Sophie's travels 2011-2012: 23/8/2011 Vienna, Austria

We started the day with a city tour on the bus driving around the ring road. We drove past Stadtpak, The Opera House, The Fine Arts and Natural History museum and Maria Theresien Platz, Hofburg Palace, Parliament Building, Burg Theatre and Rathaus (town hall). We did a walking tour from Maria Theresien Platz through Hofburg Palace and the Spanish Riding school which was amazing – the horses can dance the waltz! We saw the Imperial Apartment and Treasuries where the Royal Family lived and Stadtpak. It was about 42 degrees but we managed to see the sites still. Vienna is a really pretty city, there are horse drawn carts everywhere and amazing old buildings. We walked through to Karntner Strasse – one of the main shopping streets, past the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and peace statue down to St Stephens’s cathedral then to the Swarovski shop. From there walked down to the Burggarten – Mozart statue which had a plantation of pretty red flowers in the shape of a trebelcleph in front of it which was really cool. We walked on to the Parliament house and back to Maria Platz. We drove to the Schnapes museum for tasting which was REALLY good! We had Absinth and all sorts of yummy liqueur and rocket fuel – the strawberry was my favourite! We even had an orange flavoured liqueur rocket fuel with 23 carat gold flakes all through it! We drove from there to the Summer palace – Schonbrunn Palace and wandered through the gardens in the heat before heading back to the campsite and got changed ready for our Mozart and Strauss concert. The concert was brilliant – lots of music, singing and dancing.