Monday, December 5, 2016: Music Lecture, Vienna Woods, Heiligenkreutz Monastery, Cafe Central, Viennese Concert

Our morning lecture at nearby dance studio featured Julia Auer, a performing flutist now working on her PhD thesis on orchestral instrumentation in the 18th century and a flutist from the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.  They perform flute duets while describing the lives of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Franz Schubert and both the elder and younger Johann Strauss.



During our "free time" this morning we view the Danube River at a popular stopping point for river cruise ships.



Before our bus trip this afternoon we have an early lunch at Cafe View along the Danube River



where we first have coffee



then tomato soup


and beef pancake soup, a Vienna specialty.


Our bus trip today is to Vienna Woods, the foothills where the Alps end just outside of Vienna and the hunting grounds for the Habsberg family.  We visit the Heiligenkreuz (holy cross) Monastery, a medieval monastery.  Since this is located up in the foothills, it is c o l d.





Then it is off to Baden, a spa resort town where Beethoven composed his masterpiece Ave Verum Corpus and where there is another Christmas market.


This Christmas market was not our favorite so we have coffee instead.


Then we dash off to Cafe Central in Vienna, part of Palais Ferstel, a focal point of Vienna and Europe's intellectual elite at the close of the 19th century including Sigmund Freud, Arthur Schnitzler and Leo Trotzki.



The napkins are folded perfectly.


We dine on weiner schnitzel


and chocolate cake.


Then the highlight of the day comes after dinner when we go to Kursalon Wien for a concerto of Strauss and Mozart performed by a 13 piece orchestra with ballet soloists and opera singers.  Delightful.  About 15,000 people PER NIGHT attend live classical music performances in Vienna every night of the year.



And Beverly gets her picture taken in front of the Christmas tree.


Great day.  Goodnight all.

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