Wednesday, September 29
Finally I become a savey traveller. I discover that for the price of a coffee, that I can use the wifi spot for free. Now I will post 2 days worth of entries. Enjoy
We Had an early wake up call for what will be the busiest day so far. The breakfast buffet at the hotel is very nice and we ate far to much. We left for a city tour of Vienna at 9 am buy bus. Our tour guide Irena has lived in Vienna for many years and really knows her history of Austria. Since I am putting this entry together 2 days later I can attest to her competence.; a really nice lady with a passionate love for the history of her country. We had a very thorough tour of the historical parts of the older part of the city. The sights were impressive but Irena’s knowledge is what made everything meaningful. We visited the Cathedral of St. Stephen which dates to approximately 1144, passed by the Opera House, city hall, Austrian parliament buildings, and many other historical buildings .It is really difficult to recount all of the sites. We were taken to Belvedere Palace, a huge complex that was the summer palace of Prince Eugene , one of the early Hapsburge aristocrats. This dates to 1700. It is a large estate with upper and lower castles and a large garden between them. We were back to the hotel for a brief break before setting out for the evening venue. We visited Schonbrunn Palace. This was the summer residence of the royal family in Vienna. The history of this palace goes back to 1559 when it was first used as a hunting estate. It was damaged several times due to wars and in 1692 Emperor Leopold started to rebuild the palace as a summer residence. Just a small building which once completed had 1440 rooms. We were lucky to be one of the last tour groups of the day so our guide put extra effort in the tour which lasted over one hour. It is amazing that articles and a building of such old age are in such remarkable shape. We had dinner at the palace after the tour and then attended a classical concert of music composed by Mozart and Strauss. The resident orchestra performsed in the great hall of the palace and we were fortunate to get to see the performance in such a splendid venue. By the time we got back to the hotel we were very tired after such a full day.
We Had an early wake up call for what will be the busiest day so far. The breakfast buffet at the hotel is very nice and we ate far to much. We left for a city tour of Vienna at 9 am buy bus. Our tour guide Irena has lived in Vienna for many years and really knows her history of Austria. Since I am putting this entry together 2 days later I can attest to her competence.; a really nice lady with a passionate love for the history of her country. We had a very thorough tour of the historical parts of the older part of the city. The sights were impressive but Irena’s knowledge is what made everything meaningful. We visited the Cathedral of St. Stephen which dates to approximately 1144, passed by the Opera House, city hall, Austrian parliament buildings, and many other historical buildings .It is really difficult to recount all of the sites. We were taken to Belvedere Palace, a huge complex that was the summer palace of Prince Eugene , one of the early Hapsburge aristocrats. This dates to 1700. It is a large estate with upper and lower castles and a large garden between them. We were back to the hotel for a brief break before setting out for the evening venue. We visited Schonbrunn Palace. This was the summer residence of the royal family in Vienna. The history of this palace goes back to 1559 when it was first used as a hunting estate. It was damaged several times due to wars and in 1692 Emperor Leopold started to rebuild the palace as a summer residence. Just a small building which once completed had 1440 rooms. We were lucky to be one of the last tour groups of the day so our guide put extra effort in the tour which lasted over one hour. It is amazing that articles and a building of such old age are in such remarkable shape. We had dinner at the palace after the tour and then attended a classical concert of music composed by Mozart and Strauss. The resident orchestra performsed in the great hall of the palace and we were fortunate to get to see the performance in such a splendid venue. By the time we got back to the hotel we were very tired after such a full day.
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