We docked in Vienna before breakfast this morning. We are going to be in Vienna today and tomorrow as well. YAY! At 9 AM, we set off for our panoramic Vienna city tour. We drove into the city and passed several churches and other landmarks on the way.
The Ringstraße (or Ringstrasse) is a circular road surrounding the inner city or Innerstadt of Vienna and is one of its main sights. It is typical of the historical style of the 1860s to 1890s. It houses the city’s fine architecture and many shops and hotels.
Today, our guide took us on a walk through the palace complex and the surrounding areas. We walked through the massive library (called the State Hall or Prunksaal) at the Josefsplatz in the Hofburg Palace, saw some of the special Spanish horses that belong to Austria, walked through part of the opera building and saw the Hercules statues, stepped into St. Michael’s Church for a few moments, and saw the recently excavated areas in the center of a busy street. It was all a blur of activity really, and it was hard to keep our locations straight. Honestly, I don’t think we really ever left the palace area, but we just didn’t know that at the time.
We returned back to the square where we had started our tour, and Mom and Aunt Peggy heard an organ playing, and so they ducked into a church there on the square to hear more. Rebels!!!
Mom, Aunt Peggy and I chose to stay in Vienna and catch lunch on our own with Dick and Audrey. We then walked more of the streets of Vienna to get to St. Stephan’s Cathedral, which was also under construction. Aunt Peggy and Mom were delighted with the bright stained glass windows inside of the church until I discovered that it was just some brightly colored plastic sheeting that was a temporary covering. The sheeting still allowed for some fun reflection photos on the ceiling though. The roof of the church was uniquely made with colorful tiles of some type. It definitely stood out.
We then walked around Vienna some more. We passed some strange looking sculptures that sort of looked like the Michelin Man, but we weren’t quite sure what they were supposed to be.
We got some gelato at a street vendor, and then we walked through a couple more churches. St. Peter’s Church was built in the early 1700’s and was lovely.
St. Augustine’s Church was back in the original square where we had started our AM walking tour. Mom and Aunt Peggy had stepped into the church earlier that day to hear the organ. And this time the organ was being played again, and so we listened for a few minutes. Then Aunt Peggy, Dick and Audrey chose to take the shuttle back to the ship, while Mom and I stayed in town and did more shopping.
Mom and I caught the last shuttle bus back to the ship on our own. I went up on the sun deck and called Barbara. It sure is great to talk to my sister.
That night, about half of the ship’s passengers had an extra excursion they had paid for. It was called a Heurigen evening and involved drinking some new wine and eating food while listening to music. The rest of us stayed on board for dinner.
After dinner, I took some shots of the fading sunset over Vienna.
Favorite Thing or Funny Moment
- Me: Realizing that when it comes to her desire to hear music, my Mom can turn into quite the rebel!
- FEELING: Tired – we did lots of walking today!
No comments:
Post a Comment