April 22
We walked over 11 miles our day in Vienna. I scarcely know how to start. Maybe with the complex of royal palaces that occupied the first part of our day.
Most of the above was in the morning. Our tour group bussed up through the center of the city, and followed out to one of the ring roads. It’s hard to track exactly where on my Google timeline, but it looks kind of like this:
The upper-left shape was the morning trip, out-and-back from the boat. We skipped the bus ride back and opted for a little more on-the-ground time. Along the way we caught a few more sights.
Afternoon On Our Own
This was where we really got ambitious. After lunch on the ship we followed our noses past the center of the city and walked all the way up to the Belvedere Castle museum. There they hold the world’s largest collection of paintings by Klimt, including this one — I think of it as the “Mona Lisa” of Austria.
A couple of the places we toured had trompe l’oeil rooms that were just mind-bending.
This is the same wall, looking at it from two ends of the room. It’s just a flat wall, with a small slope (maybe 18″) up to the ceiling. The illusion is incredible; there are no arches, or niches, or hallways, or anything really. Just flat plaster and paint.
We grabbed a quick coffee and an exquisite Esterhazy cake. (Don’t miss it.) then went out to explore the vast garden that separates the upper Belvedere from the lower.
On the way back we meandered through the Stadtpark, visited the golden statue of Johann Strauss, Jr., and caught up with Franz Schubert.
But Wait…
Here are a bunch more random photos!
