Vienna

Good morning Vienna and what a beautiful city you are.  We had the choice of doing the city tour, Vienna Culinary tour or Hidden Vienna tour.  Most of us opted for the city tour since we had not been there before.  We had breakfast and then left about 8:45 in the morning.  Vienna, the capital and largest city of Austria, is a truly elegant and romantic city.  On our tour we really appreciated the grandeur of the monumental buildings lining the famous Ringstrasse and admiring the architecture along the Graben and Kohlmarkt and hidden corners of Vienna.

 

 

Walked by the Imperial  Hofburg Palace which is the official seat of the Austrian president. 

 

 

Winding our way thru the narrow streets and enjoying the ambiance.



The world famous Spanish Riding School is located right in central Vienna. It was named after the Spanish horses that were bred with other sturdy equine stock to create the legendary Lipizzan breed, which is used exclusively at the school.  They are born dark (usually black-brown or mouse grey), and the the Lipizzans gradually lighten until their coats are completely white by about 6 years old.
Today the breed is considered quite rare , as there are fewer than 3,000 purebred Lipizzans in existence.



 

 

One of the better ways to see Vienna is taking a ride in a typical  Flaker, a horse -drawn carriage that goes at an easy pace through the inner city of Vienna.  We found these right by the St Stephens

cathedral.

 

 



 

 

St. Stephen's Cathedral is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna.

 



The amazing rooftops and views of the city of Vienna

 

 

A real treat was stopping at the Hotel Sacher and seeing their lovely dining room and beautiful traditional rooms.

Enjoying the sidewalk café at Hotel Sacher drinking our coffee and eating the Sacher Torte.

How many calories do you think is in this Sacher Torte -- worth every one of them!

This is a sinfully rich chocolate cake invented by Franz Sacher.  Now there are 12 pastry chefs making abut 550 per day and as many as 3000 daily around Christmas.  This cake consists of two layers of a dense semi-sweet chocolate dough, a thin layer of apricot jam in the middle, and dark chocolate icing on the sides and top.  It is traditionally eaten with whipped cream as most Viennese consider "die Torte"too dry to be eaten without. We decided we liked it with the whipped cream. 

 

 

So many sidewalk cafes made for great people watching

Of course back on the ship was more pastries waiting for us-- really need to do a lot of walking to make up for these consumed calories!

Tonight was the captains farewell party with cocktails and appetizers.  Can't believe it is almost time to get off.  All the staff was introduced and thanked us for being onboard.  Our group even dressed up for the evening.

 

 Dinner was a special treat as we had the famous Wiener Schnitzel which is Vienna's best-known culinary speciality.  It is a pork cutlet fried in a coating of egg and breadcrumbs.  It was really good and we all enjoyed this dinner.
Of course music in the lounge but after a long day skipped this and went to bed!
Waiting for Budapest tomorrow!!