Last day in Vienna

After a good night's rest in Hotel Bock and a great breakfast, we headed out for a full day in Vienna. We drove around town to have our orientation tour. First stop was at the Belvedere Palace.

Next was to the garden with the much photograph monument of Johann Strauss, the waltz king of Vienna.


We then moved further out to the Schonbrunn Palace, another tourist favourite.

We joined a guided tour inside the palace and the interior is much more impressive than the exterior. From here we went to visit the Hundertwasserhaus, a fairy-tale looking house that is also a tourist attraction. On looking back, this looks a bit like something out of Gaudi of Barcelona.




While waiting for dinner, we had some free time and we spent walking and people watching along the main pedestrian shopping street of Vienna. It's the Karntner Street if I am not mistaken.





After a wonderful local Viennese dinner, we headed back to the Schonbrunn Palace for a little night Viennese music. For the tourists in summer, they usually have a light classical program either at the Schonbrunn Palace or at the Theatre an der Wien in town for similar ticket prices. For better acoustic, choose the theatre but for the atmosphere, choose the Palace. We had a mixture of operatic songs, music and dance and of course, the Blue Danube as the finale.
There was a make-shift stage with creaking wooden floor and it was also very warm that night. So the acoustic was poor but the atmosphere was great as you imagine yourself sharing the concert with the Emperor of Austria in the Grand Gallery of the palace.





Thus ended our visit to Vienna and holiday in Eastern Europe as on the next morning we headed for the airport and Home Sweet Home.


Ronald Kwok