Jeanne and I went down for breakfast at our usual 7 am time. Sharon and Kris were able to sleep in a tiny bit. Jeanne and I joined them when they went down. We had a chance to say good-bye to a few people. At least we could say good-bye to Jana.
At 9:30 am we headed out to the Spanish Riding School to see the morning practice session with music of the Lipizzaner horses.
We had perfect seats. Unfortunately, once the horses came out we were not allowed to take any pictures. It was cool watching the horses do different gait patterns in the first half. In the second half they had younger horses which were just learning. That was less interesting. I had not realized that these horses only turn white after 6-10 years. It takes years for them to learn the patterns.
After watching the practices session we walked to the Leopold Art Museum in the Museum Quarter.
We started on the 3rd floor to see the Egon Schiele paintings then went to the 4th floor to see the Klimt paintings.
Egon Schiele
It was interesting that they had a few paintings in the gallery that someone had attached a piece of wood and a hand to make it look like someone was holding a banner. Beside it was some article about interpretations. Looked like political statements.
Another interesting thing I had to ask about. We saw these numbered orange dog prints on the floor in front of certain paintings. Apparently, it is for docents who are taking children around. These are the paintings they talk about.
Some of Klimt's early work. His style certainly changed.
After the 4th floor and the gift shop we headed out to find some lunch. Rick Steves had recommended Halle so we headed there.
It was a fig, feta, walnut, and spinach pizza. It was very good. And of course we had some Gruner Veltliner wine.
People were really enjoying these crazy benches.
We decided to follow the Rick Steves guide for riding the Ringstrasse on the tram. It goes in a big circle around Old Town. We took the tram to the Opera stop so that we could start at the beginning of the audio guide. We soon found that it was impossible to mesh what we were seeing with what Rick says. We should have done a HOHO (Hop On, Hop Off) tour. Oh well. Our tram tour was free since we already had a tram pass left over from the tour. It took about an hour to go all the way around. We started on the #2 tram. When we had to change to the #1 we got off and walked over to see the Danube first.
That was fun. We got on the #1 but Jeanne and I stopped listening to the audio guide. She had the map and would point out sights. The tram was hot and stuffy. When we got back to the Opera House we had to get back on the #1 to go the other direction to get back to our hotel.
We had new door keys since this was an added day stay. No longer part of the Rick Steves tour. Our old keys would stop working at noon. Luckily we could stay in the same rooms.
Side Bar Comments:
* Vienna has good bike lanes and pedestrian lanes but they seem to have a difficulty with noting which one is which. They keep switching. The bikes don't care about people. But pedestrians can cross a main car intersection with no problem as long as you cross in the pedestrian cross-walk.
* Vienna thinks that they have great water (which they do), so, if you order a glass of wine you get a free glass of water, if you order coffee, same thing, but if you order a food item then you have to pay for the water. I don't quite understand that.
Around 6:30 pm we decided it was time to go to dinner. We had heard about the Central Cafe, just 2 blocks away. We headed there. When we got there, we found that there was a long line, but it seemed to be moving quickly.
A wedding sighting
Brief glimpse of a sunset.
We were at the end of this line.
Gorgeous place
It was a very extensive menu. Sharon had a soup and salad. Which I did not take a picture of.
Kris and I each had the vegan baked cauliflower, mushroom ravioli, which was delicious.
Jeanne had fried chicken and salad.
Then we shared 2 desserts.
Apple strudel
Cheese strudel
Both were fabulous.
We walked back to the hotel. We got to our rooms about 10 pm.
Seemed like a shorter day? Maybe? How does it feel to be in charge of what happens in your day? Glad to hear that the food continues to "be fabulous".
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad about not being able to take pictures at the Spanish Riding school. I wonder if it's about the possible flashes that might distract the horses. And I'll just have to take your word that the young horses weren't white. :)
ReplyDeleteSo their hair turns white in old age, just like people.
ReplyDelete