Vienna - Monday, July 21

We arrived in Vienna — an amazing city.  A bus tour took us around the remarkable Ringstrasse, lined with palaces and grand residences.

  

After a walking tour, John and I explored on our own, and had lunch at an outdoor cafe.  I ordered a specialty coffee (they only had espressos) and dessert — turned out to be 3 delicious desserts.   John had a full meal with salad, pork, stuffed potato dumplings (very good), cabbage.  

We went to the Mozart House — with interesting displays in one of Mozart's residences.  He became quite popular during his day, and earned lots of money.  But he was a gambler, too, and more than once had to beg his uncle for money.

One of the best museums we've been in, though, was the House of Music.  The first floor was all about the Vienna Symphony, and history of music in that city.  The second floor was about sound -- how it is transferred, -- the physics of it.  Very interactive.   The top floor was about the 1800s and about the various famous composers, each with a room about their lives.  I wished we had had more time, as we rushed through the top floor in order to catch a subway back to our ship.

   

Subway was easy to navigate.  We paid 2.10 Euro for a one-way ticket, but nobody collected them — it’s all on the honor system.  Amazing!

After dinner, I went on the optional excursion (meaning I paid extra) to attend a concert.  It was in a smaller concert hall than I expected, and very crowded but it was a wonderful evening.  Eleven musicians, including the leader who played a Stradivarius, plus oboe, flute, clarinet, percussion, 4 violin or violas, bass, piano.  There were also two ballet dancers (limited space to dance) and a soprano and tenor singer.  They gave everyone champagne during intermission.  I tried to imagine what it would have been like to have been sitting in a parlor or concert hall listening to original compositions of those early composers.  What a treat!   When we got back to ship, they had goulash soup ready for us, but I was still full from dinner, so missed that part of the evening.