Vienna Waits for You

A little late, but here it is. A recap of our day (Wednesday, 7/22) in Vienna:

Our first day in Austria was a good one. When this trip was formulating back in November, the only request I had was to visit Vienna. So, as you can imagine, this was the day I was looking forward to the most.
As per usual, we hopped on a bus and had a quick guided tour of the most interesting parts of the city. Our witty guide, Rainer, did a great job highlighting the most important details of Viennese architecture of all the old buildings. Although I can't speak for Papa, I was grateful to have a little bit of insight. I've always heard Vienna is beautiful, but until you go yourself, you can't imagine that one city can have that many beautiful buildings. We rode around the "Ring" (really Ringstrasse: a famous street that makes a ring around the old, important parts of town) passing things like the City Park (Stadt Park), Beethoven's monument, the Opera House, Mozart's monument, the Museum Quarter, Parliament, and City Hall to name a few.
Finally, we got off the bus in front of the legendary St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom). We've seen lots of old, beautiful churches on this trip, but St. Stephen's was a step above the rest in size, and architecture.
From St. Stephen's we walked around the corner to Mozarthaus, Mozart's most exquisite apartment in Vienna, where he lived for only a few years (he liked nice things and gambling, so after a while, he could not afford it anymore). This apartment is also reffered to as the Figaro House, because he composed the "Marriage of Figaro" here. We took a look inside, and of course I stopped at the gift shop. I found a nice sweatshirt that would also look nice on a 60-year-old (no offence, 60-year-old readers), but when have I really been that worried about my fashion? All joking aside, it is a nice sweatshirt that I plan to wear proudly around OU in the fall.
Our guided tour came to an end as Rainer led us to Graben, a popular pedestrian street in the old town. Lined with expensive shops and some old churches, Graben took us to our next destination, Demel. It was so crowded that we shared a table with a Swedish couple while we enjoyed some Viennese treats. We even chatted with an Australian couple who had been to Pittsburgh.
Now that we were free to roam, we began our walk around the city, starting with Hofburg Imperial Palace, winter residence of the Habsburg family (a name we've been hearing an awful lot about these days). The castle is open for tours, but there are other buildings on this complex, like the Imperial Library, and one building is the home of the Austrian President. Interestingly, Marie Antoinette was born here, and in 1938, Adolf Hitler announced from a Hofburg balcony that Austria was under the rule of the German Reich. We walked through the huge complex which led us straight back to the Ring.
I dragged Papa to Mozart and Beethoven's monuments, and made him take my picture with them both. We even stumbled across the Steinwayhaus, but didn't go in because it was closed for lunch (many businesses were). Next, had an upclose look at the Opera House. At Tom Dunlap's suggestion, we had planned to see a performance after dinner, but unfortunately the Opera is not in session in July and August.
Even in the classical music capital of the world, I couldn't help but be reminded of the Billy Joel song, "Vienna" as Papa and I walked down the tree lined sidewalk along the Ring. Although Vienna is not an overly crowded city, strolling in the shade alongside the City Park was a nice change from the crazy tourist hot-spots like St. Stephen's, Mozarthaus, and Graben.
As the song says, we "crazy children" had the chance to "slow down for a while" when we found a nice cafe inside the City Park, not far from Johann Strauss's highly-photographed monument (which we photographed as well).
As with most of our Austrian escapades, the sun was blazing in Vienna. While Papa was waiting for his Wiener Schnitzel, he had the grand idea to take his shoes off and massage his feet in the smooth, cool pebbles under our table. I don't know if it was the pebbles or the schnitzel, but after lunch, Papa was ready to go. We finished our loop around the Rinstrasse and headed back toward St. Stephen's for some window shopping.
I'm usually pretty good with a map, even a German map, but I will admit I was a little confused as we continued to walk along the Ring. Everywhere we went, I saw signs pointing toward "Einhaun." With every turn we made, I was fairly certain that I had a feeling of where we were in relation to where we had been, (as well as where we were going) but the mysterious "Einhaun" signs were not corresponding with where I thought it should be; not to mention, there were far more signs pointing toward Einhaun than there were St. Stephen's, which is the most sought after attraction in Vienna. Finally, I realized that Einhaun wasn't a mysterious destination, but simply German for "one way." My only dumb blonde moment of the whole trip.
In the late afternoon, we caught a cab (a Mazda, no less) back to the ship to get cleaned up for dinner. We decided to go with the rest of the ship to a concert when we realized that the Opera wasn't an option. We, along with a few other River Cruises, went back to City Park for a concert featuring Strauss and Mozart. Of course, the music was beautiful (even though I am not the world's greatest Strauss fan..); we were in Vienna.
One last ride around the Ring took us back to our ship. Even at 10pm on a Wednesday night, the "beaches" were packed. By beaches, I mean the places along the Danube Canal where the Viennese can relax and play in sand brought in from the Mediterranean. We also got a nice night time glance at the Great Ferris Wheel, which was beautifully lit.
Needless to say, we were pretty tired by the time we got back to our ship. Again, I can't speak for Papa, but I have a feeling he will agree with me when I say it was a day we won't soon forget.