Day 13 - Saturday, May 10, 2025 - Vienna, Austria

By Ellen Outten

 

St. Stephen's Cathedral.  Roman Catholic Church in the Baroque style.  It has an ornate spire and catacombs.

We took a bus tour today, on our full day in Vienna Austria.  This city is amazing in its architecture.  I took way too many pictures and don't know the names of the buildings either, but the details on the builds are incredible.  



















On March 15, 1938, from this balcony, Hitler announced the annexation of Austria into Germany,  He entered Austria with shits fired and the Austrian people welcomed him.

Schweizerhof Hofburg Wien



Federal government building, Burghauptmannschaft Österreich


Prince Eugene - Equestrian Statue
Another government building, Bundesgärten Verwaltung Burggarten

Take a closer look.  These are the famous Lippiziner horses.  Their stables are inside one of these amazing buildings.






Column of Pest built to commemorate victims of the plague.




We had an hour of free time at St. Stephen's Cathedral.  Wayne and I had a coffee and some famous Vienna apple strudel.  







Wayne hung out after, while I went into another amazingly unbelievable church.  The Baroque churches in Europe are fantastic.  I do enjoy looking at the ornate interiors as well as the amazing steeples and exterior.
















I walked around a little before we all walked back to the bus.  These are some random pictures during the walk back.




We arrived back at the ship just before noon and I had a 1:30 pm tour of Schönbrunn Palace.  It was the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers.  

Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning Emperor of Austria, was born at Schönbrunn and spent a great deal of his life there. He died there, at the age of 86, on 21 November 1916. Following the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy in November 1918.  It is a UNESCO World heritage site.  It has 1,,440 rooms. And while I didn't get to see many of them, what I did see was amazing.  

The palace was the residence of the Habsburg emperors from the 18th century to 1918. It housed many members of the imperial family, including Empress Maria Theresa, Emperor Franz Joseph, and Empress Elisabeth (Sisi). One of their 16 daughters was Marie Antoinette.  For the most, only two people lived here with their children and only in the summer to get out of the heat in the city (which was only 35 minutes from our ship).






















After our private guided tour, we had free time to tour the gardens on our own.  The map shows how big the gardens are in comparison to the house and the house is huge!


The back door of the oalace





We left the palace and arrived back at the ship at about 5:30 p.m.  We leaving at midnight tonight and head for Melk Austria. 
We don't arrive until about noon and our tours at 1:15 so we have a warning to relax.

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