We have now spent 3 glorious days in Vienna. The city is beautiful with impressive buildings in every street. Our hostess Anna is wonderful and today we have spent a lovely day with the Ratt family exploring the city with them.
The Hofburg treasury today was fascinating and we learnt a lot about the history of Austria. We had no idea that it was once so huge. We felt suitably uplifted after looking at a thorn from Christ's crown, a piece of the cross, the spear used to pierce his side, a piece of his loincloth, a piece of the tablecloth from the last supper and John the Baptist's tooth!
Last night we had a lovely night with Anna and Doris and ended up in the bar of the Sofital looking over Vienna while sipping cocktails. Mary asked the girls how many of their Austrian teachers they have taken out for cocktails!
This afternoon we visited the Prater, a huge ferris wheel in an amusement park. I was thinking that every city has a big wheel now, when I realised that this was the original dating from 1895. The amusement park is very beautiful and not unlike a huge side show. What was refreshing was that there was not a Disney marketing nor any marketing in sight. There were rides from the super scary to miniature versions of the same ride for the littlies. Interspersed among the rides were leafy beer gardens and park lands etc. A beautiful place for a family outing and free of charge to enter and enjoy. You pay for the rides you choose.
Other highlights we saw yesterday were the Butterfly House and the House of Music where we found out about all the famous composers that called Vienna home. The finale was the opportunity to conduct the Vienna Philmarmonic Orchestra virtually. They would slow down if you conducted slowly or speed up if you went faster. Naturally, I (Ray) sucked at conducting until finally the first violin player stopped, stood up and told me I was a disgrace to music which I knew anyway.
The weather is beautiful and very mild for this time of the year evidently - we would almost call it hot! Time to close - going out to dinner with the Walter, Dorli, Anna & Doris in the hills overlooking Vienna where the houses cost more than a million dollars.