Oct 11, 2019 - Last day

My last day. I hadn’t planned to do much. I took the metro to the centre and wandered down side streets just looking. Just under 10 km today. For anyone who hasn’t taken an underground metro, it’s really quite something compared to what we are used to. At one I walked down a flight of stairs then down an escalator then walked a few feet then down another escalator. The train must be around a city block long comprised of several cars and at certain times jam packed with people, sitting and standing. It’s amazing the amount of people moving...

Oct 10, 2019 - Hop on/off bus

Today I did the hop on/off bus tour. It was $29.00 Euro but totally worth it. I started at about 10 and went until 5. There were 3 different lines and I went on all of them today. I saw so much I can hardly remember what I saw. I really like my hotel here but the wifi is horrible so I can’t post anymore pictures from today. If I remember this correctly about 1/3 of Vienna was bombed during WW2. You can sure tell. Going down streets there are beautiful old structures and next to them plain newer ones. They said in the late 40’s - early 50’s...

Oct 9, 2019 - Schonbrunn Palace

Today I went to Schonbruun Palace. Incredible!! The palace is huge. You can’t take pictures inside. This is where the Habsburg families lived. It is amazing the wealth of this family. They give you a recording to play for yourself in each room explaining what you are seeing. It works well allowing you to go at your own pace. You can just imagine what life must have been like for them. Paintings, tapestries, gold on the walls, riches everywhere! After that I walked around exploring for the rest of the day snacking and of course their...

Oct 8, 2019 - Vienna

I made it to Vienna. I don’t know if I’ll be able to post many pictures here. Only one uploaded onto my iPad. The wifi in the hotel isn’t very good but the hotel is nice. I took a taxi from my hotel in Salzburg to the train station. It was 7 Euro. I thought that was a good deal since my taxi was 15 Euro on the initial trip. Now I see what they mean about rip off taxis lol. When I got to the train station I bought my ticket and the train was leaving in 5 minutes. I made it on time. Yay! The whole trip was just under 3 hours. I asked some...

Oct 7, 2019 - Salzburg

I’m short on photos today. It rained pretty much the whole day so I walked around and spent a lot of time eating and drinking coffee. I had some apple strudel, very good! The red bull photo is from yesterday. I guess it originates in Austria. Our guide yesterday said they are extremely wealthy. Not only do they have their own plane but they also have their own runway. She said a number of years ago they flew in the real Marie VonTrapp in from the US for some special dedication. She was over 90 years old. That is the daughter Marie, not the...

Oct 6, 2019 - The Sound of Music

A great day today. I went on a Sound of Music tour today. There were only 3 of us so it was fantastic. My wifi isn’t cooperating so I couldn’t add more photos but oh my goodness the scenery was absolutely amazing!! I am spoiled with all the beauty I’ve seen in the past couple of weeks. The tour guide did a great job of showing us all the locations filmed in the movie as well as the picturesque village of Hallstatt. On the way back to Salzburg she played some songs from the movie. We were out for almost 8 hours. A perfect day. :) I sure...

Oct 5, 2019 - Travel to Salzburg

Well I made it to Salzburg but what a trip it was lol!! The pictures aren’t the best but they show a bit of the countryside. It started to get overcast and a bit of rain on the way. Tomorrow’s forecast is looking alright but the next day a really good chance of rain. I walked to the train station in Ljubljana and boarded the train. I thought I have 4 hours to sit, relax and enjoy the view. About an hour out of Ljubljana the train stops and the man is telling everyone to get off the train. At least that Was what I thought since I didn’t...

Oct 1, 2019 - A change in plans

I decided to change the plan today. I had been told that it was no problem to get to the train station in Bratislava by 6 am to get to Vienna (1 hour train trip) to catch my 7:58 train to Ljubljana tomorrow morning. It was the one schedule that always concerned me. This morning I decided to come to Vienna today to make a less stressful trip. I am 100% glad I made that decision!! I am at the Star Inn in Vienna, right across from the train station. The lady at the hotel in Bratislava was so nice and only charged me for the one night. I spent...

Sep 22, 2019 - Music and Jewels

We started our day attending High Mass at the Hofburg Chapel of the Imperial Palace where members of the the Vienna Boys Choir and the orchestra and choir of the State Opera perform on Sundays and religious holidays. We had not ordered tickets in advance so we took our chances and stood in line. We did get into the standing room where we could hear, but not see, the choirs and orchestra. No problem as we had come to hear the music. I only lasted about 20 minutes but Judi C almost made it through the whole mass. There were seats and a...

Sep 21, 2019 - Palaces - Schronbrunn and Belvedere

Taking advantage of the last day of our hop-off hop-on package we walk through Burggarten to catch the Blue Route to Schonbrunn Palace, summer residence of the Hapsburgs. First look it is similar to Versailles in France. It is quite large, but not quite as opulent as Versailles, especially the gardens. Arriving at the entrance we are somewhat overwhelmed by the number of tour buses - did not count, but there were many! We had purchased the Sisi package (includes the Schronbrunn Palace, the Sisi Museum (Imperial Apartments, Silver...

Sep 20, 2019 - A Busy Day

Instead of trying to see a performance of the Lipizzans we opted to attend a training session of these famous white horses at the Spanish Riding School where they train. For some reason I thought they would be practicing their routines but it turned out it was the morning exercise of the horses at the Winter Riding School accompanied by classical Viennese music. There were five horses and each rider worked with their horse individually. It was a large, lovely facility and there were hundreds of people joining us. The session went from 10-12...

Sep 19, 2019 - First Day in Vienna

Rather than do our usual hop-off hop-on bus to acquaint ourselves with our current city, we decide to follow Rick Steves suggestion and do the “tram tour”. Rick’s tram tour is riding Tram #2 sitting on the right side around the Ringstrasse! But first we find the Tourist Information Center (a 2 minute walk) to arm ourselves with maps and brochures of Vienna. On the #2 tram, we are following and seeing (mostly) what Rick is suggesting . However, about half way through he lost us at City Hall and then we stopped for about 10 minutes (we think...