Viking European Sojourn River Cruise Day 16/27 - Vienna, Austria
It appears that yesterday's repairs worked as planned as this morning, we awoke in Vienna. Well, we assumed we were in Vienna. Here was the view from our water-level window.
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| Here I am, looking into a room on the Viking Ingvi - we were docked next to them in Vienna |
This morning's tour was the included tour - Panoramic Vienna. It was a 3.5-hour combination bus and walking tour.
Let's chat for a minute about the internet. Viking has finally implemented Starlink. This has improved the quality of the internet on the ship...to a point. There are still major slowdowns, and no, they aren't because we're going next to a mountain or anything like that. Still, it is lightyears better than it was but still needs some improvement.
On to the bus portion of the tour.
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| St. Francis of Assisi Church |
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| Tegetthoff Statue |
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| This is a public pool in a side arm of the Danube - it is located on a barge |
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| Palais Wertheim |
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| St. Charles's Church |
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| Secession - an exhibition space for contemporary art |
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| Vienna State Opera |
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| Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien |
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| Statue of Mozart |
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| Maria-Theresien-Platz |
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| Austrian Parliament |
We arrived in the center of town and headed off for the walking portion of the tour.
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| Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien |
We headed to the castle.
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| Outer Castle Gate |
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| Hofburg Palace |
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| Vienna City Hall |
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| Archduke Karl - Equestrian Statue |
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| Archduke Karl - Equestrian Statue with the City Hall in the distance |
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| Prince Eugene - Equestrian Statue |
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| Hofburg Palace |
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| Emperor Franz I statue |
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| Hofburg Palace |
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| Swiss gate at Hofburg Palace - it used to have a drawbridge |
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| The other side of the Swiss Gate |
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| More of the Hofburg Palace |
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| The chapel in the palace |
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| The palace complex was enormous |
We walked between the performance arena and stables where the Lipizzaner Stallions are housed.
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| St. Peter's Catholic Church |
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| Another plague column memorializing those lost to the plague |
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| St. Stephen's Cathedral |
We were given some free time to explore. we walked around several blocks, window shopping and looking at the amazing architecture.
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| Hotel Sacher - home of the famous Sachertorte |
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| Former office of the Riunione Adriatica di Sicurtà |
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| Memorial Against War & Fascism |
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| Neptune Fountain, Albertina Museum Palace |
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| This looked like a fun way to tour Vienna |
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| Capuchin Church |
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| The Donnerbrunnen fountain |
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| Pension Neuer Markt |
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| Back at St. Stephen's |
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| Georg-Emmerling-Hof - a municipal building |
We boarded our bus for the ride back to the port.
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| Viennese Giant Ferris Wheel - built in 1897, it is the oldest Ferris Wheel in operation |
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| DC Tower 1 - the tallest building in Vienna |
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| The lighthouse on the Danube Island |
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| Danube Tower |
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| Those curls on the left are part of a multi-story clear slide - wow! |
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| This is how you clean the water side of the ship when docked - you use another boat |
After eating lunch, we headed up to the Sun Deck to look at the sights and enjoy the weather. Arlona read her Kindle and I worked on this blog. And then...the skies opened. We rode out the weather under the covers on the Sun Deck until the winds shifted and the covers meant nothing, the rain was coming sideways. And...there was lightning.
All was good until the wind shifted and the rain came straight at the starboard side of the ship, flooding the centrum. The crew was mopping, squeegeeing, and sopping up water with towels as fast as they could.
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| The local swans didn't seem to care about the weather |
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| The ran came in waves - at one point, we could not see the buildings across the Danube |
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| The water mitigation team - they did everything they could |
Eventually, the rains subsided. Daniel, the General Manager, said that he was excited about the rain as it should mean that river levels should be good for the remainder of the cruise. That's a great thing.
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| The views after the rain were nice |
We were both tired, even though it wasn't too taxing of a day. we headed back to the room for an early evening. Tomorrow, we'll visit Melk, Austria, and make a visit to the Abbey in Melk,
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