The weather in Vienna is cold, windy and overcast/raining. This made the morning trip to see Vienna problematic. We started off with a bus tour of Old Vienna. Since Vienna was the seat of the Hapsburg Dynasty, it ruled for centuries up until the end of WWI when it was dismembered under the League of Nations.
In the second half of the nineteenth century the old city walls were torn down and the Ringstrasse was built and a broad wide circle of streets around the old central core of Vienna. It was originally constructed in the thirteenth-century using the ransom of Richard the Lionhearted who was captured near Vienna. It was later strengthened and featured in the Siege of Vienna.
With the Ringstrasse, came many of the huge buildings erected by the Hapsburgs, both government buildings and private residences. See Kate’s pictures for many of them.
We decamped from the bus and walked a few blocks up the street to St Stephens Cathedral. We ducked inside (see cold, rainy, windy comment above) only to find the end of Palm Sunday Mass. There was a huge crown of tourists in the back.
We walked along the street, stopping at a couple of souvenir shops, since it was Sunday all of the other stores were closed since Austria is nominally a Catholic country. We rode the bus back to the piers and retired to warm up and take a nap.
This afternoon there will be a lecture in the lounge about Vienna, and a look forward to tomorrows stop, Melk.
After that dinner will be served and we can relax until we get underway about 23:30. I’m not sure how successful it will be, but I plan to try to call in to the family call. It should be (assuming iPhone has figured out the time) about 01:30am tomorrow morning.