Europe 2006: And finally, Vienna

My favorite big city on our journey was Vienna. I hope to be able to go there again someday! We both loved attending the cutural events in Vienna. The first night we were there we managed to slip into the State Opera house and see the last act of the Opera Rigoletto. Vienna's performance halls have this cool thing where you can get super-cheap tickets and experience the performance in a "standing room" area. In the Opera House the standing room areas are off on either side and in the back of the upper balconies. From these locations you can only see about 2/3 to 3/4 of the stage, but for the 1 to 2 euros apiece (1 euro is about $1.35), it can't be beat!

Our first full day in Vienna began with a visit to St. Stephen's Cathedral in the center of the city. This cathedral has a really cool looking roof. You can see pictures of it in the article about the cathedral on wikipedia.

Our second stop that day was to Schloss Schonbrunn, the summer palace of the royalty of the Holy Roman Empire and its later successors, the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian Empires.

This is a view of the gardens and Gloriette (the structure in the background) at Schonbrunn. I must say it was really neat to be able to visit France's Versailles and Austria's Schonbrunn in the same trip. Versailles was the mark to which much of the royalty across Europe tried to build their palaces. Schonbrunn was not quite as ornate as Versailles, but I would say it was more beautiful.

After we visited the palace we went to a cool music and science museum called Haus der Musik! I wish I had pictures from it, but cameras were not allowed. My favorite part of the Museum was the Virtual Vienna Philharmonic. They had it set up where you could conduct the Philharmonic and they would follow you if you conducted an easy 2 beat, up and down, up and down. If you messed up though, then some one would stand up and chew you out!

In the evening, we had the opportunity to attend another opera, only this time it was performed by marrionettes! This picture shows two of the marrionettes that this theater group has made. We saw the Opera, Mozart's Magic Flute. It was totally cool! These puppeteers are world class, and they can make the puppets move in such a way that sometimes you forget they are puppets! After the show we had the chance to go back stage and see how they do things. I learned that it takes years to become a great marrionette puppeteer! It is truly an art!

Our last day in Vienna happen to be a holiday called Austria Day! We were so excited because the Vienna Philharmonic was performing in the State Opera House and we were able to get standing room tickets for 1 euro a piece! How cool is that?! The performance was wonderful! I think attending the Philharmonic performance was the highlight of our stay in Vienna. We even splurged on a Vienna Philharmonic CD of their New Year's concert earlier this year set to remember it by. If you are curious, they played Mozart's 40th symphony and Beethoven's 7th.

Because of the holiday most of the Museums were either free or the admission was discounted. This was great for saving money! Our first museum stop was the Royal Treasury in the Hofburg Palace. Here we have the very ornate crown of the Holy Roman Emporer from the 10th century!

And here we have one of Charlemagne's successors, Robert of Arizona!

After we saw the treasury we enjoyed some of the Austria Day celebrations taking place in the Hofburg Palace courtyard. There was a huge crowd of people, booths to show off their military power, and lots of food stands. Yum! Yum! I got to have a nut-bread pretzel and Robby ate bratwurst. Then we wandered over to the Art Museum in Vienna called the Kunsthistorisches which houses the Hapsburg's royal art collection.

This was our last night together on the trip. While walking back to our room we saw this beautiful picture. When we first noticed it the moon had been higher in the sky, but it took us a few minutes to get situated where we could take a picture. I loved the silouette of the church against the sky with the crescent moon shining on one side.

All in all this trip will always be a fond memory for Robby and me. I am determined to make sure there is a "next time." What would really be fun is to go with Robby's brothers Tommy and Forrest and his Dad because then we would have translators for German, French, Spanish, and Russian. That would definitely make the trip a lot easier! Now we just need Logan to gain some experience in some other European language and we would really be set! How about Norwegian (or Swedish for Kaci!)

Okay, so if you want to see our complete photo album from this trip check out our family site's Media Library. There's also a video clip of highlights for you to enjoy! And if we are lucky, Robby will fill you in on a future blog to his personal favorite moments.