As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of the reasons we chose this particular one was the chance to spend two days in Vienna. All of us are musicians of a sort (my friends much more so than I) so this was important to us. We had purposefully not booked any excursions on this day, except for an evening concert. This morning was much better; I got my normal about 5 hours of sleep and woke up as the sun was rising. Pretty spectacular view from my veranda.
Once breakfast was over we headed out to do some walking around Vienna. We actually took an Uber to get to the area we had been in yesterday, because not everyone was up for a longer walk or trying to navigate the metro. Once there, one of our group (having a little back trouble) decided to sit and have a cup of coffee while her husband and I went back to St. Stephen's Cathedral to take a look inside. It was pretty amazing. I have to say that I have little interest in cathedrals from a religious sense - the architecture and embellishments can be just breathtaking. This one didn't disappoint.
Stephansdom is the most important religious building in Vienna. The multi-colored tile roof is over 110 meters long (360+ feet) and is covered by 230,000 glazed tiles. It is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna, Christoph Cardinal Schönborn, OP. The first parish church in this location was consecrated in 1147. The current incarnation stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, and was largely initiated by Duke Rudolf IV (1339–1365).
After the cathedral, I went off exploring a little on my own, although not with enough time to really get to do any tours of the museums and other things to see in the area. That will have to wait until my next trip to Vienna! After that I met back up with my friends and the three of us walked a little more and then went to the Cafe Sacher Wien - the Viennese home of the Sacher Torte. The story goes that in 1832 the court of Prince Metternich of Austria had requested a special dessert be made for a special occasion. The chef was ill at the time, however, and a 16-year old apprentice filled in. The dessert he created, a cake consisting of two layers of a dense chocolate cake with apricot jam between them, coated in dark chocolate icing on the top and sides (and traditionally served with unsweetened whipped cream) is now one of the most famous Viennese specialties. At the Cafe Sachar, these still use Franz Sacher's original recipe.
Of course, I can't eat chocolate (it gives me migraines) but one of our party did try the Sacher Torte, and seemed quite pleased! I had a vanilla and buttercream concoction that was also very pleasing.
After this interlude, we headed back to the ship to regroup, to have dinner and to prepare for our evening concert. We went by bus to a concert hall, and heard The Vienna Residence Orchestra (considered one of the world's best chamber orchestras) play an evening of Mozart and Strauss music. Along with the music, there two dancers and also two singers (a mezzo-soprano and a baritone) who performed with the musicians on some of the pieces. Among the pieces we heard were the overture to Marriage of Figaro, the autumn section of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, a Mozart aria also from Figaro, a movement from a Haydn symphony, the 2nd movement from Mozart's Violin Concerto G major, a duet from Don Giovanni, and then several waltzes and polkas (mostly from Strauss). The performers were all terrific, and it was wonderful to spend a musical evening celebrating music in a city famous for music. A lovely way to end the day.
We cast off at approximately 11:45pm to start the journey to Krems, our next stop.
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