Greetings from the Habsburg Dynasty!

On Thursday, 5/26, we arrived in the morning to Vienna and bright sunshine!!! 

We had a bus ride around Vienna, then a walking tour of the old city.  Our guide nearly drove us crazy – she droned on and on with way more mundane info than we wanted.  She chewed up all of our supposed “free time” with her droning!

Vienna, on the other hand, is absolutely beautiful! We had been here before but I had forgotten how gorgeous the city is. Here are some pictures from along the way.

John reminded me of an interesting fact that we were not aware of. Austria ceased to exist as a nation in 1938 when Hitler folded it into Germany claiming that they were all one nation. It became its own nation once again after the war ended.

We came now to the Imperial Palace of the Habsburgs, the Hofburg Palace . We did not go into it, but took lots of pictures outside and around it and inside the courtyards.

Many of the statuary and ornamentation on the buildings are covered in mesh; I assume that is to protect them from birds.

And the jewel of the city — St. Stephen’s Cathedral. It was the feast of the Ascension of Jesus into Heaven, so High Mass was in progress when we went inside and we were blocked to stay in the back of the church. So not a lot of pictures. The church construction was begun in the 13th century.

We have heard a lot about both Gothic and Baroque architecture; in Gothic everything is pointed up toward God; in Baroque everything is more rounded — another interesting fact that we had not noticed. St. Stephen’s is definitely Gothic!!

Time to head back to the ship for a quick lunch before heading out to see Schonbrunn, the Summer Palace.

It was a timed entry so we headed first to the Carriage House to see the carriages.

Check out the waist sizes of these gowns!!!

This was worn by the son at his father’s coronation.

No pictures were allowed in the Palace, so the rest of the pictures are either in the entrance hall or outside.

Maria Theresa (top right) ruled Austria for 40 years (1740-1780). With her husband, Franz Stephan, whom she adored, she had 16 children. She was a good ruler and good mother and initiated many progressive reforms for Austria. Our guide then told us that Franz was known to have fathered at least 53 children. One of her children was Marie Antoinette.

And outside:

This was a full, full day and we were all tired — especially those who actually walked 🙂 We enjoyed a nice dinner and were off to bed even before the sun set!

Oh, a quick note! This blog started just to go to family and friends…..and that is still my intention. However, I do have to publish it, so I have noticed a few people reading it whom I do not know — that’s fine. So, yesterday I was changing money at the front desk and the woman there told me she enjoyed my blog. WHAT??? How did she know? Well, I had mentioned that I blog and she researched my name and found the blog — impressive! I told her that I was glad that I had not been unkind about anyone on the ship — not that there would be a reason — everyone aboard is just great!!!!

I know our travel agent wants some pictures of the ship, the AmaMagna….so I will take a few and include them here.

A new country next…..so I’ll start another new blog!

Love,

Beth