Vienna

We have been really looking forward to this stop.  I don’t remember how many times I tried to tie Vienna into one of our European vacations but never could.

We arrived this morning to pouring down rain and a 53 degree Fahrenheit temperature.  It wasn’t pleasant looking at all.  

Our tour left around 9AM and by then it was just chilly and windy but it threatened rain all day.  The skies opened up again in the afternoon but we were back at the ship by then.  The tour was mostly on foot and it was not comfortable with the weather.  We were disappointed but you can’t do anything about it, right?

We had the option of staying in town after the tour and had it been sunny and pleasant we would have done that, had lunch and looked around some more.  We had jackets on but I didn’t have a hat and we could have used light gloves.  I did buy a hat, so there’s my one souvenir for the trip.

Vienna was the center of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and as such has many spectacular buildings and residences.  We got to see a few clearly enough from the bus for some pictures.  Walking around we were just too close to get good shots of these magnificent places, but that’s what happens sometimes.  If we hadn’t been on a tour we would have been able to spend more time at the locations.

On river cruises they include all your tours for the most part.  They are at best introductory.  Since we’ve never been on one we didn’t understand that.  Vienna is one stop I wish we had gone with a private tour on our own.

One surprise along the way was visiting the ‘world famous’ Lipizzaner Stallions’ stable.  We lucked out and they were being taken out of their paddocks and into the training area so we got to see more than just their heads poking out from the stable.  The 2nd picture isn’t a really good of the horse but you can see that they aren’t very tall compared to a quarter horse or race horse.  

We’re trying not to let the bad weather color our opinion of Vienna, it was just bad luck.  We also got bad news about our trip to Salzburg on Sunday.  It’s a holiday, Pentecost Sunday, and the town will be swarming with people on a long weekend.  Traditionally, stores, restaurants and other sights would be closed on a religious holiday but we hope Salzburg is too much of a tourist town to shut down.  We have been there before so it’s less important to us than others.

Tomorrow looks like improving weather as we continue to tour new locations in Austria.