Vienna

We awoke to grey skies and a raw wind as we arrived in Vienna.  We were ready for it with our umbrellas, raincoats and down vests.

The ship had a city bus/walking tour planned for us.  I have always found it difficult to take pictures on a bus... inevitably the things the guide is pointing out are on the other side of the bus, or there is a glare from the windows.  Today if you added in the dark skies and occasional rain, it was not a good photo op day.

We visited the historic city center area, driving past the Hapsburg Winter Palace, the former homes of noble families, many churches and museums.  Here are a few of the highlights.



A swimming pool on the canal... only swimmers this time of year are birds

We tied up on the main Danube... as we headed into town we crossed one of several Danube canals.  Vienna built a series of canal to keep the flooding out of the downtown, allowing the city to grow.

Winter Palace of the Hapsburgs. The Hapsburg Dynasty ruled Austria for more than 600 years, so much of the downtown revolves around their palaces and gardens and the homes of people trying to live near the palace. 











The only portion of the palace we got to visit was the wing that houses the wor
ld-famous Spanish Riding School.  We even got to see some of the Lipizzaner Stallions.















Some of the homes of Vienna's wealthy families from the Hapsburg eras have been turned into multi-use buildings or grand hotels. 

You see shops on the ground floor, sometimes shops on the second, then offices and, on the top floors, living quarters.  The wealth is now in the shopping -- In this building off St. Stephen's Square (Stephanplaz) we saw a wristwatch with a price tag of 49,000 Euros.... that's more than $65,000.














Stephanplaz is the the "center" of Vienna and it is here that St. Stephen's Cathedral is located.  It is a gothic cathedral which is always under renovation -- note the color difference between the sides of the church,  We even saw two workers near the top of the 136 m spire.

 

 

Our walking tour ended at the cathedral, then we were given some free time to explore.  We headed over to the opera house, then stopped for coffee and pastries (a Vienna tradition).  We would have tried to get tickets for the opera, but it was Madam Butterfly... which we had just seen in Budapest.  (This production, we discovered, though, was directed by Placido Domingo.)

Opera House

After the morning city tour, we took a special trip to the farmers' market with the Executive Chef from the ship.  He showed us some of the shops he uses to fill emergency provisioning requests, and he set up a special wine and cheese tasting for us.  We even tasted a farmer's cheese that was covered in hay.

the Naschmarkt