The building was established between 18 by Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, and it is the largest art museum in the country. We didn’t know it at the time, but we were to encounter them and a number of other bands all over the city that day.Īs we began the walking part of our tour, the first important building our tour guide pointed out to us was the Kunsthistorisches Museum (pictured below). They were waiting as their instruments were being offloaded from the bus in front of ours. While milling about beside our bus, we noticed a group of musicians dressed in traditional Austrian folk costumes. Our motor tour concluded with a stop in front of the museum quarter, and as we disembarked we could already feel the day beginning to heat up, even though it was only 10 o’clock in the morning. Our driver pointed out various buildings of significance, but Mary and I realized the only way we would really get to see them would be to explore on foot (which we did after the tour…but more on that in a bit). The stock photo below was taken during the winter months before all the trees are in bloom, otherwise there would be no way to show the magnificent row of buildings in a panoramic view like this. I’m more than a touch cynical when it comes to reading tourism “puff pieces”, but there wasn’t an ounce of hyperbole in that description. Our coach wound its way throughout the streets of historic Vienna, with our tour guide pointing out the history of the buildings along the Ringstrasse – a road described by Vienna Tourism as “ a gracious boulevard laid out on the site of the old city walls – lined on either side with imposing palaces, elegant public buildings, and grand residences“. Our tour departed from the Lif’s docking position at 9:30, and the agenda for the morning included a 45 minute coach-ride a 75-90 minute walking tour and then 45 minutes of free time before catching the coach back to the ship. We had a tour booked for the morning that was described as “an Essential Overview of the City”, and armed with the map below, we were ready to go. Mary on the other hand loves coffee, and was very much looking forward to checking out one of the coffeehouses on Viking’s list.įirst things first though. While I enjoy the occasional cup of coffee, I am tea drinker to this day. I grew up in a decidedly British household where a pot of tea was always on. However, in Vienna, it is described as being “a complete sensory experience”. In North America it seems we have a coffee-shop on almost every corner, and they range from the trendy (Starbucks) to the everyday (Dunkin Donuts and Tim Hortons). I was particularly interested to read about Vienna’s café society. We had a little bit of time between breakfast and our morning coach tour, so we sat down and read over some of the Vienna-centric handouts we’d been given. Mary reminded me to lather on the sunscreen! Turning on the TV in our cabin we noted that temperatures were going to soar on this Saturday July 6th, with highs expected between 95 and 100 degrees fahrenheit (35-37 celsius). Little did I know it would take me almost 50 years to get back, but Vienna did indeed wait for me.Īs was the case almost every day on our river cruise, Mary and I awoke shortly after 6 AM and began to get ourselves ready for the day. I vowed that I would one day I return to Austria and visit Vienna. Vienna is nearly 500 kilometres east of Innsbruck, and most of our day trips took us west, north and southbound, so I didn’t get to visit the city that was the source of much of the music I’d been playing on the piano for the previous seven years. Ironically, in July of that same year ( I was 16-years old), I accompanied my parents and my Aunt Doris Gage on a six-day trip to Austria where we made Innsbruck our home base. That visit was the source of the lyrics of the song. In 1971, when Billy was 22 years old, he tracked his father down and went to visit him in Vienna, Austria. When he was about 8 years old, Billy Joel’s father left him. Vienna Waits For You is of course the title of a 1977 Billy Joel song.
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