Today was our first day in Vienna. We were up early and out to the buses by 8.30am for the ride into the city. Vienna is very large and the Port area is about 25 minutes’ drive from the centre of town, this is because the Danube doesn’t go through the town, only the Danube Canal which wouldn’t fit the Cruise Ships on it. We drove through the centre of town looking at all the fantastic buildings and drove past the gardens where the gold statue of Strauss is. We continued to the Albertina, which is a city square at the museum and near the opera house. We then did a walking tour around the city centre learning about the history of Vienna and the various shopping areas and places of interest including a big statue and, of course, the cathedral. The cathedral was a dark, gothic cathedral, and, of course, constantly being renovated.
Next stop on the walking tour was the Farmers Market. This was a great market and we had the opportunity to sample cheese, pancakes with Apricot Jam and some wine. Once the tour finished we had free time to have a look around. Michael and Lee and Gerard and I had signed out for lunch on the boat, but we were so hot and a bit tired after our morning tour that we decided to buy, yes, you guessed it – bread, cheese meat and olives, we had wine in our rooms, so we decided to head back to the boat. When we got back we talked to our friend the Maitre D and he kindly gave us wine glasses, plates and knives so we could go up on the sun deck and have our little lunch party. We had a lovely time, we got more bread and fruit from the galley, we had to convince the waiter that we didn’t need him to carry it upstairs for us, and we enjoyed the fresh outdoors. It was about 34 degrees with a gentle breeze.
The afternoon was spent lazing around, catching up on washing, booking our transfers for Prague and afternoon tea. Early dinner was served at 5.45pm so we could leave at 7pm for the concert.
The concert was held in the Palace of the Harsburgs in a fantastic Hall. The orchestra consisted of 3 violins, flute/piccolo, clarinet, drums/percussion, double bass, cello and piano. The musicians were great and were accompanied by, depending on the tune, a female and male opera singer and a female and male ballet dancer. The show went uninterrupted for about 90 minutes and was fantastic. There were only 80 of us there plus a couple of families, so it was very intimate. The acoustics were great, no microphones or any technology required. We even participated by either clapping or cuckooing where required. They played about 16 pieces. It was a lot of fun and we were given a CD as a momento.
What a great and enjoyable day we had.
