And so begins the adventure...: Vienna

Vienna to me is a beautiful and well constructed city. I know, a strange description for a city. The ring road around the town center was all built in a 30 year period in the 19th century, where the wall used to be. The architecture is called talking architecture meaning it was built in a style to depict the meaning or use of the building. So you have everything from gothic to baroque to Art Deco. It does not have the character that a lot of the other towns have had.

Our guide made a very interesting observation, he said that Austria developed their corporate or city brand around 1946. He said that it was developed after the second 30 year war. Austrians don't talk about World War I or World War II, they talked about the second 30 year war.

There is no doubt that it is a beautiful city and one day is not sufficient to explore. Ernie and I will be back for at least a week at another time.

Vienna is home to the Lipizzan Stallions and we happened to be in their driveway when they were being brought back to the stables after their morning walk.

St. Stephan's Cathedral

Vienna is known for the Mozart and Strauss concerts and these guys were promoting evening concerts

The roof is porcelain tiles. Absolutely beautiful!

Lovely carousel in the square by the church

That afternoon several of us went on a tour to the farmers market with Lazlo, our chef. We thought he was going to be buying provisions for the ship. Little did we know it was a tasting tour - like we haven't been eating enough on the ship!