Danube Waltz Viking River Cruise
Day 6: Thursday, October 24, 2019 - Vienna, Austria
Linda was back to the regular egg benedict for breakfast. I had some yogurt with raspberry reduction (I thought, and hoped, it was strawberry), Spanish tortilla, and fruit. I was actually still digesting some of the fanstasic dinner from the night before so I didn't want to eat too heavy of a first meal. Of course we had pineapple juice and coffee. Today we ate with Maureen "Mo", and Linda.
Our first guide was Charlotte. Our excurison was called Panoramic Vienna.
This is the tallest and oldest ferris wheel in Austria. They had cabins - rather than seats - and held a few people.
It was also featured in the James Bond movie The Living Daylights. They could be rented out for romantic candle lit
dinners, parties, and weddings. They would even stop the wheel at the top for the actual vow exchange.
A weird bike - notice how tall the seat is.
A boat that has a pool on it that people can use during the warmer months' seasons.
A Mozart statue.
The first McDonalds in Vienna.
Vienna University where Sigmund Freud studied.
The Natural History Museum and Museum of Art, with the last picture being a close-up of the top of the MoA.
Some other sights, including the Vienna Space Needle (no, not really), statues, and other things.
This is this morning's approximation of where we walked. The afternoon was limited to the palace and the evening was limited to the building
where we attended the concert.
The red line is the walk from where the bus dropped us off to the plaza where we split up for some free time, including stopping for a snack and
to do some shopping.
The blue line is after leaving the coffee house, to St. Steven's Cathedral, meeting the guide again, and walking to the bus pick-up spot.
In reality, we first went to the cathedral then to the coffee house - but the path is generally the same nonetheless.
We were entering the Hofburg Palace area, the official residence of the President of Austria. Here is the entrance, the gate to the old city.
Some of the architecture, mostly of the palace.
Flags of many nations. These all belong to countries that are members of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe - OSCE.
There were preparations going on for a celebration of the Austrian Neutrality Day - October 26th - celebrated since 1965 (which makes
having tanks on display... a little weird). This is held in Heldenplatz (Hero's Square).
We were in a courtyard off the main square. The segment behind the fountain (with the clock and sundial [built into the wall]) was added after the rest.
Netting / wire mesh was put up to keep away the birds.
We finally finished up within the grounds, and headed outside the grounds for more sights, including of the outside of the palace.
The outside was designed, we're told, by the architect Loos.
Outside the palace was a dig site, wherein the found some ancient remains. They were left intact and the city went up around it.
And some more sights of the city. Some Christmas decorations were already up.
Saw this device attached to a crosswalk sign. There were a number of these around the city. They are devices that emit a chimed-thud like
noise that we perceived to be timer guides for the visually impared that were crossing the street.
The bicyclist is hanging on one of them in the gate image above.
We stepped into St. Stephen Cathedral.
One thing Vienna is [supposed to be] known for are its coffee houses.
Down a street near the cathedral, you have your choice of foods...
On said street, we stopped by the Sluka coffee house and had some coffee, and shared some fresh apple strudel with creme on the side. We sat with Tony and Yvonne.
They make some great looking treats there.
We met near the cathederal, walked back to the shuttle, and went back to the ship.
We passed by this wall. We were told that the grafitti in the city was very low - and based on what we saw, it was. But this area
was specifically reserved for artists to display their abilities.
More architecture.
The bridge's lower level is for pedestrians, and the upper for autos.
And just like that, it's lunch time.
A couple items on today's market fare were coppa and ricotta crostini, and pasta & roasted vegetable salad, and some other salad.
Linda only had the market fare, including salad, and a coffee ice cream float. (no pics)
I had some market fare also, as well as fish and chips, and vanilla rice pudding. (missed a pic of the fish and chips)
We started eating with Will and Rebecca, and finished eating with Linda and Brian.
The afternoon's excursion was to Schönbrunn Palace (Schönbrunn means beautiful). Our guide today was Marcus.
En route to and from the Palace, we saw a few more sights.
The staff housing held 4-5000 servants.
The main house is 350 rooms, and the rest of the buildings held the staff. While we were asked not to take
pictures inside (which we obliged, being in a foreign country and all... [not that we would or wouldn't take pictures if we were in the US]),
we tried to make sure to take enough of the outside.
Some well behaved horses, with what are probably ear coverings to protect them from the coolness. Or the noise.
Our visit included a free self-guided tour of the gardens - which were featured in James Bond's Licensed to Kill.
As it was later in the season, there wasn't as much in bloom as there might be during peak season. But we got the idea anyway.
This small sundial was on the railing of the back balcony that overlooks a lot of the grounds as shown in the other image.
A small enclosed garden area on the side of the palace.
A selfie and a couple portraits from different locations on the grounds.
We eventually departed the palace at about 4:40 and drove around the city a little more on the way back to the ship.
What is a bio-supermarket anyway - Austrian Whole Foods?!!?
After a brief break, it was time for our daily port talk before dinner. But today was different, though. Where we usually
ate dinner at 7:00, this day we at during the first seating at 5:45 because we were going to a Mozart and Strauss concert.
The menu.
Linda had Meli Melo salad, Reibekuchen, and mango lassi cake.
I had tafelspitzulze, weiner schnitzel, and sacher cake.
We ate with Nigel and Jane, from Oxford, England.
After dinner, we boarded a bus and headed out to the Mozart & Strauss concert. Saw this interesting building on the way.
The hall was previously used as a brokerage house. The lobby had some interesting architecture.
The concert was put on by the nine musicians of the Vienna Residential Orchestra and included: lead violin, violin, viola, chello, base, clarinet, oboe, flute & piccolo, and drums.
A couple of the songs had an opera singer or singers, or dancers. After the first half hour, we had an intermission where a glass
of juice or sparkling wine was served. Then we sat for the second half hour. The concert was very good.
This audio clip may or may not have been taken with a phone that may or may not have been in someone's pocket, so there may or may not be some
ancillary noises in the recording. Also, the fourth song has a lot of clapping-along and it is a little hard to hear the music.
We took a bit of a ride through the lit up city on the way back to the boat.
Back on board, we were treated to some late night goulaschsuppe.
And some entertainment - though this guy played almost every night, we just didn't listen every night.
Shortly after our snack, we snapped this image.
Did I mention the coffee station? I seem to recall doing that. But just in case... There was a coffee station at the top of the stairs between the lounge and restaraunt. The station was 10-12 feet wide. On it were baskets with muffins in the morning and cookies in the afternoon and evening - different ones each day. And there were two mutli-drink machines that made cocoa, cappuccino, coffee, and other hot beverages. And pretty much whatever you want to put in them - different flavored creamers, milk, honey, etc. This night we grabbed a cup of half cocoa and half coffee and went back to our room to watch the Sound of Music. We didn't finish it before we got too tired and went to sleep.
The ship was to leave port at 11:45 PM and head toward Bratislava, Slovakia.