Vienna – vibrant, cultural, historical; a rich tapestry of music, dance, art, composers and fine architecture. A few of its former residents include Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Freud and Einstein.
We arrived at 6.30pm, found our ‘pension’, dumped our bags and set out to explore the city. We discovered that we were situated right in the heart of the best part of the city, near the Opera house. We walked down a plaza that was teeming with people which surprised us as it was 7pm on a Sunday night. We ended up at St Stephens cathedral and caught the end of Mass which was very special.
The next day, as we only had a day and a half to explore this wonderful city, we decided for the first time to do a couple of tours. The first was a historical city tour in the morning that covered important sites around 
the city and the summer palace. Magnificent – especially the grand ballroom where you could just imagine the Viennese waltz being danced. I guess a quick time step (tap) wouldn’t really cut it!
The afternoon tour included a little more of the city, a lovely cruise on the Danube and a drive around the Vienna woods area including a lovely wine village called Grinsing. 
Marie Smith and Margaret Heslin – I was thinking of you both as we were floating down the Danube! I restrained myself from impersonating Julie Andrews in the hills with a rendition of “The hills are alive…”, b
ut every now and then I would break out into one of the tunes from The Sound of Music!
With 9 minutes to spare after our tour, we went directly to the opera house to attempt to get ‘standing’ tickets for the nights performance. We got tickets (3 euro each) but we couldn’t see a thing. We enjoyed the atmosphere and the orchestra for about 45mins, then left to explore the rest of this most beautiful building without another soul around. It 
was another perfect photo opportunity.
The food has been delicious and well-priced. Schnitzel and apple studel are some of the ‘must tries’ while in Vienna and they haven’t let us down. I’m not sure that the energy output is balancing the input, speaking for myself, I think I’m definitely coming home a few kilos heavier!
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