Vienna

 Breakfast was open at 6:30 am. Jeanne and I got down there around 7 am.

Lots of choices.  I had my usual OJ (fresh squeezed), scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese with toast.  This morning I also had hot chocolate. It seems to hold me pretty well until our late lunches.  

We met at 8:30 am to go meet with Gerhard Strassgschwandtner for our morning tour.  

Gerhard and Jana

We explored historic Vienna including the Imperial Apartments.  Gerhard was very interesting and humorous.  

Elizabeth or SiSi

At 10:45 am we took a break.  We went to a very close cafe for a "quick" cup of coffee.  We had until 11:15 am.  At 11:15 am our waitress finally brought our drinks.  Sharon had just ordered water so she went running back to the meeting place saying that we were on our way.  One couple got up and left with out their order.  Very frustrating.  

When we came out from the palace it was raining.  This is the first real rain that we have had on the whole trip.

We ended our time with Gerhard at the St Stephen's Cathedral. 

Can you imagine the building of this tall tower with no equipment?  The only way to get to the very top was on the outside, carrying the stones on their backs!!  I guess there were a lot of deaths with the building and rebuilding this cathedral.

We ended the tour at noon and the rest of the day was free time.  Sharon, Kris, Jeanne, and I wandered down towards the Albertina Museum.  But the first order of business was lunch and a sit-down break.  By the time we got to the restaurant it had stopped raining.

Some stores we passed.

Jana had recommended the Palmenhaus Brasserie near the Albertina.

It was in a greenhouse.

We each had the lunch special.  Kris and Sharon had the main & salad and Jeanne and I had the main & soup. We all had wine.

The soup was a creamy cauliflower soup with croutons. 

  We all had the gnocchi with mushroom sauce and cheese.  

The salad was a side salad. I did not take a picture.

Then we went to the Albertina.  The show was of not familiar pieces of familiar artists.

Degas

Renoir

Magritte (I was not familiar with him)

Calder

Picasso

Kandinsky

We tried to go see the Chagall but the exhibit wasn't open yet.

We walked to another cafe that Rick Steves had recommended for the sachertorte (chocolate cake).  

The elevator was quite unusual with mirrors, so it looked bigger than it was. The 4 of us barely fit in.

We first went up to the 3rd floor restaurant area but we were told that unless we had a reservation we would not be served for quite a while.  We went down one floor to a more casual cafe.  We only had to wait about 10 min.  

I was still full from lunch so I just had fresh squeezed OJ.  It was good.  Everyone else had the sachertorte.  I got to taste Jeanne's.

The view of the Opera House.

At this point we were ready for a rest so we walked back to the hotel with a few stops in shops along the way.  

No Ampelmann here for crossing the street.  Actually there are very few signals all all.  Pedestrians have the right of way, pretty much everywhere. 

We went back to the hotel for a little down time.  Around 7 pm we started the process of trying to figure out where to go for dinner.  We wanted something light. We asked the concierge for a recommendation.  She said the Mae Aurel was close.  We walked there.  

Night  view of St Stephen's cathedral.

Burrata bread - we shared this.

Very delicious French Onion soup. 

We walked back to the hotel. Since we had adjoining rooms we could at least hang out together.