floor and brought us a menu which we discussed at some length. While we were waiting for our order we wandered around a bit. it was in an old four story but well maintained building and finding the washrooms was a bit of a challenge in the maze of hallways and stairs, but it all turned out well in the end.  We saw the kitchens where they prepared all those goodies and when we got back to our table we had a Viennese coffee and some Viennese treats ... so scrumptiously delectable.

After our fortifying morning coffee break we wandered up to the Hofburg palace and found the Spanish riding school so that we would know exactly where it was for the evening performance and then scoped out where the pizza place was that we had decided to have dinner at. The concierge on the boat said that a lot of the crew went there as the food was good, fast, cheap and the restaurant was clean and friendly. so if it was good enough for them it was good enough for us.

 We wandered through the streets of Vienna just looking around and found a lovely old restaurant for lunch which did not seem too busy so we popped in. The food was very good  and the beer was better. It seems we eat a lot when out travelling around but really we do not, only when we are hungry or thirsty. then we headed for the palace by a circuitous route which took us a little while and ended up in need of a washroom. We found one down a little alleyway with a  little shrine painting of the Virgin Mary just outside it. Maybe to say thanks for letting us find a washroom.  

We walked up to and around the Hofburg palace and gardens  that we had driven by earlier that morning. the gardens looked much nicer up close and the grounds were much larger than I thought. There were so many impressive statues that I had not seen at all on the bus portion of the tour.

There was an outdoor concert hall in the Hofburg palace sounds. We had just missed a concert by an Australian classical orchestra of what looked like high school kids. From what I heard they were very good. We walked over to the museum but realized that if we wanted to get to dinner and the show on time and still squeeze in a carriage ride we could not go in so wandered back to the palace and booked a carriage ride.



Carriages on cobble stones are very bumpy and almost all the photos that I tried to get were blurred plugged from the movement. we did pass by Mozarts apartment in Vienna, and many interesting windows with mannequin with cats heads... must be a thing in Vienna.  I enjoyed the ride very much. narrow streets and old buildings... Europe.

Our pizza place was on a little side street and the food was good, fast, and cheap. the restaurant was clean and friendly. We even saw some of the crew there which  was nice and we tried out some viennese beer. It was Ok, it seems that Austrians drink more beer than anyone else in Europe so we helped them out a little with the stats.
 From there we went back to the Spanish riding school.

We had booked months ahead so that we could get good seats and it was a good thing too as the horse show was booked full and the line up for people still trying to get tickets was long. I felt bad for them but c'est la vie. We were shown to our seats on the side of the arena. They were good seats front row of two rows with seats and behind us were three rows of standing room only. how odd. The show included an orchestra and an opera singer. Very nice. the horses were gorgeous and so well trained. there were lots of signs saying no photos during the performance but people still took photos and a few were asked to leave or got their camera or phones confiscated by the ushers. I did not take any photos during the show but I sure wanted to. Loved the Lippizan stallions.

After the show we went to the riding school store and I picked up a coin necklace of an Austrian coin with the stallion jumping and a calendar even though the year was already half way gone. it was ok, it had lovely pictures of the horses. Some postcards and then a cab ride home. Getting to where we could catch a cab and then catching the cab was interesting with all the people pouring out of the riding school. but we did succeed.
the ride home was uneventful and took very little time. all the cab drivers know where the viking river cruises are so we just had to say viking cruise and we were good.

 Arriving back at the boat was very pleasant with all the lights on the pier. We were tired after our full day of walking around Vienna and fell asleep pretty quickly looking forward to our full day the next day at the Schonbrun Palace.