Since Vienna is so close to us we decided to do “theme” weekends. There is way too much to see in just 1 1/2 days. This weekend we chose to do a “musical walking tour” of the city.
We started in the city centre at St. Stephen’s Cathedral. Josef Haydn was a choirboy at the church about the time that Antonia Vivaldi was an aged church musician and composer at St. Stephens. W.A. Mozart was married in the cathedral and two of his children baptized there. Many liturgical musical works premiered at the cathedral over the last 700 years.
The inside of the cathedral was visually amazing with stunning masonry and stone statues, including the most ornate pulpit I’ve ever seen in all my travels. I also particularly liked the bit of modern touches to the ancient sanctuary. Down the middle aisle hung papier-mâché stones of various sizes. It was a nice reminder of the Bible story about Stephen who was the first Christian martyr. He was stoned to death for his beliefs. The cathedral is named after him.
Aisle with paper-maché stones 
Side chapel alter where Mozart got married
Of course we climbed the great South Tower. It was only a mere 343 steps. One of the smaller church towers we’ve climbed. The views of Vienna were stunning from the top of the gothic tower!
South Tower 
Looking down from the top of the stairs 
View from the top of St. Stephen
Once back down and a quick rest, we continued our walking tour passing by the Teutonic Hall where Mozart and Brahms briefly lived. We then found ourselves in a little square with the St. Mariakirche on one side and the Academy of Sciences on the other. The Academy is associated with the church and it is where Franz Schubert attended school as a boy. It was also in the Academy’s hall that Ludwig von Beethoven premiered his 7th Symphony. Unfortunately the building was closed and we couldn’t go inside.
A few blocks and around the corner, we decided to stop and have lunch in a traditional Viennese café. We sat outside and had drinks, coffee, and sandwiches. Our waitress was very nice and offered to take a family photo of us!
It was a lovely sunny spring day in Vienna. Everyone was out and about enjoying the city parks. We once again passed through the Stadtpark and it was nice to see it in daylight! We found the Golden Statue of Johann Strauss Sr. again, as well as one of Schubert. The Kursalon was lovely in daylight too.
Stadtpark
Once through the park we made our way around the Oper Ring Road to the Vienna Musikverein. This is the home of the famous “Golden Hall” where the best orchestras and music groups in the world play. It is also where the famous Vienna Philharmonic holds concerts. The name of the building is officially the “Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde” which translates “Society of Music Friends”. Tomorrow we will attend a concert in the Golden Hall!
Across from the Musikverein is a lovely little park, ,which contains a statue of Johannes Brahms. Robert jumped up onto the pedestal and pointed at Brahms name. A funny story from our past will explain this little gesture. When we were dating I wrote a paper about Johannes Brahms. Robert offered to type it out for me. I dictated and he typed. Of course me being visually impaired I didn’t proofread the 10-point font paper. Well lo and behold Robert had misspelled Brahms throughout the entire paper and I was marked down for this. He had placed an extra “a” in the name…Brah”a”ms instead of Brahms. It’s always been a joke between us ever since!
We made our way from the park around the Oper Ring Road to the Vienna State Opera House or the Wiener Staastoper. Interestingly the Vienna Philharmonic is actually made up of members of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra and auditions are held in one of the Intermission Rooms at the Opera House. We enjoyed a tour in English of the majestic theatre. As a trained opera singer it was a delight to see one of the world’s prestigious opera houses. Sadly part of the original building was destroyed during a WWII bomb raid, but the restoration was impressive!
Auditorium 
Room where auditions are held 
Original Grand Staircase
It was snack time and we were all a bit hot. We were told that near the Hofburg Palace was a very well known Swiss chocolate ice cream shop. Mmmmmm Swiss chocolate!!! In search of said ice cream, we walked from the Opera House down a lovely road and through the Hofburg Palace Public Gardens passing by a white marble statue of Mozart. The lawn in front of him had a Treble Clef made of little white flowers! We passed by the Museum Quarter, through the old city gates, and onto the grounds of the Hofburg Palace. This was the seat of the great Hapsburg Dynasty, which ruled Austro-Hungary for centuries. The museums and Palace we will visit on another weekend trip.
Mozart 
Old City Gates
The palace is made up of various courtyards surrounded by buildings. We found the courtyard where the famous Spanish Riding School Lipizzaner Horses are housed. We also found the entrance to the church where the Vienna Boys Choir sings every Sunday. The maze of courtyards opened onto another small square where old Roman ruins were on display by the grand back door of the Hofburg Palace. This is the door that all courtiers and dignitaries would have entered through. But where was the ice cream? A few blocks down a lovely meandering Viennese street we found the Swiss Ice Cream…and it was worth the wait!
Courtyard of the Lipizzaner Horses 
Courtyard with the entrance to the church where the Vienna Boys Choir sings
Near the ice cream shop a cute little market was set up in the square by the Abbey of the Scots, which is actually an old monastery founded by Irish monks in Vienna. There was food, basket weavers, jewelers, and our favorite stall was a little toy booth. Hanging on a wire grid were adorable little leather bats (die Fledermäuse) with googly eyes. Robert and I love things with googly eyes, so with Faywen’s help we chose two of these adorable homemade Fledermäuse for our home!
We had one more major musical stop on our tour…Ludwig von Beethoven’s apartment in Vienna. Beethoven occupied the apartment for about 8 years in the early 1800’s. It was on the top floor. The dwelling was simple and basic, but it did have lovely views of the surrounding buildings and square below. In the museum were portraits of Beethoven, his patrons, and family members. There were also original manuscripts of his famous compositions and playbills from concerts.
Faywen is contemplatively looking out of Beethoven’s study window. This was the view he saw when he composed.
As the sun set behind the cream and yellow city buildings, we walked back past the Hofburg Public Gardens in search of the restaurant where we had reservations. On the corner of the Gardens is the famous Augustiner Keller Restaurant. Once the cellars of the local Augustinian Monks, it now is a restaurant serving traditional Viennese cuisine. The stunning medieval masonry and warm lighting gave the place an “old world” charm.
It also helped that there was a guy playing an accordion. We quickly made friends with Peter, the accordionist. He was playing a polka near our table when Robert grabbed me by the hand and we danced in the aisle to the music. After the dance was completed, Peter followed us back to our table and commenced playing. He sat on the bench next to Faywen. He is originally from Slovakia and between his English and my German we had a grand time talking music. He played a lovely set of “Sound of Music” tunes to which Faywen sang along! Peter was quite impressed at how well Faywen sang! I sang a bit too, but more traditional pieces like “Wien Du Allein” etc.
Dinner was delicious and as we left Peter meandered back over to say goodbye and wish us well! It was a lovely way to end our 6 mile long walking tour of Vienna!
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