Vienna

After spending a few days in Prague with Jamie and Steven the four of us hopped a train to Austria's capital city of Vienna. Vienna is a beautiful city but sadly much more modern than I expected it to be. The experience of this city can be summed up in a few words: Mozart, music, Opera, Lipizzaner's, and Habsurgs. While here we walked around the city center via the Ringstrasse, toured the Hofburg and Schonbrunn Palaces, saw some great live outdoor music concerts, saw the Lipizzaner stables, and enjoyed many a brat and wienerschnitzel. This was all good fun but the highlight of Vienna has to be the Opera! Though I am not an opera fan my Rick Steve's guide said standing room tickets for 3 euro were available at each show for the person who wants to see what the Opera is like. I figured when in Vienna one must go to the Opera. So we dropped in on "Tosca." We stood at the very top but we could see the stage and to my surprise there were little screens above our heads which displayed the words in English which the singers were singing. Seeing the Opera live and being able to understand it was a really cool experience. We could have stayed the whole time but our feet and backs were so sore and tired that we stayed only stayed for one act- about 50 minutes. The Opera was by far my favorite experience in Vienna and is worth a try for even the most skeptical. I would have loved to see the Lipizzaners as well but they were not performing or practicing during our lightening trip to Vienna- bummer!