Vienna

 If it’s Friday, this must be Vienna

Today photos and tour include a photo of the Imperial palace balcony upon which Hitler stood and announced to the Austrians that they were now part of Germany.  

We also walked past the home of the Lipizzan horses.  Shortly afterward we walked over to the St Stephan cathedral which took 250 years to build.  

On our walk we also passed a monument built in gratitude at the ending of the plague.  It gained new popularity and new devotees during the covid epidemic.   Before returning to the ship we treated ourselves to scrambled pancakes and Apple strudel from Cafe Demel.   

The afternoons tour was to the Schönbrunn's palace, the winter palace of the Hapsburg family who ruled Austria for 600 years.  Their reign did not end until  1918 when the family was exiled to the island of Madeira.  While to some people it may seem like ancient history, dad was already three years old.  

An impressive part of Austrian History is Empress Maria Therese who gave birth to 16 children and successfully married most of them off to virtually every other royal family in Europe.  

After a short happy hour and dinner of weiner schnitzel on the ship, we boarded our bus to the lower Austrian Palace for a musical performance which featured music from Liszt, Schubert, Mozart, Haydn, Strauss and Brahms.   The performance also included some dancing and opera singers.   We headed back to the ship were a late snack was waiting for us and we’ve headed back to our room.  The ship is already moving.  

We’ll be in Germany tomorrow.