Vienna - a Tour, a Torte and a Twirl

It's farewell to our little cruise boat this morning - just a three-night stay, a mini break in the midst of the travels. At 9:00, we head up and onto the buses - we are in the blue group again, along with Sue and Laura and Carol and Les. Into Vienna, with Zoltan, our guide.

There are so many amazing and opulent buildings that it is hard to keep them all straight, here are a couple...

I think this last one is a prison - not sure if it's a functioning prison or not...

Today is a public holiday and there are a stack of soldiers being sworn in at a ceremony in one of the palaces. 

I don't think these were the ones actually being sworn in, they were just random guys...

At the Albertina, we hop out of the buses and follow Zoltan for a short walking tour. First through a section which houses a library and the Spanish riding school.

The horses perform here, over the road from the stables, and are extremely well looked after. You can watch them rehearse or go to a show, the rehearsal is cheaper. I did see them when I was here - 30 years ago! They have a three-week holiday at the end of the season, in the country, so they can run around.

We then head up to what I think is the Hopfberg area but I will have to confirm that.

Then up to the shopping street where everything is closed except for the souvenir shops. They have a statue to celebrate the end of the Black Plague, as do a lot of places, this one is very orange.

Our little walking tour ends at St Stephen's Cathedral - which is known as the heart of Vienna. Zoltan did give lots of information about the buildings and the Hapsburgs and Franz Joseph and Sisi and the horses and I just can't recount it all!

Alison, Sue, Laura and I head off down to the Vienna Opera House, one of the most famous in Europe, for the 11:00 tour, grab a ticket and in we go.

The first stop is the auditorium. The stage is huge and very deep and there are crew everywhere.

They don't run regular seasons - they run a number of different operas over the course of a week, so Monday - one opera. Tuesday - change the set and put on a different opera. Wednesday - change the set and put on a different opera. Thursday - back to Monday's opera. It would be a logistical nightmare and a lot of work. They plan a year in advance.

They have recently installed information computer things on the back of each seat - very cool with all sorts of information on the show, the company, provide subtitles and all sorts of information.

Next, out to the foyer where our lovely guide (we didn't get her name - I tried to read it on her name tag but it was upside down and in German!) explained about the opera ball. It is held once a year and a heap of debutantes and their partners come and dance. They take out the seats in the auditorium and lay a dance floor right along and up onto the stage so it is one big dance room. It is a huge event and extremely popular, next year's is sold out already. A ticket in a box is worth £20,000!

Parts of the Opera House are fairly modern as some parts were destroyed by fire and, as with a lot of Vienna, was bombed during the war. The foyer is part of the original building and has fabulous paintings and statues representing the seven arts.

Next to a couple of interval rooms - one a lot more elaborate than the other and complete with paintings of some of the musicians who performed their operas here. 

There's also a bust of Mahler, who was instrumental in changing the way opera was performed - he simplified the sets and dimmed the lights and introduced an interval so people weren't wandering in and out and eating and talking during the performances.

Then to the oldest room, what they call the Tea Room, that hosted the Emporer and his guests and they drank tea during interval. There is a connecting door to the private box in the auditorium. You can hire this room and some corporate companies do. It is also used for press conferences.

This tour was great! And, as all tours do, ended in the gift shop - this was a lovely one, though!

Our next port of call was the Sacher Hotel, which is just behind the Opera House and serves the famous Sacher Torte. 

It is said that the creator of the cake was a guy named Sacher and he was working as a chef and he was told that royalty was coming and to have something ready to serve. He only had some chocolate cake on hand so he sliced it in two, spread apricot jam and joined them back together and served it with cream.

It became hugely popular but then it disappeared for a while. A rival shop began serving it and the original guy sued them. There was a huge court cast and Sacher won and is the only one allowed to serve the original...

I came here 30 years ago and had a piece and today, I recreated that moment!

And it was just as good as I remembered! Look at the queue behind me - better than the truck in the old photo...

After that blast from the past, we wandered up the street to St Stephen's Cathedral, passing a great Gustsv Klimt store...

St Stephen's is an amazing gothic church. They say that baroque will gently carry you to god whereas gothic will shoot you right up there with force!

It's then time for a stroll to our hotel with hopes of a slightly early check in and we are in luck! We can come upstairs and relax for half an hour. Then it's out again, over the road to the city park. It's a very odd entry - or we just went the wrong way, looks like an empty canal and there's a heap of teenagers smoking, just odd. Then we come out to the park itself and it's lovely, lots of people and a lovely statue of Strauss.

Then it is time to head out for our next activity and it's a long, leisurely walk with a brief stop for a toasted cheese...

Past more massive buildings - this one is a museum and is named for Maria Therese, that's her statue in the left...

This is the Rathaus, or town hall...

We get here a little bit early and talk to a lovely girl walking her dog - she is half English, half Austrian and she lives here, studied music here and now sings at the Opera House! How random that we should run into her! We talk about how there are no microphones for the singers and how they have to train their voices to be heard over the orchestra and to the back of the balcony. Lovely girl.

Then it's time for - what else do you in Vienna but a Viennese Waltz class...!

Here's the lovely teacher, Matthew.

He looks like a dancer! There are two couples, from Toronto, and us and I have booked us a partner - and yes, I'm even going to do it...! We think the guys worked out who was dancing with who coz Christian was shorter than Anders so that answered that.

Matthew is an excellent teacher and explains each stage and step, breaks it down and goes through it - this was for the benefit of everyone except Alison.

So we slowly build up to it and then around we go. I do alright for quite a while but towards the end, because I am dancing with a professional who can spin and not a novice who goes slowly, I'm getting way too dizzy and have to sit out the last time through. Alison, on the other hand, her guy keeps adding bits and twists and extra bits and she does a great job!

It was great fun, I was still a bit dizzy on the walk back, Alison enjoyed dancing again and we learned the Viennese Waltz in Vienna! I feel we might feel it tomorrow... And the good thing about Alison doing well meant she wasn't able to take a break to take a photo of me so that remains but a memory for us!

Lovely walk back, past Parliament...

..met up with Sue and Laura for a quick bite at a nearby restaurant before turning in.