Danielson-Walker Europe 2009
Day 9: Tuesday August 2: A Day in Vienna
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- Category: Welcome to the Danielson Walker Europe Travels 2009
- Published on Saturday, 29 August 2009 11:55
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After breakfast we boarded the bus for the center of Vienna. We traveled the Ring Road around the city center. We saw most of the historical buildings of old Vienna.
We drove past the home of Johann Strauss and past memorial statues to both Strauss and Mozart. The Parliament Building was probably the most spectactular building that we saw in Vienna. Vienna is 1.6 million people and they say that 80% of the population live in rented apartments.
We toured MozartHaus where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and his family lived. It is the only remaining Mozart residence left in Vienna. Trivia we learned was that Mozart was 5 foot 2 inches tall, had 2 sons and a daughter and he died at the age of 35 of heart disease. However he accomplished much in his short life with some brilliant works.
After this we walked the streets of Vienna, paid a visit to St. Stephens Cathedral which was an incredible piece of work and architecture in baroque style. It was in the process of being cleaned after 100 years of soot build up.
After the morning tour, we all came back to the boat for lunch. After lunch Ken and JA took the subway back to Vienna (with the computer in the back pack). We went back to the center of the city and began walking the spoke streets to explore what we could find. Neat city, very clean and an apparent lot of wealth based on the shops and the fashions that the women were wearing. We ran into a Starbucks and Ken got connected to the internet once again. It had been 5 days since connectivity and it felt really good. I almost felt like having a smoke after connecting! However, our journal was 5 days behind so we did not get that uploaded.
Ken D and Fran took a walk around a nearby island and beach. They found the beach-European style! Kay and Mary Lou also took a short walk to enjoy a really nice day in Vienna.
We all gathered for tea time in the lounge and recapped the day and then onto another fine dinner. After dinner, we boarded the bus for an evening in Vienna Concert. It was held at an old but very well maintained concert hall, KrunnenTheatre where Mozart Played concerts. There was a small 14 piece Orchestra, two dancers, a baritone and a soprano all of which were excellent in their field. Everyone had a favorite that they selected as the best musician. One chose the pianist, one the brass section, Ken W. thought that the flautist was outstanding and it turned out that he was a local professor. The strings were also magnificent and of course the baritone and the soprano each thought they were the best. We had champagne at intermission on the balcony. We know that it was a good concert because both Ken’s stayed awake for the whole thing.
After the concert, back to the boat, arriving near midnight so it was off to bed after some stoped by the lounge for a late night food service.
The boat left Vienna at 2 am, but we did not bother to see us off.
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