Edna on the Road: The Best of Vienna

First stop today was a cafe, where we enjoyed our breakfast ouside. After that, we headed over to the Hofburg.

We started by touring the Sisi Museum and Imperial Apartments.

Sisi's bedroom

Sisi's exercise room — I don't think I've ever seen one in any other palace

Dining room

Place setting

Next stop was the Imperial Treasury. It's funny, real gold is so shiny and untarnished that it looks fake! There was room after room of scepters and capes and crowns and all kinds of other regalia. Here are some crowns:

~~~~~

The weather was sunny and warm today, with only a brief sprinkle of rain (despite not bringing the raincoat), so for lunch we opted to sit in a cafe and enjoy some Eiskaffee (coffee with ice cream):

~~~~~

Next we went to St. Stephen's Cathedral. We toured the main nave and catacombs (no photos allowed in the catacombs), but ran out of steam for the towers. Here are way too many photos:

Pulpit outside the north tower

Roof detail

Nave

Altar

Limestone pulpit

Pulpit detail

Nave looking toward organ

Organ

~~~~~

For dinner, we decided to fully embrace being tourists and ordered wienerschnitzel.

~~~~~

After dinner we sat in a park and enjoyed the lovely weather.

Brahms statue

Karlskirche

Karlskirche detail

Co-inventor of the sewing machine

~~~~~

Last, but certainly not least, we went to a Vienna Philharmonic concert. On the program was Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, conducted by Adam Fischer, with the Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien choir. Despite the many different choirs both Susan and I have sung in, somehow neither of us has every sung this piece. Fantastic concert, amazing venue!