Vienna, Austria, is known as the city of music…and a few other things. When we first arrived here, I thought they should name it the City of Fog. As you can see from my photo above, upon arrival in Vienna, it was shrouded in clouds. But that was OK; we were on vacation, and at least it wasn’t raining, and there was no snow or ice, so after breakfast, we were off on our “included” Viking overview of Vienna.

Viking gives you one excursion per port as part of your cruise fare. I kind of find it funny that they usually call that excursion “panoramic” something (insert name of where you are. here). I keep trying to figure out how driving to someplace, getting out and walking for two hours is “panoramic.” But today’s was a little different as our “luxury motor coach” took us on a drive, not only into the city but around Vienna’s Ring Road, which pretty much encircles all the places you want to see. I should note here that in Vienna, you do not dock anywhere near the center of the city (unlike many of the places we have visited so far). The river itself is about a one-hour walk from the old town section of the city. So a ride on a “luxury motor coach” is a must.

After we drove around the entire Ring Road (which runs the exact route that the old city wall used to be built on), seeing all the incredible Hapsburg Empire buildings, you stop and get out with your guide, and you are off on a walk into the center of the old town to see St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Well, the outside of the cathedral, anyway. It is interesting to me that Viking’s included tours always seem to take you to a cathedral or church but never into it. You are left to return and go inside if you want to. That’s OK as I have my buddy Mike’s pictures of the inside of every church in Europe (or maybe the world) to look at. For instance, if you would like to see what the inside of St. Stephen’s looks like, click here to see it on Mike’s website. His pictures are gorgeous. We had 30 minutes of free time, and that was not enough to get to the restrooms, buy a souvenir and take pictures of the outside of the cathedral. If we wanted to see the rest, we would have to come back later. And if you read yesterday’s post about my feelings on the opulence of churches, you know that going inside was not high on my list of things I “have to see.”

After walking the square around the cathedral, we were walked back to the bus (Kathleen and I were taking the “easy” tour) and we drove to…a Christmas Market! Oh boy! I will say that this one was much nicer than any we had seen before—more homemade crafts, better-looking food, etc. But it was still the same thing. So far, we have been to eight Christmas Markets, and we have not spent a cent in any of them—just nothing we want or need. We kind of made a vow that after cleaning out the houses of deceased parents, we would continue to get rid of things rather than add new ones. (At this point, a little voice in my head is saying, “Shut up Jim…you are the one who took a Christmas Market cruise.”) 

After an hour at the Christmas Market (where I walked around, but Kathleen was able to keep warm on the bus), we headed out of the fog-shrouded city back to the ship for lunch before we were to embark on our afternoon tour of  “festive Schönbrunn Palace.”

Of course, I took some photos while we were walking around the old city so here they are. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

The first building our guide pointed out after we got off the bus—a Greek Orthodox church.

There is an obligatory stupid joke here but I will skip it. Vienna decorated for Christmas.

Another cool building with a statue in front of it. Used to be a home, now it’s a law firm.

St. Stephan’s Cathedral.

From every angle I can take it from.

Close ups…

Showing the dirt…

And the gold…

And the very modern building directly across the square (who approved this?).

Enough buildings. This was the perfect place for some street photography.

So I started snapping…

I have friends who love these kind of shot when I post them on my daily Instagram and FB posts.

So I shot a bunch.

There were lots of interesting…

…and animated people like this guy…

…who was really excited.

Even horses are part of the street.

These guys were eye catching…

But nothing like Mr. Good Looking in his costume selling concert tickets.Probably a scam.

This is my winner. Can you imagine a better looking, better dressed couple? I can’t.

The Christmas Market was held in Maria Theresa Square.

They had some amazing buildings and the square was built to be perfectly symmetric.

This enormous statue sits in the middle of it…

With this exact copy of the other building on the other side.

Our afternoon tour was at Schönbrunn Palace. This was the summer home of the Hapsburgs and (probably) another wonderfully opulent place to visit. Kathleen decided to stay on the ship and read while Steve, Jamie and I went to the Palace. I had almost convinced myself that I would stay behind as well, but Kathleen said I should go because I might find something cool to take pictures of. So the three of us boarded our “luxury motor coach,” and off we went.

