It’s Tuesday, so we must be in Vienna!

Our morning excursion was a walk in Vienna with our guide Gabi. We were bused to Swedenplatz, which is a small transit hub. From there we took a walk to Stephensplatz, home to St. Stephen’s Cathedral, cutting between some small streets and shops along the way.

Gabi was a very good guide. She talked about the history of the areas we walked through, plus she always had a little anecdote to add here and there.

When we reached St Stephen’s, we were given some free time to explore on our own. We walked around for a bit, then stopped at a Heindl candy store for a little treat before rejoining the group for the walk back to the bus.

While many people stayed in the city for the afternoon, we went back to the ship. We ate lunch on board and then decided to stay on the ship for the afternoon. We ended up taking a nap to catch up on a little sleep. It was much needed.

We ate an early dinner as tonight we are attending a concert. The dinner choices this evening included Wiener schnitzel and then apple strudel for dessert. Dinner was delicious as usual.

We had a few minutes to freshen up after dinner before we had to re-group. Tonight we are going to a performance by the Vienna Residence Orchestra at the Palais alte Börse.

The location was originally the Vienna Stock Exchange, but has been transformed into a concert venue.

Upon entering, we were led to our seats. We thought we were cutting through, but we ended up in the front row, center stage.

It was a wonderful classical concert. The orchestra for our performance included a flautist, two violinists, a bassist, a cellist and a pianist all led by a solo violinist. The performance also included two opera singers and two ballet dancers.

The concert consisted of works by Strauss, Mozart, Haydn and Vivaldi. It was a fun night out on the town. Everyone in our group seemed extremely pleased with the performances.

The bus ride back to the ship went quickly and we wasted no time getting ourselves settled in for the night.