Vienna

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 One stop that we were pretty excited for was Vienna. We had heard so much about this city. We knew that we were in for a very busy day, and we were right. 

We were off on the buses right after breakfast.  Our driver and our guide started the tour by taking us around Ringstrasse - the 5 km long ring road that circles around the city centre of Vienna. The road was built along the former city fortifications.  Along this route we saw many of the major sights that we would come back to visit later.  By the end of the bus portion of the tour, I was already beginning to feel overwhelmed with the volume of information and things to see.

After making a full circle around Ringstrasse, it was time to get off the bus and walk into the historic city centre along with our guide.  She walked us along the streets, pointing out many points of interest as we went.  Most of the places we saw became a blur for me and I relied on the memories of son#1 and son#2 to help remember what was what.

These are just some of the highlights we saw:

St. Stephen's Cathedral (dating back to the 1100s)



 

 

The Parliment Building


City Hall (Getting ready for the Christmas Markets)


The Hofberg Palace (the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty)



Excavation of a Roman Settlement


Museums of  Natural History and Art



These are just some of the points of interest we saw in Vienna.  By the time we got back to the boat we were on information overload.  After dinner, many of the guests went to a Concert of the music of Mozart.  We were happy to have some time to decompress.

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