Vienna, City of Dreams

“Heaven, Vienna mine

I'm in the spell of your charms divine..”   Richard Tauber

Vienna-a great & noble city.  Home to the music of Mozart & Strauss & much more importantly, where Bill’s concerned the Sacher Torte! And of course,  the songs of Richard Tauber.

Vienna any time of the year is worth a visit, but in summer it sings- & literally!  Every cathedral, church & chapel is filled with music- there are concerts on every corner & we didn’t go to any of them because Bill is an absolute Philistine where music’s concerned & he couldn’t believe that I would want to spend money to sit in a church for 2 hours while someone filled our ears with classical music or opera!  So... we didn’t do the concerts. 

I did, however, take photos of the musicians' stars on the footpath outside the Opera House & I will share one of them with you now- it's good to share with friends.

Next time I come to Europe in the summer I will most likely bring Bill- I really like him, even though he’s a Philistine- but I will bring someone else as well who likes the music I like.

We walked the streets & ate in the restaurants & of course, sailed the Danube blue where Bill was like a kid because we had to pass through a lock, which even in girl world was really rather fascinating.  We sailed into the lock area, the boat was moored while water came in rapidly, filling the gap & raising the boat till we could just sail over what had been an 8m drop & then, in the next lock, we dropped 4m.  Really cool stuff, if you’re into locks and what they do.

The Lock on the Danube

Churches- many, from the famous such as St Stephen’s to other, smaller, but no less beautiful ones.  99.9% of Europe’s churches are so ornate & beautifully decorated, that sometimes, one can become slightly “over-churched” but it’s all so worthwhile knowing about them & the eras in which they were built and who by.

Music, religion, food... what more could anyone want?  After 3 days in Vienna, we reluctantly packed a small bag each & set off for the land of the Turks.