We have spent the last 3 days in Vienna, and what an amazing time we have had.
This place is brilliant. It has the elegance of Paris, and is chock full of the classical music culture. Mozart and Strauss are lauded everywhere you go and the city is simply buzzing with concerts and musicians.
We went to see 2 concerts while we were here, one with a large orchestra all dressed in white wigs and 17th century costumes; the other a small chamber orchestra with dancers. Both had opera singers with them and played a variety of music, mostly by Mozart and Strauss. We enjoyed both concerts immensely. I could stay in this place for weeks going to a different concert each night. The quality of the orchestras and musicians are absolutely outstanding.
Last nights concert included a ride in a horse and buggy to the venue from our hotel. The buggys are known here as Fiakers and have a long history. The drivers wear bowler hats and it is all very traditional. We thought it was a bit hilarious to include a buggy ride when the venue for the concert was directly behind our hotel, literally a 30 second walk. Anyway they went around in circles for a while and showed us around the city centre before driving back to where we started so we could get off and go to the concert.
We are staying in the Imperial Hotel, which was originally a palace built for a Duke. He didn't like it and so they converted it to a hotel in the 18th century. It is magnificent and we have certainly enjoyed a drink or 2 (or 3) each night in the opulent piano bar.
We arrived to a bowl of apricots and a free bottle of champagne, which we made use of immediately on arrival, I can tell you.
They also invented the imperial torte here, which is a cake with chocolate. biscuit and almond praline. It is pretty amazing and we had to eat it a couple of times.
Last night Madi texted me because she realised that she was in Vienna at the same time as us. I told her to hot tail it over here and we drank in the piano bar until about 1:00am. It was awesome to catch up; we had no idea our itineraries clashed.
We also went to see Schonbrunn palace, which is almost as impressive as Versailles. It was great to wander around and imagine that Mozart and Salieri had met in those halls. The palace is in great condition, parts of it restored to it's former glory. The gardens are also spectacular.
The Naschmarkt was also worth a visit. There are basically hundreds of restaurants, food vendors, delicatessans, fruiterers, etc. all lined up a main street for at least 1 kilometre. The vendors shout at you as you walk past and give you free samples of their products. It was very lively and pretty awesome.
Oh, and it bears mention that I haven't eaten a vegetable since we left Australia. Meat and potatoes are all you can find on any local restaurant menu. I need veg!
It also bears mention that I almost bought a tuxedo specifically for the concerts we went to in Vienna, but the prospect of lugging it all over Europe for 7 weeks just for 2 nights of concerts compelled me to rethink and take a nice jacket, pants and tie instead. I would have thought evenings of such grandeur would have necessitated formal clothing. Apparently, this is where I am wrong. One guy that was in the group from our hotel wore a hoody and red sneakers. Many people came in T-shirts, jeans, etc. What happened to people getting dressed up to go out to nice evenings? Some of the people looked amazing I must say, although there wasn't one tuxedo to be seen, so I dodged a bullet of embarrassment there!