Transfer this time was easy. We were up at 6:30, packed by 7:30, eating breakfast by 8:00 and on the rode for the 1.5 hour trip to Vienna by 8:40. Olga and Jan were driving the bikes back to Cesty Krumlov, and then Jan heads off to Finland for dogsledding, while Olga does another trip. It was great traveling with them. The trip to Vienna was fast, until we got into Vienna. 20 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic and we pulled up to the door. Hotel Stefanie is quite nice, but it is a city hotel in the middle of a New York or London type city. Fast-paced, dirty and noisy. We were happy to see that they had our rooms ready. We are on the 5th floor, looking out over a busy street, just on the far side of the Danube Canal from the old city. We unpacked, bought a camera (nice one) and set out to explore the city.
Unlike Prague, and like Paris, London, Madrid and New York, Vienna was once the seat of an empire. It is big, and spread out. The imperial feel is reflected in the architecture; there are lots of really big buildings here, and the parks are set out to offset the massive buildings. There are statues to great musicians and lots of concerts. There is also an excellent mass transit system- we bought a 3 day pass which has already proven quite valuable. And, as advertised, lots of shopping and coffee shops. It took a little readjustment.
We wandered through the Stadt Park, looking at statues of musicians, and watching guys in wigs hawking their “period instrument” performance of Mozart. One surprise was Shrodinger’s name on the wall- he apparently went to a Gmynasium in Vienna. We identified the Koncert Haus and went to the ticket office to see was was a available on Wednesday and Thursday nights; the very nice ticketseller told us that Wednesday night was a “classical music comedian” in German and Thursday was a “Schubertfest” designed for tourists. She suggested that we walk over to Musikverein, another venue, where the Vienna Symphony would be performing on Thursday. We did so, and got tickets to the Erhoffnuffnungskonzert III. Spanischen Musicfestivals with the Vienna Symphony. Nice program, real music. By then, it had started to rain, so we hopped the subway to the Museum Quarter (yep, a whole block of museums) and holed up in a café for a bit. 
By this time, I was starting to feel a little queasy (several of our trip companions had a GI ailment; it seemed I was getting a mild form of it) and the rain lifted. We decided to meander back to the hotel.A few notable sights along the way: the Stephansdom cathedral was a glorious example off Baroque achitecture. Wonderful high tower.
Harry Potter VII comes out in German next month and the hype looked familiar. And we found this really cool sculpture on the site of an Operahaus that was bombed out during the war, protesting the futility and waste inherent to the war process. After a brief rest, we were ready for the Magic Flute. We took the subway to the Volksoper, a beautiful, but much less ornate place than the National Theatre in Prague.
The place was packed mostly with Germans, and there were a large number of young people in the audience. Part of the culture, I guess. The performance was magnificent- in German, no subtitles, but very easy to follow. Mozart’s genius was in enthralling the nobility while telling them that they had not a clue about life. The three boys sang magnificently, and told us that, in simplicity, one can avoid tragedy. Wonderful stuff.
We had a light supper after the opera, and then to bed. Rain should stop by tomorrow, and we have a lot of empire to explore.
New camera works well, doesn’t it?
*****Still don’t have great internet access in Vienna. May have to post the final days when we return.*****
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