Today we explored Vienna. The City of Music! The City of Dreams!
We started out our day with a bus ride around Vienna. The
bus took us through the city center and we had some free time to explore the
financial district. There's a surprising amount of high end shops out here. Most of everything is closed in Vienna on Sundays because of
some law or regulation. The city literally shuts down, including the Christmas market,
and all that’s open are restaurants and souvenir shops. Somehow these establishments
get around this regulation. The gift shops that were up and running had signs
on some displays saying that customers aren’t allowed to purchase that particular
item on Sunday. Somehow that allows them to operate on this odd shut down day.
I did a google search trying to find out why stores have to close on Sunday but
all that came back were suggestions of things to do on Sunday’s when everything
is closed... Thanks Google.
After our bus tour we went back for lunch then back out
again to the Schönbrunn Palace, the home of Hazburg royalty. This palace has over
a thousand rooms and it was huge! We were shuffled through a few of the rooms,
including a few Chinese themed rooms, Napoleon Bonaparte' bedroom and Marie Antoinette’s room. It reminded me a lot of
the Hermitage in Russia. No pictures were allowed.
Our last excursion was a Mozart and Strauss concert at an
opera house by a small chamber ensemble. This has been my favorite part of the
trip so far. Their act included a little humor and crowd interaction. This is
something everyone has to experience at least once in their life. I wasn’t too
sure about going to this one because it ended so late but I’m glad I went.
We got back super late and the kitchen staff had gulaschsuppe
as a snack waiting for us. God forbid we go hungry on this trip! I really
wanted to go to bed but I had to have a bowl and it was so worth it!
Today was an amazing day! We have an early day tomorrow.
Vienna is a beautiful city.
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