Vienna - 6th July

Last night we docked in Vienna, had an early tea then we were bussed into Central Vienna to the Palais Lichtenstein for a concert by the Vienna Hofburg Orchestra.

Palais Lichtenstein

We had to get dressed up in our finest for this event so that meant digging out my dinner jacket and Ros getting into one of her dresses.

As you can see from the picture, Vienna doesn't do things by halves. The Palais Lichtenstein was formerly the Garden Palace for the Royal Family of Lichtenstein. Inside there were royal carriages from the 18th century, amazing frescoes painted on the ceilings and of course, the orchestra itself.

Royal carriage

The Royal Carriage pictured is just one of 92 carriages Queen Maria Theresa brought with her when arriving for her wedding to Francis Stephen Leopold - Francis I Holy Roman Emperor. Although technically Francis was the ruler, Maria Theresa actually reigned Austria from 1740 till her death in 1780. Her titles included Holy Roman Empress, German Queen, Archduchess of Austria, Queen of Hungary and Croatia, Queen of Bohemia plus two more pages of titles!

Vienna Hofburg Orchestra

Schonbrunn Palace

We were treated with delightful music from Johan Strauss I & II, Mozart, Beethoven and others. We also had some arias performed by the lovely lady pictured here, who had an incredible voice and was backed by that superb orchestra. They played many of my favourites including Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), Strauss Junior's On Der Schonen Blauen Danube (On the Beautiful Blue Danube) and Strauss Senior's boisterous Radetzky March which had the audience clapping along enthusiastically.

Today we were taken to Schonbrunn Palace, as our guide described it, the weekend residence for the Austrian Royal Family as it only had 1441 rooms. The Habsburg Palace in Central Vienna was the main residence and had over 2000 rooms. The name Schonbrunn translates to beautiful springs, referring to the artesian spring that originally was on the site of the palace.

Great Hall - Schonbrunn Palace

Our very knowledgeable guide took us on a tour of just a few of the rooms in the palace and the opulence and decorations of the rooms just has to be seen to be believed. Cameras were not allowed inside the palace, but I managed to find a picture of the Great Hall for you to see. Incredible ceiling frescos and gold inlays galore feature in all the rooms, this room alone used 2 kg of gold for the gold leaf decorations. The chandeliers originally held candles and legend has it you could tell if Maria Theresa was going to hold a long or short party by the length of the candles installed in the chandeliers. When the candles burnt out, the guests were unceremoniously "booted out".

Gardens, Neptune's Fountain & Gloriet

Parliament House

Out the back of the palace are the gardens, highlighted by Neptune's Fountain and the Gloriet up on the hill which commemorated all of Maria Theresa's achievements during her reign. As it so happens this year is the 300th anniversary of her birth so celebrations are large and long. We stopped to have coffee and Vienna's most famous Apple Strudel, which we had to admit was the best we had ever tasted. We had intended to catch the train which takes you around the whole complex, but alas it filled up just as we arrived so we missed out. We instead walked down to Neptune's Fountain but decided not to venture up the hill to the Gloriet because of Ros's knee causing her grief.
Afterwards we toured the city seeing many of the sights but alas to capture them successfully from the bus window proved difficult. I did manage to get this picture of the marvelous Parliament House as we drove by it.

Tonight we depart for Durnstein.