Vienna - Part 2

October 15, 2021

We left off Tuesday afternoon on our way to a concert in St. Anne's Church. It was a lovely quartet playing selections from Haydn, Schubert and Mozart. We sat in the front row on the most uncomfortable pews ever built! They were only about 10 inches deep - no way to fall asleep during a sermon - the kneeling bench was fixed, i.e., we could not move it out of the way. We were all sort of perched on the seat with feet on the kneeler. Ugh.

The musicians were talented and expressive! The acoustics were wonderful and we all fully enjoyed the concert. It was a treat to hear such a concert in Vienna.

On Wednesday we went for a hike in the Vienna Woods. We took a street car to the U-bahn (subway) and then finally a bus. It was a lovely hike with some interesting discoveries along the way...

There were fields of reeds in a marsh - and my cute honey!

Signs of beaver activity were everywhere -

We happened upon this marker stating Napoleon headquartered here in 1809 in preparation for the battle of Aspern-Essling.

As we strolled along the Danube this signage "FKK" let us know that in this part of the shore bathing suits are optional. Happily no one was sunbathing on this brisk Fall day! We had a long discussion about whether we should get naked to take a picture - using our umbrella to cover ourselves. We decided it would be funny but a bit cold. Next time perhaps. LOL

This seems to be a working telephone or greenhouse - not sure which!?!?!?

After our day trip to Bratislava on Thursday (see earlier post) we spent one last day in Vienna seeing the last few things and doing some shopping.

We finally managed to see the inside of Votiv Church. It was quite beautiful.

This is the back side of St. Stephen's Cathedral. The double headed eagle represents the historic Austria-Hungary Empire.

We then went to see Mozart House - this was a typical bed that he would had in his house, presumably for one of his children.

This is the complete works of Mozart - rather like the old Encyclopedia.

This is the apartment house - he lived on the first floor (one flight up - they count the ground floor as zero) for three years. This was the nicest place he lived. His time in this apartment was supposedly his most productive, he wrote The Marriage of Figaro while living there.

One of the most famous things to eat in Vienna is a Sacher Cake. This cake was created by the 16-year old Franz Sacher as an apprentice in 1832 - the chef was ill on an day when the Prince and his entourage were coming to eat. Since then many have enjoyed the same recipe. Here we enjoyed the cake with coffee.

Falk found a store that sold only CHEESE.

You would think that this is an important building in Vienna but no ... this is just part of the scenery. Everywhere you look you see architectural treats!