Vienna

Fri., Nov. 13 (Day 12) - If it's Friday, this must be Vienna. What a city! We started out this morning by doing a walking tour of Vienna. There were only 5 people in our group, and we had a local guide. Austria does not have its own language; they speak German here. At the start of our tour, we took the local subway. When we arrived at our stop, but before leaving the subway station, we made a bathroom stop. Now most public bathrooms in Germany and Austria have a charge of 50 cents. But at this particular bathroom the charge was 70 cents. It was probably more expensive because there was concert music in the bathroom. Only in Vienna! Our guided tour of Vienna started at the opera house. We walked the streets of Vienna, while our guide told us all about the history and customs of Austria. We saw the palaces where the Habsburgs lived when they ruled Austria. We saw the church where the Vienna Boys Choir began in the middle ages. We passed by the stables of the famous Lipizzaner Stallions. We stopped to take pictures of the horses in the stables, and then just by pure chance, the horses from the morning show happened to be returning to the stables, and they passed right next to us, so we got to see them up close. We passed by many churches, most of them Catholic. Our tour guide told us that Vienna is overwhelmingly Catholic. She said that in times past, the Catholic rulers of Austria were tolerant and allowed Protestant churches to exist, but there was a rule that they couldn't look like a church. So the Protestant churches look like regular houses. This is such a contrast to Germany, where the Protestants took over the Catholic churches and as a result, all the Christian churches look alike. Our walking tour of Vienna ended at the cathedral, St. Stephens. Another beautiful cathedral, but in my opinion, the least impressive of any we've seen. After walking around the cathedral, we took the subway back to the ship for lunch.