We woke to a lovely sunny day. We are in Vienna! After a hotel breakfast on coffee and croissants we left in a group of 15 to catch the underground to St Stephens Platz. There we attended the Mass at St Stephens Cathedral with the 42 person choir singing in Latin. It was a unusual church - a Gothic church with later Baroque additions, it had some large white modern sails hanging all around the altar, presumably for acoustic purposes. There was a priest celebrating the Mass, with one assistant priest. Lots of incense, the priest chanted the normally spoken Eucharistic prayer.
After Mass we went along the main pedestrian street towards town. The city was full of thousands of football supporters dressed in Spanish or Italian colours for the forthcoming match at night. Great whistle blowing, singing, chanting and processing. Police teams were at every corner.
We had lunch at a Cade with lovely big umbrellas under which we could all sit. Lunch in France, Germany and Austria is not our usual light snack of a panini or similar but a full course main. There is no such thing as free water on the table, you have to pay for everything! At tourist prices!
After lunch we all went our separate ways. The temperature was 28 degrees and climbing. It was busy atmosphere, and many of the shops had opened in the afternoon especially because the soccer fans were on town. So it was much busier than usual. We caught the underground unit back to the hotel mid- afternoon to have a rest and change into our best gear - which for campers with limited luggage capacity was not high society garb! Together with Maureen and Glenn, Fred, George, and Monique we caught the underground again and went to dinner at the Johann Strauss Restaurant. It was a lovely three course meal; white asparagus soup or beef broth, salmon or steak, and a desert.
Then we all crossed the road to the concert hall for a concert of Strauss and Mozart music. There were galloping gallops, prancing polkas, many waltzes and a selection of arias by Mozart and dancing to Strauss music. It was performed by at 13 person orchestra, and was a very pleasant, enjoyable concert. Afterwards we caught the two subway lines back to our hotel and wrote up the days instructions for tomorrow. It was well past our usual bedtime when we went to bed at 11pm.
After Mass we went along the main pedestrian street towards town. The city was full of thousands of football supporters dressed in Spanish or Italian colours for the forthcoming match at night. Great whistle blowing, singing, chanting and processing. Police teams were at every corner.
We had lunch at a Cade with lovely big umbrellas under which we could all sit. Lunch in France, Germany and Austria is not our usual light snack of a panini or similar but a full course main. There is no such thing as free water on the table, you have to pay for everything! At tourist prices!
After lunch we all went our separate ways. The temperature was 28 degrees and climbing. It was busy atmosphere, and many of the shops had opened in the afternoon especially because the soccer fans were on town. So it was much busier than usual. We caught the underground unit back to the hotel mid- afternoon to have a rest and change into our best gear - which for campers with limited luggage capacity was not high society garb! Together with Maureen and Glenn, Fred, George, and Monique we caught the underground again and went to dinner at the Johann Strauss Restaurant. It was a lovely three course meal; white asparagus soup or beef broth, salmon or steak, and a desert.
Then we all crossed the road to the concert hall for a concert of Strauss and Mozart music. There were galloping gallops, prancing polkas, many waltzes and a selection of arias by Mozart and dancing to Strauss music. It was performed by at 13 person orchestra, and was a very pleasant, enjoyable concert. Afterwards we caught the two subway lines back to our hotel and wrote up the days instructions for tomorrow. It was well past our usual bedtime when we went to bed at 11pm.
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