Last full day in Vienna

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Its been a wonderful week in Vienna; especially since the predicted rain did not happen. Sunny and pleasantly warm each day. So we were able to have our boat trip on the Danube after all. It was like being in a fairy land as the boat passed by ancient little towns with their red roofed buildings and castles perched high on hills.
Some hightlights of Vienna: the buildings, statues, monuments etc are very grandiose. Emperor Franz Josef had the Roman city walls taken down and replaced with huge Roman-Greco style architecture.
The museums are fabulous--it would require a long time to go through them all! We tried for one a day. I think my favourite was in the Hofburg Castle: the display of historical musical instruments--from ancient mouth instruments to stringed instruments to almost modern day pianos. Mozarts fathers violin was there, still playable! There were instruments that Beethoven, Mozart, and Haydn had played.
In the same museum were displays of armments and artifacts from ancient Ephesus. We were there for several hours.
I went into the oldest church in Vienna: St Ruprechts, dating from 740 AD; of course St Stephans is old too (12th century): We had lunch in the oldest restaurant too: Griechenbeisl. Its been a restaurant for over 500 years. Beethoven, Mozart, Einstein, Horowitz have all eaten here!
We found the Austrian people very friendly, polite, and charming. Our friends have treated us royally. By the end of the week, my halting German has improved. On to Paris next...

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