Sunday, December 4, 2016: Jesuit Church Mass, Schonbrunn Palace, Anna Church Concert
First, a word about the weather. When we arrived on Thursday, it was warm (40s) but drizzly & very windy making it raw. Friday was much the same in the morning but rain, not drizzle. The weather has turned around yesterday & today and looks to get even better. The weekend has been mid-20s to mid-30s with bright sunshine and no wind. It is very comfortable and we are pleased.
Second, a word about Road Scholar. So far it has been delightful. But boy we are packing a lot of stuff in! I am beat by the end of the day. We start after breakfast and usually have a lecture, a walking outing, lunch, more walking and touring, more walking, dinner and then an evening concert. And this is the senior group tour. I don't think that I could keep up if there was a young person Road Scholar tour. It has been very fun and we would not have experienced nearly as much as we have traveling independently.
We start by walking through the Greek section of Vienna through a narrow, medieval alley with cornerstones to protect the buildings from horse carts.
This Sunday morning we attend mass at the Jesuit Church renowned for a wonderful choir.
The cathedral is not heated. It was a little jarring to see the choir enter wearing their winter coats!
The afternoon is "at our leisure" so we take the U-Bahn out to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Habsbergs just outside of Vienna.
However, we don't actually tour the palace. First, we visit the Residenz Cafe for lunch
where I have the Wein Wurst with mustard and horseradish
and hot chocolate with rum (yes, you read that right).
There were wonderful pastries from which to choose
and we had the Mozart torte
and our friends had the sacher torte.
This blog has been missing the usual amount of food pictures so I am happy to catch up.
Following lunch we spend a few hours touring the Schonbrunn Christmas Market.
Some of the craft items for sale at various booths:
We loved the Christmas market so much that we decided to open a stall selling baked potatoes.
The National Bibliothek has an amazing great hall. BTW, the Bibliothek which is very near the president's office, was nearly cordoned off with police everywhere, presumably due to the election today.
We rejoin our group for dinner this evening at Zum Huth Da Max restaurant in old town.
And to add one more thing in a very busy day, after dinner we attend a great trumpet concert at the Anna Church. BTW, these amazing churches are found all over Vienna.
Finally, it is very interesting to be here in Austria on election day. Austria elected a new president today choosing between two candidates, one the green party candidate and the other a "Donald Trump clone". Early reports this evening are that Austria is the first country in the world to elect a green party candidate as president. The locals that we have talked to have the opinion that both the UK Brexit vote and the US election had an affect on the Austrian election. BTW, about 76% of the Austrian population (everybody is registered) voted.
Second, a word about Road Scholar. So far it has been delightful. But boy we are packing a lot of stuff in! I am beat by the end of the day. We start after breakfast and usually have a lecture, a walking outing, lunch, more walking and touring, more walking, dinner and then an evening concert. And this is the senior group tour. I don't think that I could keep up if there was a young person Road Scholar tour. It has been very fun and we would not have experienced nearly as much as we have traveling independently.
We start by walking through the Greek section of Vienna through a narrow, medieval alley with cornerstones to protect the buildings from horse carts.
This Sunday morning we attend mass at the Jesuit Church renowned for a wonderful choir.
The cathedral is not heated. It was a little jarring to see the choir enter wearing their winter coats!
The afternoon is "at our leisure" so we take the U-Bahn out to Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Habsbergs just outside of Vienna.
However, we don't actually tour the palace. First, we visit the Residenz Cafe for lunch
where I have the Wein Wurst with mustard and horseradish
and hot chocolate with rum (yes, you read that right).
There were wonderful pastries from which to choose
and we had the Mozart torte
and our friends had the sacher torte.
This blog has been missing the usual amount of food pictures so I am happy to catch up.
Following lunch we spend a few hours touring the Schonbrunn Christmas Market.
Some of the craft items for sale at various booths:
We loved the Christmas market so much that we decided to open a stall selling baked potatoes.
The National Bibliothek has an amazing great hall. BTW, the Bibliothek which is very near the president's office, was nearly cordoned off with police everywhere, presumably due to the election today.
We rejoin our group for dinner this evening at Zum Huth Da Max restaurant in old town.
And to add one more thing in a very busy day, after dinner we attend a great trumpet concert at the Anna Church. BTW, these amazing churches are found all over Vienna.
Finally, it is very interesting to be here in Austria on election day. Austria elected a new president today choosing between two candidates, one the green party candidate and the other a "Donald Trump clone". Early reports this evening are that Austria is the first country in the world to elect a green party candidate as president. The locals that we have talked to have the opinion that both the UK Brexit vote and the US election had an affect on the Austrian election. BTW, about 76% of the Austrian population (everybody is registered) voted.
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