In the morning, we attended Viking’s “Panoramic Vienna” excursion. The guide showed us the Hufburg Vienna, the "Opernviertel" (Vienna's Opera Quarter), St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Then she gave us free time to visit the cathedral and to go shopping.
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| Vienna's Opera Quarter |
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| Vienna's Opera Quarter |
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| Vienna's Opera Quarter |
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| Vienna's Opera Quarter |
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| St. Stephen’s Cathedral |
After we visited the Cathedral, we went for shopping. After shopping, we walked all the way to Cafe Sacher Wien for their famous Sachertorte, a chocolate cake with apricot filling. However, the waitress never came to seat us, so we left without trying it.
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| St. Stephen’s Cathedral |
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| Shopping Area |
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| Cafe Sacher |
When we came back to our meeting point, we realized that we miss the meeting time. So we have to take subway ourselves to get back to our ship.
In the afternoon, we took subway to Schonbrunn Palace and got entry tickets for touring the palace ourselves. They provided an audio guide device, so we had a wonderful time touring the palace.
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| In Schonbrunn Palace |
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| In Schonbrunn Palace |
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| In Schonbrunn Palace |
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| In Schonbrunn Palace |
Next in our plan was to visit the beautiful Schonbrunn Garden. After asking for directions, we got to a garden which just did not match with our memories of Schonbrunn. We asked some local visitors there and they could not help either. After a while we just persisted to walk to left and finally saw the familiar scene of the beautiful garden. We spent a lot of time and enjoyed the moment again. It was placed together with the palace on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.
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| Schonbrunn Garden |
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| Schonbrunn Garden |
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| Schonbrunn Garden |
We walked to Neptune Fountain and walked around it to enjoy the whole area from different angles. Then we walked up to Gloriette. Gloriette is a prominent baroque garden structure built in 1775, designed by Johann Ferdinand Hetzendorf von Hohenberg. Situated on a hill in the palace gardens, it offers breathtaking panoramic views of the palace and city.
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| Neptune Fountain |
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| Gloriette with Reflection |
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| Gloriette |
At evening, we attended Viking’s optional excursion “Mozart & Strauss Concert” at Vienna Symphony Orchestra by Vienna Resident Symphony. We were able to sit at the front row and had a clear view of how symphony members play their symphony pieces. We were very impressed by their concentration and effort of playing their instruments. The musical was magical and this excursion is definitely the highlight among all of our excursions.
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| Vienna Symphony Orchestra |
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| Vienna Resident Symphony |
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