Vienna, Austria

We arrived in Vienna last night just before midnight.

One of the oddities of river cruising is that docking space is at a premium.  Usually when you dock, you dock right next to another river boat.  To reach land, you must cross from your boat and go through the lobby of the next boat to get off.  In Vienna, we were three boats across.  This does mean that sometimes your stateroom's windows are looking directly into the next boat's windows.  However, this hasn't affected us as it usually warmer while in port and we keep our drapes shut to keep the room cool.

We've spent a week in Vienna previously, so we decided to skip all the activities planned by Tauck as we had seen the main sights before.  Today they were offering a orientation coach tour of the city followed by a walking VOX exploration tour of the city center.  After lunch on your own, you could remain on your own or join a group to go see the magnificent Belvedere palace.  If you saw the recent film, "Woman in Gold", this is where the famous Klimt, stolen by the Nazis, hung until it was returned to its rightful Austrian Jewish owner who lives in the U.S.  Ronald Lauder (Estee Lauder's son) recently purchased the painting and it now hangs in New York.

Photo from the internet

We decided to grab a cab from where our boat docked and go to the city center to see the horses at the Spanish Riding School.  The Piber Lipizzaner stallions are on holiday at the moment, but they do offer a guided tour of the stables and a viewing of the morning exercises.

Since we would be in Vienna for two days, our plan was to take the guided tour today and then come back tomorrow to see the horses exercise.  I could have sworn that I had purchased our tickets online but I could not find them anywhere in our stuff.  Aargh!!!  When we arrived at the ticket office, it was quite chaotic.  But Jeff managed to wedge his way to the front and secure us tickets for the guided tour.  Seeing how crazy it was, we decided to forgo coming back the next day.

With tickets in hand for the 2:00PM tour, we wandered down the pedestrian streets and did some shopping.  It is really hot here making it almost unbearable to do a lot of activity.  After a hour of shopping, we found a hotel in the main square six stories up that overlooked the cathedral.  We sat in the air-conditioned bar eating prosciutto and parmesan cheese while sipping some white wine.

A man and a horse

Another man and a horse

The tour of the riding school was very interesting and we enjoyed hearing the history of the horses and what it takes to be a rider.  We got to walk the amongst the horse stalls seeing the stallions eating their hay but no pictures were allowed so as not to disturb the horses.  They took us through the tack room and then into the show arena.  A little background:  the royal family ruled over both Spain and Austria.  When the Spanish-born prince was made emperor, he moved to Austria and brought his Spanish horses.  After losing the Spanish territories, the horses are now bred in Piber, Austria.

Photo from the internet

Each bridle is tied differently for a specific horse

Tonight, Tauck was taking us for a special dinner at the Palais Pallavicini.  The palace is directly across the street from the Hofburg Palace.

After entering the magnificent portico of the palace, we ascended up the huge marble staircases to the 2nd floor reception rooms where we were offered Champagne, orange juice or water.  Once everyone had arrived, we were escorted in to the incredible main ballroom to have our four-course meal.

Throughout the evening, members of the Viennese opera, symphony and ballet put on a program.  A tenor and soprano sang arias, a violin soloist played some Mozart, ballet dancers performed pas de deux with a pianist, flute, two violins and a bass player playing in the background.

The meal was quite good.  Every time a course was ready to be presented, a big chime bell was rung and the waiters all strolled in at once carrying their trays.  They would each go to a table and then, all together, would remove the tray's cover to reveal our next offering.  Kind of kitshy but I guess appropriate for the setting.  Everyone including us seemed to enjoy the evening tremendously.

Love the guy filming the tenor on his cellphone

Goodnight.