Danube River Cruise

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We Arrive in Vienna!



We arrived in Vienna Austria for a two day stay in this beautiful and historic city. Our first tour is of the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Hapsburgs, just outside Vienna. We have a tour of the city on the bus, via the Ringstrasse, to orient us to the area and introduce us to some of the landmark buildings in the city. The Schonbrunn is the Versailles of Austria, a huge palace with 128 kitchens, I don’t know how many bathrooms! We have a tour of 30 of the public rooms, and learn many interesting facts about the life of the royal family, and particularly of Emperor Franz Josef and Empress Elisabeth. We are also introduced to Maria Theresia, the “mother-in-law of Europe”, so called because of her sixteen children, eleven of whom survived to adulthood, she married off to many other heads of state throughout Europe and the world. This created alliances that helped the Austro-Hungarian Empire remain a strong force for generations. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take photographs inside the palace, but we could buy postcards! After the tour, the four of us had a lovely lunch at Figlsmuller, a restaurant in Vienna that specializes in Weiner Schnitzel, the veal cutlet dish native to Vienna. The schnitzel and the beer are GOOD! Afterwards, we stroll through some of the shopping area and over to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, a beautiful Gothic church in the center of the city. The outside is being cleaned, so much of it was covered, but we managed to see quite a bit. One fascinating factoid about St Stephen’s is that their catacombs house the “innards” of the Habsburg family. The Habsburgs have this family tradition where they remove their hearts after death, and sometimes other things, which are interred at St Stephen’s, while their bodies are often interred elsewhere. I prefer my family’s tradition of having corned beef and cabbage on New Year’s Day . . . . We finish our first day in Vienna with a coffee and a shared piece of Sachertorte at the Café Sacher; layers of dark chocolate cake and a thick fudgy layer of frosting. Vienna is full of little cafes to sit, drink coffee or beer, and watch the people go by~

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Photos

Schonbrunn Palace
Wilkommen to my summer home!