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Vienna, the city of the Strauss Waltz, and the "Beautiful (not so blue any more) Danube" has a population of about 1.500,000. It is a very cosmopolitan, sophisticated, and expensive city. (No, as a country boy, I'm not much impressed. I don't really feel comfortable in places like New York, London or Paris for the same reasons.) For me, the city's saving graces are it's pastries, architecture, and music. Some of the world's greatest composers lived and worked here. Beethoven spent 35 years of his life in this city. Vienna is also a city of coffee houses and confection shops. Roughly a quarter of the city was damaged, and over 10% of the buildings were destroyed during WWII. When I was last here in 1977, I attended a performance at The Vienna State Opera, one of the world's finest. I also wanted to see The Vienna Boys Choir, but they weren't performing while I was there. I finally saw them later in, of all places, back home in Elkins, West Virginia! The famous choir was touring the Eastern U.S. at the time, and gave a free performance during our Forest Festival! It was now Friday. We settled into the singularly unimpressive Austria Trend Ananas Hotel. The rooms were small, and the hotel food was the worst we had anywhere on the tour. Also, the hotel was located almost in the 'red light' district of town, far removed from the main part of Vienna. I suppose we had felt pampered everywhere else, but we were back down to earth now. That evening we went out of town to the 'Wine Village' of Grinzing, a beautiful hamlet up in the hills. We went to another tourist-trap restaurant, complete with the usual everything-but-Austrian live music. But the setting was delightful, and the food and wine were good; Afterwards, a drive through the Vienna Woods. Here are the two photos I took in Grinzing. . Saturday morning, we took the city tour, which included St. Stephen's Cathedral and Hofburg Palace, then went to the famous and very ornate Schonbrunn Palace for the afternoon. Too bad they don't allow picture taking inside that palace. (They make a handy profit selling guide books full of pictures.) This row: In and around Hofburg Palace
And this is Schonbrunn Palace and gardens
And here are two guide book photos showing rooms inside the castle. Yes, those folks knew how to live.
My photo of tomb of St. Stephen, in the cathedral bearing his name, followed by guide book picture of cathedral from the air. The other pictures I took inside were too dark. Now, some more guide book pictures of various sights. The first is the Astronomical Clock in downtown Vienna. (My picture of it wasn't that good.) Next, yummies! The third photo shows the Austrian Crown Jewels. This is followed by statues of Mozart and Johann Strauss.
In the evening, we were treated to a Mozart concert at an elegant concert hall. The acoustics were great, the orchestra was dressed in 17th century clothing (powdered wigs and all), and the soloists were in fine voice. One interesting, and humorous, sight in downtown Vienna is a huge fountain that sprays a mist of water about a hundred feet into the air. Behind the fountain is a war memorial statue left earlier by the Russians when they occupied part of the city. The Soviets loudly protested the erection of the fountain, correctly pointing out that the water spray would mostly hide the memorial. The Austrians replied, "poo on you." The fountain admirably serves its intended purpose. Sunday morning, we left Vienna, headed west. At a place called Krim, we left the bus and took a cruise down the Danube again. Here are pictures of the Austrian countryside and a town along the way.
We left the boat at the historic town of Melk, on the beautiful Lake Wolfgang . We were getting into serious 'Sound of Music' country now. But guess what? A band was set up in one place in Melk, and they were playing (gasp) American Country music! I wanted to cry. Between our music, burgers, and Coke, I fear we will be the ruination of Europe. Here are some photos I took on Lake Wolfgang and in Melk.
After our break in Melk, we boarded our bus again, and headed toward Salzburg. Along the way, we saw some truly awesome scenery. The photos below were taken along the way.
At one point, our guide told us the lake water was too cold for swimming this time of year, being about 55 degrees. Guess what - I saw a group of kids happily swimming in the lake! In late afternoon, we arrived in picturesque Salzburg, situated in the mountains of Western Austria.
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