Today, we saw all the main sights in Vienna and are now officially exhausted. We can't see another thing or absorb another fact. We are currently enjoying some pre-dinner cocktails in the hotel lobby.
The other thing in Vienna that I most wanted to see were the Lipizzaner stallions. We went to both the morning workout and took a tour of the stables. You are not allowed to take pictures in the stables or of the horses performing but here are some other pictures from the tour:
Inside the winter riding school
The tack room. The white saddles are for performing and are custom made for each horse.
The entrance to the stables where some horses have stalls overlooking the courtyard. The horses spend a total of 7 months in Vienna and spend the other 5 months in the countryside. Only stallions perform since the movements are natural for stallions.
The Spanish Riding School is part of the Hofburg Palace. We toured the palace and the Imperial Apartments.
Here is a picture of The New Palace part of the Hofburg palace and the balancy where Hitler informed the Austrians that they were now part of the Third Reich.
The other major sight in Vienna is St. Stephen's Cathedral. It suffered major damage during WWII. It seems as if the tour of every sight includes details of how locals preserved it during the war and how it was reconstructed after. In St. Stephen's, the pulpit and tombs were bricked over and the stain glass window was deconstructed and moved to a safer location.
I did not realize that Austria was occupied after the war and the terms of its independence included it being forever neutral.
Some additional pictures from today
The Opera House
Our hotel, Hotel Sacher.
We did very well on this trip in terms of picking well located hotels. All of our hotels were very close to all the major sights so we walked to almost everything. Vienna is also easy to walk around except that the bike paths are on the sidewalks so you have to pay attention. Crossing the ring road is best done at a slow jog as anything slower will leave you stuck in the middle waiting for what seems like an eternity for the light to change again.
This was another full day of touring. As I said, we are exhausted. I should mention that most things on this trip should not been seen by the faint of heart. We climbed a lot of stairs. Fitbit says we've walked over 45 miles in the last week.
The other thing in Vienna that I most wanted to see were the Lipizzaner stallions. We went to both the morning workout and took a tour of the stables. You are not allowed to take pictures in the stables or of the horses performing but here are some other pictures from the tour:
Inside the winter riding school
The tack room. The white saddles are for performing and are custom made for each horse.
The entrance to the stables where some horses have stalls overlooking the courtyard. The horses spend a total of 7 months in Vienna and spend the other 5 months in the countryside. Only stallions perform since the movements are natural for stallions.
The Spanish Riding School is part of the Hofburg Palace. We toured the palace and the Imperial Apartments.
Here is a picture of The New Palace part of the Hofburg palace and the balancy where Hitler informed the Austrians that they were now part of the Third Reich.
The other major sight in Vienna is St. Stephen's Cathedral. It suffered major damage during WWII. It seems as if the tour of every sight includes details of how locals preserved it during the war and how it was reconstructed after. In St. Stephen's, the pulpit and tombs were bricked over and the stain glass window was deconstructed and moved to a safer location.
I did not realize that Austria was occupied after the war and the terms of its independence included it being forever neutral.
Some additional pictures from today
The Opera House
Our hotel, Hotel Sacher.
We did very well on this trip in terms of picking well located hotels. All of our hotels were very close to all the major sights so we walked to almost everything. Vienna is also easy to walk around except that the bike paths are on the sidewalks so you have to pay attention. Crossing the ring road is best done at a slow jog as anything slower will leave you stuck in the middle waiting for what seems like an eternity for the light to change again.
This was another full day of touring. As I said, we are exhausted. I should mention that most things on this trip should not been seen by the faint of heart. We climbed a lot of stairs. Fitbit says we've walked over 45 miles in the last week.
No comments:
Post a Comment