November 30: Vienna, Austria

We went through another lock overnight, and most of us woke up briefly before going back to sleep.

Breakfast this morning was from 7:30 to 9:30 am, and the tours left at 9:30 am. The Danube River in Vienna used to flood frequently, so they built a dam, and the section of the river near the city is no longer deep or wide enough for river cruise ships. Because of that, we docked about 2.5 miles away, and the ship ran shuttle buses back and forth to the city throughout the day.

I had visited Vienna on my last cruise, but I had not done a city tour then, so this time I stayed with the group for the full tour.

Today’s Information from Vienna

Population and Housing

• 40 percent of the people live in subsidized housing.

Historic and Cultural Notes

• Vienna has the oldest ferris wheel still in operation, built in 1897.

• The New Year’s concert is so popular that tickets must be purchased years in advance.

• Empress Sisi (Elizabeth) was very beloved, and there is a Netflix series about her titled The Empress.

Palace History

• Our guide pointed out the balcony where Austria’s annexation into Germany was announced. Most Austrians supported the annexation at the time, and Hitler was born in Austria.

• The balcony has been closed ever since so that no one can attempt to recreate that moment. Any expression of support for Nazis results in immediate jail time.

Austria After World War II

• The last Soviets left Austria in 1955. According to the story, the Austrian leader outdrank the Russian leader during negotiations in Moscow and persuaded him to agree to the withdrawal.

Austrian Empire Facts

• The Austrian Empire expanded primarily through marriage rather than war.

• Scenes from the movie The Third Man were filmed here.

Lipizzaner Horses

• The history of the Lipizzaner horses date back over 450 years, and the same line of horses have trained and lived here since.

• They live here for years during their training, and if a horse does not make it as a show horse, it becomes a carriage horse.

Ancient History

• There are ruins of Roman buildings from the early first century.

After the tour information, we continued on our route. Alyx had tickets for the 11 am show to see the Lippizaner horses, so she stayed with the group until we were almost at the arena, and then she went inside. Sister Cindy and I stayed with the rest of the group.

The tour ended at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. People could wander around for about an hour and then take the shuttle bus back to the ship, or stay longer and catch the 3 pm or 5 pm shuttle, or take a cab or Bolt back to the ship. Sister Cindy and I walked around a little and then headed back toward the area where Alyx would finish.

We asked Cindy if she had been in a cathedral before, and she said she had been in a big one in Albany. I wish we had been videoing her reaction when she stepped inside, she was just blown away, almost in tears at how beautiful and huge it is. 

Alyx had a map of the markets, and we walked around to quite a few of them. Somehow our path was a little confused because we walked through and past some of them a few times. The last one we visited was at the Rathaus (Town Hall). Definitely an iconic market, with lots of unique things to see and do. They had a large ice skating area – a full fenced off path through part of the park. They also had a small area for the young kids to skate, and they had skates that had two parallel blades on the bottom and could be put on over the kids’ boots. So clever! 

We had our fill of hot drinks (mulled wine, hot chocolate, and hot apple drinks) and food, and then got a cab back to the ship. I was going to use Bolt, which was just under 30 Euros, but it was eight minutes away and we did not want to wait, so we took a cab instead. We probably should have waited, because the cab ended up being almost 50 Euros.

Tonight there was a gala dinner. They always schedule it for the second-to-last night because many people have early flights on disembarkation morning. It was a fixed menu with some interesting choices, and everyone had to be there at 7 pm because they were serving everyone at the same time.

Another reason for the fixed dining time was that at 9 pm they had scheduled a quartet to come onboard and perform a classical music concert. The Ars Mundi String Quartet had three violinists and one cello player. It was absolutely beautiful, and it felt like a real treat to have musicians of that level performing on the ship. Alyx told us that to get into the Vienna Philharmonic, you first have to play with the Vienna State Opera for years before you can even audition. Vienna is the place where classical musicians from around the world come to perform.

The all aboard time was 9:45 pm. Tonight we will pass back through the two locks before arriving in Budapest tomorrow early afternoon. We were scheduled to go through the first lock around 11 pm, so Alyx decided to wait up and watch it... and she ended up doing it while floating alone in the hot tub on the top deck!