Day 5 October 12th Vienna



Park & Palace with Mozart statue

Vienna is one of those interesting
 European capitals with plenty of history, architecture, 

horses playing music

galleries, churches and culture.  Anyway they were some of the reasons we chose this holiday. It was a dry, overcast day to start but the sun eventually arrived at about 2pm. We had a city tour arranged for today which
would take the majority of the time.



golden statue of Strauss

Bust of Strauss





  


 



moon clock at Hofburg palace



Gallery

The city centre was a short coach trip away and we were soon immersed in the world of the Habsburgs, Mozart and Strauss.  We drove past palaces and had a walking stroll past impressive museums and a gallery.  There were some quirky 


moments with buskers 


Imperial crown on the palace roof

dressed in horse heads!  We spent longer at the Hofburg Palace which was the winter residence of the emperor. One wing had a large version of the crown on the roof and another had a moon clock.  
  

 



Schonbrunn palace façade

At the end of the morning we transferred by coach to the Schonbrunn summer palace which the royalty used as an impressive hunting 

Schonbrunn gardens

lodge.  We had a tour of the ornate rooms and heard quite a bit of the royal family history.  Of course the royal family became surplus to requirements when Hitler rode into town in1938 and Austria has been a republic ever since.  The palace was impressive but probably not so overwhelming as the ones we had visited earlier that the Russian czars  had built around St Petersburg.  We did have a short time to visit the splendid formal gardens and fountains where we could have occupied more time. 
 

 

garden guard!





visiting the gardens!

train for taking tourists round the gardens

 



strudel making demonstration

Russian Orthodox church

At the end of the house tour we had an Apple Strudel making demonstration in one of the palace kitchens.  This was thoroughly entertaining, informative and delicious as we all had a tasting.  Soon it was back to the coach and returning to the hotel.  We relaxed a bit and then went for a local discovery walk, we did get lost but found  a supermarket where we found supplies for the next few days.  We also visited a nearby Russian Orthodox church – we entered part way but did not continue because there was a service which included some very good devotional music. 



We then returned to the hotel, sorted ourselves out a bit and went to dinner.  We were more impressed this evening with the menu and we had a very relaxing time with some of our fellow travellers.