Vienna

Today we have walked, and walked, and walked! We pretty well covered the 1st District (Inner City) of Vienna. I wish I had brought a pedometer! But all the walking was worth it. We started out walking up Mariahilfergasse, the longest street in Vienna. I left my camera battery charger plugged into the wall at our hotel in Salzburg, so our 1st stop was an electronics store to buy a new one. So if anyone ever needs one, I have one with a European plug! Mariahilfergasse is THE shopping street in Vienna. It was fun just looking at all the styles of clothes, beautiful jewelry, etc. There was a street market, too, and you know we had to take a few minutes to look! Stopped at a bank and got more Euros, then finally came to “the ring”.
When we crossed this street, it was like stepping into a different place and time. People dressed in period costumes (don't ask what period, cause I'm not sure, but reminded me of our Revolutionary War period.) Hofburg Palace was the first thing we saw. It is HUGE! I had to take 5 pictures in succession to get it all in. Heroes Square is in front of the Palace. From there, we went into the Lipizzaner Museum and then to the stables to see the horses. Quite impressive! Next was the Dorotheum that I told you about yesterday. I have to be honest and say this is not my idea of a flea market/pawn shop!! It was just down the street from Sotheby's if that tells you anything! I looked at a beautiful bowl and the price was 1900 Euros (about $2500). After that I quit looking at prices and just enjoyed browsing. Maybe this is one of the places that the high end American antique shops come to buy??? Fun to look, anyway.
Next stop was St. Stephen's Cathedral. They are in the process of cleaning the exterior, so scaffolding was around part of it, but it is an absolutely beautiful church, and, again, HUGE!! The pipes of the organ are probably 2 stories or more high. There is a cathedral across from our hotel. When we first arrived, we thought it was St. Stephen's because it is large and beautiful. You could probably put 10-20 of that one into St. Stephen's. As we walked away from St. Stephen's, we saw a crowd of people in the square looking down into something. We walked up and looked down into a cobblestone staircase and cobblestone street that kind of made a circle as it went down. We eavesdropped on the tour guide, and learned that this was part of the old city of Vienna. At some point, and not sure what the reason was, they built a new city above the old one. I,ll have to do some research on that because the new one is plenty old. Can't imagine how old the “old” one is!
We had to be back at the hotel for our tour at 3 pm, so we started walking back that way. We passed the State Opera House (not too impressive, in comparison to everything else we'd seen), then I spotted the Sacher (pronounced “socker” in Austria) Hotel. This is the ONLY place you can get the ORIGINAL Sacher Torte. The story is interesting...supposedly, the Emperor of Austria in the 1600's had his personal chef come up with the recipe. The chef later left the royal family, and opened his own cafe'. He began serving Sacher Torte, and the Emperor didn't like it one little bit. So the Emperor sued the chef. The law suit continued until about 1992!! (I'll have to ask one of our attorney friends if this is the longest law suit in history! :0) Anyway, a deal was cut, and the chef's descendants (and many others) were able to continue making and selling Sacher Torte, BUT, the Sacher Hotel is the only place that it can be called the “ORIGINAL” Sacher Torte. We didn't have time to stop to sample it, but our tour guide in Milan (who told us this story) told us that she had thought about becoming a pastry chef, and had sampled many Sacher Tortes, and she thought the “original” was a tad better because it is more moist than others.
We were so tired, we caught the metro back to our hotel, freshened up, and left for the Vienna Boy's Choir performance at 3 pm. It began at 4 and was over at 5:45. We “dressed up” a little for this, but believe me, it wasn't necessary. I think you would only need to “dress” if you were attending a night performance of the opera or something similar. The Musikverein, where the concert was held, was not overly impressive from the outside, but the inside was very beautiful. It is not an enormous hall, so our seats were very good. The only thing that kind of ruined it was that the place was hot as hades!! Everyone was pretty miserable that was sitting around us. I got up at intermission...just had to go outside to get some cool air. This is where the Griswold's enter. When I tried to go back in, they had locked the door. I thought, 'This must be a little bit like Wayne felt standing outside the train! I knocked on the door, and a lady let me back in, but I had to show her my ticket. Guess where the tickets were...in Wayne's pocket. Thank goodness I had a program, and she let me in, but she didn't seem too pleased with me. It did me no good to go out to cool off, because by this time I'm sweating again. I quickly went up the staircase before she changed her mind. The dang stairs just kept going and going and going! I thought it seemed a lot higher than when we first went in, but I figured I was just tired from the heat. When I FINALLY got to the top, I was in a box seat with people who had definitely NOT arrived with a tour group!! Sweat was literally dripping off my face, running down my back (and several other places), and I thought I was going to faint!! Going back DOWN was even bad! My legs were shaking and I thought I was going to collapse on the staircase! I had to go all the way back to the foyer, and ask “Miss Personality” how to get to my seat. She wanted to see my ticket!! OMG!! When I explained that I was with a tour group, she pointed to another staircase. At that point, I'm praying that Wayne had started to worry, and would come DOWN the stairs looking for me! Didn't happen. So I held onto the banister and pulled myself up, stopping on each step to catch my breath. The black velveteen scarf that felt so nice and warm when I left the hotel, has now been removed. When I made it to the first landing, I went in the restroom (toilette, over here) and, after splashing my face with cool water, removed the silk long-johns. Thank God they fit in my purse! The knee-hi's came off next. Now, I think I'm ready to climb the rest of Mt. Everest. I made it to the right level (mezzanine maybe??), but had to wait to enter between numbers. My legs were shaking so bad I didn't think I'd be able to stand much longer. I finally made it to my seat and collapsed. My legs shook for the rest of the performance. I'd have paid 20 Euros for just 1 cold coke with lots of ice (they don't serve ice unless you ask for it and bottled/canned drinks are lukewarm, yuck)!! I dozed off shortly after that, but Wayne told me later that I wasn't the only one. When it was over, I said 3 words, “Find a taxi!” Oh, I almost forgot to tell you that the Vienna Boy's Choir (and the Vienna Symphony-they did part of the program) was wonderful!
We went to the hotel restaurant for dinner, and, as last night, it was delicious! I did get a slice of “non-original” Sacher Torte for dessert, with whipped cream and strawberries! It was wonderfully rich, but I didn't care. I deserved it!!
We've seen strawberries everywhere in Europe, and they are really good and sweet. I've been forgetting to tell you that if you ever come to Europe and you or your children can't do without McDonald's, either bring it with you or plan to pay the price. One burger/fries/drink combo will set you back about 14 Euros...around $20!!! They also have plenty of Burger Kings and today we saw a KFC, but haven't been in to check the prices.
We are off to Budapest, Hungary tomorrow. We leave at 11:50 am, and it is a 3 hour ride. Only 2 more days before I meet my family!! See you in Hungary. Love you all.