Vienna, Austria

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Guten Tag and Happy Mother's Day to all-

Once upon a time flying was an adventure and had a romantic allure to it. Now it is just a convienent way to go long distances quickly. In our post 9/11 world a less than friendly flight attendent is an improvement over the adsurdity of airport security. The mear fact that we left Detroit and arrived in Vienna on time and with our luggage makes the flight a success. Our friends, Lyn and Don have still not seen their luggage. Our plane landed in Vienna Friday at 1:30 p.m., our luggage was on the carousel when we got there and there was no passport control so we were in the arrivals hall in a matter of minutes. Our Uniworld representative, we are cruising with Uniworld Cruise Line, was there to greet us and informed us that there was one more couple arriving in 30 minutes and then we would be on the bus headed toward our boat. Vienna is famous for, among other things, its coffee houses and as there was a coffee house right there it seemed a good place to wait. It also seemed appropriate to try our first apple strudel at the same time. After the non-descript airplane food, our apple strudel was absolutely devine.

We arrived at the River Duchess about 3:30. The boat is quite beautiful and our room is very comfortable, albeit, a bit cramped. Lynda started unpacking while Tim explored and as he was walking on the sun deck saw the Johnsons arrive. We spent the remainder of the afternoon in the lounge hearing the horror story of Lyn and Don's travels to Vienna and just generally catching up. Our visit was interupted by the obligatory boat safety meeting. Once that was over it was time for dinner. We won't bore you with details but the food and wine have generally been very good.

Saturday morning Lynda and Tim took the city tour while Lyn and Don went to an art gallery. Our tour started with a bus ride around Vienna, giving us an overview of the old town area. We then left the bus for a two hour walking tour. The first stop was the National Bilioteck, national library. We were taken into a beautiful old baroque era room that was over two stories high and was filled with books all published before 1800, most considerably before 1800 and in Latin. It was a beautiful room. This library is the national archive for Austria and contains over 7 million books and documents. We found out that there was a room somewhere in the depths of the library that contained original scores of Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss and Schubert. Tim had goosebumps just thinking about these scores. Next door to the National Library was the Spanish Riding School famous for the white Lippinzan horses. These horses practice two hours a day and perform every Sunday. We were able to look into the courtyard that the stalls for these magnificent animals surrounded. Several of the horses actually took time to peek out of their stalls for a brief photo opp. A few more steps took us to a lovely square in front of one of the gates to the royal palace. Austria has not been a monarchy since the end of World War I but still continues to preserve the stately buildings associated with the former monarchy. From the palace gate we walked down a pedestrian only street that was the central shopping area, containing all of the usual high end shops. Our guide also pointed out a cafe that is considered the best pastry shop in Vienna. We plan to return to this cafe. This would have been a lovely walk except for the fact that it had started raining. We eventually ended up in front of St. Stephen's Cathedral. At this point our guide gave us about 45 minutes of free time to explore the area. We went first to the cathedral. All of the major cathedrals that we have visited in Europe are impressive, each in its own way. St. Stephen's was no exception. The original stained glass windows over time have been destroyed and replaced with just plain glass. However, during the easter season different colored transparent paper similar to cellophane is hung over the window and the light coming in through these different colors gives the inside of the cathedral a glow like we have never seen in any other church. Because of a service going on we were unable to walk about the cathedral which was unfortunate because there appeared, from a distance, to be a stunning, contemporary shaped crucifix hanging from the nave of the church. Hopefully, when we return tomorrow we will be able to get closer. We explored a few shops, bought some post cards, replaced Lynda's hairspray that was confiscated at the Amsterdam airport, and then returned to our boat. The rest of the day was dull and rainy so we spent it on the boat napping, reading and visiting. Oh, ended the day with Weiner Schnitzel and our first game of cards with the Johnson's - just before they gave their clothing to their steward for washing so they can wear them again tomorrow!