Our first stop on the guided tour was St. Stephen's Cathedral - although the retreating German commander disregarded orders to fire 100 shells to leave it in ashes, it was still largely destroyed by a fire from a nearby shop in 1945 when Russian troops entered the city
Gotthold Lessing Statute completed in 1935 in Judenplatz [Jewish Square] to remember the German poet's formulation in Vienna (1775) of the idea of Tolerance
Example of Nouveau Art Deco
Another bakery Der Mann which is all over Vienna - known for their fruhling croissants & melange (coffee & milk) ..makes you wish the Amadolce's food was not all that plentiful so we'd have more excuses & stomach room to try some of these wonderful bakeries
Our city tour led us around the Karntnerstrasse and other well known pedestrian streets "Graben" and "Kohlmart"
In front of the Hofburg Palace complex - a horse got spooked by the noise and thick traffic that it actually jumped into the Michaeler Platz - Roman ruins (foundation walls and remains of old settlement outside Roman legionary fortress dating back to 160 AD)
Had to wait a bit for the Albertina Art Museum stairways to clear - can see the Monet impressionist rendition set on the vertical face of each step
Opera house
In front of Austrian National Library
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Sooo many huge museums, even in the Hofburg, ie. fine arts, natural history, etc... we didn't venture in them as for sure it'll take up too much of our precious time reserved to just roam the sights in the Ringstrasse
Here we are at Museumsquariter district - there was the 150 anniversary exhibit of Gustav Klimt in the Leopold museum which is just diagonally across from this modern building. We found Klimt's art was enormously popular through many parts in Europe as many locales claim his influence ..even in Budapest. Klimt was in fact born & died in Vienna 1862-1918. He has been hailed as the epitome of art nouveau. His works "The Kiss", "Judith" & "Beethoven Frieze" are known and reproduced throughout the world
Lunch stop at WienerWald
Sometimes just walking along a normal boulevard, you happen to lift your gaze & see something like this on a random building
The Parliament
The Rathaus (City Hall). Rainbow banners were flying in readiness for the Gay parade on the weekend...just walking through & we were greeting with free popsicles ...yummy
Wien (meaning river from the forest) purportedly is 40 - 50% greenery
There are about 25 churches in Vienna just in the 1st District, or the Innere Stadt alone
The Pestsaule, German for Plague Column, is located on Graben - was erected after the ctiy emerged 1679 after last big plague epidemics
Having a rest & Viennese coffee in Graben Square- the pedestrianized shopping street
The Burggarten in central Vienna is part of the former private garden belonging to the monarch and attached to the former Imperial Winter Palace. The pic above of the greenhouse is now a tropical butterfly exhibit
Statute of Mozart
Towards late afternoon, it dawned on us that we probably should have taken some bikes that are available to be rented, just like Paris. This is a city where the traffic was most organized...at least for most of the areas inside the Ringstrasse where we spent most of the day. They had very generous pedestian lanes beside another broad bike lane, separate from the car lanes and the trams are relegated to the centres of the boulevards... too sensible
The Stadtpark
The Johann Strauss monument..there was a steady stream of tourists stepping up to take photos with Strauss...needless to say, it took a long time for me to snap this pic which had to be snapped in between people darting into the view
Very tempted to sit down on this grass sofa in Stadtpark...but we were hurrying past.. I felt like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland... as we were on a clock to meet our bus back to the ship for dinner
Dinner on board featured the famed Viennese Sacher Torte named after Franz Sacher, Austrian politician. The Hotel Sacher, near the State Opera house & built by the politician's son, saw the origin of this dense chocolate dessert layered with apricot jam. Much of its renown comes from a legal battle up until 1965 between Hotel Sacher and pastry shop Demel ( cook for the Habsburgs) who also produced a rival torte. There is now Demel Sachertorte as well.. so peace amongst the pastry chefs have been restored.
Back in one of the many gardens at dusk
It was fashion week in Vienna
Live window display
Our miraculous passage on this narrow one lane road heading back towards dockside
After dinner, the Amadolce provided a bus to return to Vienna ...since the weather was fine for an evening stroll, we did the 20min excursion to get some night scene of the city
