Viennese Walzing

Last night we were treated to a fabulous, private concert at the Palace Liechenstein in Vienna - there was classical music - a bit of Mozart, a bit of Stauss, a couple of opera singers and these two gorgeous ballet dancers. It was just lovely! We felt so cultured.

Today is a religious public holiday in Vienna for Corpus Christi so naturally on our only day in Vienna - all the shops are closed except the touristy souvenir shops so we were able to buy that all important fridge magnet! As part of the 'festival' there was a parade through the town centre from church to church and here is a little delight we were able to capture on camera. I'm not sure of the religious or cultural significance, but if the shops were open, I would have purchased one for myself!

And here's one for the gents!

Well...... if there is a street we haven't walked up or down in downtown Vienna then you can dress me up like a Wiener Schnitzel and call me Wolfgang. Our tour of this beautiful, architecturally classic city started at the crack of 8 this morning and we've only just managed to WALK back to the ship in a zig zag pattern through streets and parks now at 4.30pm - stopping only once for Viennese coffee and Sachertorte - that's big fat chocolate cake in Austrian! and once for a delicious sausage injected with cheese...... I'm thinking now that all that walking was necessary!

Ok - so on the tour this morning we all got on our correct buses going to different locations and we all have our ear pieces in our ears and making sure that our little transmitters are working and we can hear out tour guide..... then one little man at the front of the bus says "Mine is not working" Vera - the guide goes through all the steps again. "No, I still can't hear you". People start calling suggestions out to him from all over the bus, 'have you turned it on?' 'you have to plug it in to the transmitter', 'turn it up' - all things that you would have thought - seeing as this man has used this device at least 2 times before that we all know of...... he would have already tried. "No, I still can't hear you" - when finally Vera went in for a closer look and bless his heart - he didn't have the ear piece anywhere near his ear. It was in his lap! This is what I'm dealing with people!

xxx