Our guide started the tour as we drove away from the ship with three rules for the Schönbrunn Palace. I don’t remember what the first two were, but when he got to the third one, I got off the bus. Seriously, when he said, “No Photography is Allowed,” I asked if I had heard him correctly, and he said yes, so I asked the driver to pull over, and I got off the bus. I am sure the other people on board thought I was a total nut job, but Kathleen had talked me into going because I might grab a great photo or two, so if I can’t take pictures, why go?

You probably think I am nuts as well, considering this is an optional excursion and, therefore, an excursion that we chose to go on and paid additional money to take, and here I was, just giving up a $149 excursion because I couldn’t take pictures. And Kathleen had skipped it as well so we were out almost $300. But we weren’t, and we really didn’t choose this excursion. You may remember that back when I started this trip, I mentioned that this was a trip that we had planned and paid for in 2018 to take in 2020 and then got canceled because of COVID. Well, Viking offered us either our money back or 125% of our cruise fare to use on another cruise in the future. That’s kind of how most of the cruise lines survived. Enough people were willing to do that, and we were two of them (actually four of them).

But there was a catch to their 125% offer. You had to use it all on one cruise. You could not use part of it on one cruise and the rest of it on another. You also had to spend it just on the cruise itself. It did not convert to onboard credit that you could spend along the way. Any part of it that you didn’t spend before the ship left the first port reverted back to Viking. This meant that we had a lot of extra money to book optional shore excursions. Shore excursions we would not have taken it without having that extra 25%. In fact, I just checked, and the only optional shore excursion we booked on the original cruise was a visit to the Spanish Riding School here in Vienna to see the incredible Lippanzer Stallions (more about that tomorrow because we saw them yesterday). So, any shore excursion we walked away from was not really costing us money.

At this point, I am off the bus and walking back to the ship. Thankfully, the bus had just been getting out of the riverside area, so I didn’t have far to walk. Once I got back, I decided what I really needed was to take a long and FAST walk. When you tour, you walk slowly, stop and look at things, and then you walk slowly again. You might take two hours to walk a little more than a mile. At home, I walk somewhere between five and seven miles a day for exercise, and I walk them at a 16-minute-per-mile pace. So, really, I have gotten no real exercise for a week, and at that point, I didn’t realize how it was affecting me. When we do ocean cruises, I always find time to do at least a four-mile walk onboard the ship on sea days.

I know all of you have heard of endorphins. You know, the chemicals that your body produces when you exercise that can produce an “analgesic effect.” At home, I get those all the time, and it certainly improves my mood by about a thousand percent. But this week, I have gotten none of them, so part of my lethargy and tiredness comes from having done a lot less exercise than I usually do. I should add that it has also been the reason my clothes are getting tighter by the day (Viking’s food has been outstanding). So I changed into my sweats, and I was off for a quick four-mile photo walk (I never walk while traveling without my camera) and sure enough, I was right to have taken it along because I got some photos I truly like. You can see them below. Sorry, no churches, cathedrals, government buildings or Christmas decorations of any kind. Just some photography that I can experiment with and some wildlife that I encountered. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

First thing I found was a swan…

…then a lot of swans.

A WHOLE BUNCH OF SWANS

I hope you like swans.

I know I do.

I am under the belief that they are so graceful…

And beautiful…

And photogenic…

That I can’t stop taking photos of them.

This is my favorite. How did that duck get in there?

And there were bunnies. Everywhere.

And a big church across the road.

As well as this very modern apartment building a block away.

And some really big buildings on the other side of the Danube.

I also wanted to experiment a little with black and white. I hardly ever shoot with the intention of creating black-and-white shots as the final product. But on this day, with the flat sky and the fog, I thought it might work. So here’s my study of the banks of the Danube in black and white. If you aren’t a fan of “artsy” photography, you can skip this slide show. Don’t forget; if you click the first shot, you can then scroll through with your arrow keys or by swiping…and PLEASE…don’t look at my photography on a phone. Please…

Lady on the shore with bridge.

Two women walking.

Woman walking

Woman walking closer

This isn’t a duplicate, it had arches at both ends.

totally falling apart…

…it was sad because it was probably something…

…in its heyday.

I found an old restaurant in disrepair…

I think that about covers the day. When I got back from my walk, we changed for drinks and dinner, and then it was back to the stateroom for bed before our second day in Vienna. See you tomorrow.