Our holiday is winding down now. This morning we come to our final resting place; when the boat, Kadlin, moves again on Sunday there will be others in our cabin.
However we have two full days in Vienna before then, so it’s not time to stop yet. We have some history with this magnificent city going back almost a quarter of a century, but that doesn’t mean we are taking it easy.
We start by walking in to the city, it’s about 3.5 miles from where the boat is moored, as the Danube doesn’t really flow through the centre of the city. This is only half a statement, it’s complicated – the original Roman town was built on the banks of the what is now called the Danube Canal, which is closer into the current centre, but aged rivers go where they want to and this one wanted to make it’s own path.
Our walk takes us through pleasant suburbia, and as we slowly approach the centre the buildings get more and more grand. We first detour to Peterkirk (St Peter’s Church) which is billed as the best example of a baroque church, it is undoubtedly beautiful.
We bump into Viking’s Programme Director Mishi and have a chat about a few things, then wander on to our first appointment of the day, at the world famous Spanish Riding School. Everyone knows these wonderful white horses that perform precision movements and jumps, they are a breed called Lipizzaner, named after the town they first came from.
If you’re as old as us, you will also remember the iconic TV series called The White Horses from the mid sixties with awful dubbing and the wonderful theme music sung by Jacky? Well, Google it if you don’t! We look at the automated walker, then have a look around the stables, where a few youngsters are still living, and in the yard we see and photograph some mares. The majority are on summer vacation at the beautiful stud away from the searing heat of the city. We also look at the performance arena complete with elegant chandeliers.
We head north enjoying the many incredible public buildings, from the natural history museum to the Parliament building, the national theatre, the Rathaus (town hall) and suddenly the heavens open. As there’s a film festival and food court at the Rathaus we decided to stop, and enjoy duck on rice and prawns on noodles at an outrageous price.
Moving on we visit the Votivekirche which is a glorious neo-gothic example with fabulous stained glass. It has been brought right into C21 with a son-et-luminaire installation, not that we can fit this in, it could be quite fascinating another time.
Our walk back has to check out our second engagement, but we go via the Opera House, just because we can. Then we recce the Wiener Opernsommer where we will return later. We check the way in and the general lay of the land. We plan to find a suitable dinner option, but it turns out every restaurant we like is already booked for the earlier sittings.
On our return to the boat we pass the wonderful ferris wheel Wiener Riesenrad which is such an icon for Vienna. Back onboard we grab cookies because we haven’t eaten enough, do Spanish and get ready for our evening.
By this time we’ve worked out we can take early dinner onboard and still get to the opera on time. We have a good meal with fellow travellers Tom and Matt, skip pudding, walk 4km and are in our seats with a bottle of wine and time to spare.
La Traviata is fabulous – wonderful singers, a great set and excellent orchestra. The weather doesn’t disappoint and we are thrilled with the whole evening. There is an excellent system for getting subtitles on our phones.
As often happens, we need late-night chocolate and finding it turns out to be a nightmare. Touristy shops only sell stupid extravagant frippery. We find a vending-only store but the one machine with chocolate has gone wrong. Then in the bus station another machine refuses to take our money! Losing the battle we are almost home when we spot the first, and only, convenience store and finally bag some Snickers. Infuriating for me they don’t have a weight unless I’m missing something?
