This morning we followed our daughter, Claire’s advice (she lived here a few years ago) and booked a free walking tour through Guru called “Walk a Free Tour, Vienna: Part 1—Top Highlights” at 10:15am. We walked to the meeting point by the Opera House. Our guide, was really terrific. Knowledgeable, excellent English, funny and friendly. He’s from Norway but has adopted Vienna. He studied Art History and living in Vienna is the perfect match for his dream life. He’s been here eight years. To be a tour guide here, you have to have an advanced degree in history.
After the Opera House, we learned about Sacher Cakes, the Albertina, the Hofburg (former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty in Austria, originally built in the 13th C), Emperor Franz Josef I and his wife, Elisabeth (Sisi), the Spanish Lipizzaner stallions, the very expensive Kohlmarkt (where we saw the house where Chopin lived in 1830-1831) and Graben, the statue memorializing the plague, and the Stefansdom exterior.
We also got a much better perspective on Hitler in Vienna as an art student and the political environment he absorbed while there that helped lead to his own political persuasions. It was all very interesting.
This is where the Spanish Lipizzaner stallions are housed. They are really pampered!
These walking tours are a great way to orient yourselves in a new city. There are different tours you can select. At the end you leave a tip with the tour guide–usually 10-20 Euros each.
The tour ended in the heart of the city at the Dom.
We went inside to get a look at this magnificence in the day time.
I find it interesting that so many people in Europe still smoke. Here’s a cigarette vending machine.
After the tour, we popped into a few more of the churches in the area.
This one was a Greek Orthodox chapel.
After this, we returned to places we wanted to see in more detail.
Each church has its own special feeling. Love and care went into creating these sacred places of worship.
Often in these church Nativities, the Christ Child doesn’t appear until Christmas Eve.
Summer is a good time to visit the gardens. Christmastime is a good time to visit the churches. I love the fresh greenery and the smell of pine in these churches as we celebrate Christ’s birth.
Below is the beautiful and ornate Jesuit Church.
Our Frankfurt Germany Mission 