Todays scenic treasure hunt was to take us to the Hofburg palace complex. After a navigational malfunction (ie me) we ended up somewhere else but got an opportunity to take a photo of this beautiful building.
This is the Karlskirche catherderal, build in the mid 1750 and commissioned by Emperor Karl VI after Vienna's run in with the plague in 1713. What's funny about this is, this cathedral features again today by a venue mistake I made for a concert we attended today so it helped us knowing where it was.
Back on track we came across this fountain.
One of things I wanted to do was the national library, it is one of the oldest historical libraries in the world. It was under construction from 1723 to 1726. It hosts 200,000 books from between 1501 to 1850. That is a vast collection of history indeed.
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A fitting shirt selection today, smite is an oldest word right? :)
This was just a print but still fascinating to see how the writtien word was presented 100s of years ago.
Here are some more pictures of our journey to the palace complex.
Nothing screams tourist more than a baseball cap and a massive tomb about Austria, it has been a god send though.
A very exotic fountain, incredible to think it was "carved" ... genius.
Welcome to the Neue Burg wing of the hofburg complex.
Unfortunately there was no cameras on the tour so we couldn't share the inside, you will just have to come and see it yourself. :)
As has been our routine it was home to watch Stage 11 of Le Tour de France after a rest day. This years winner could be anyone as a lot of the main contenders have withdrawn.
We made a quick side trip for this picture, this one is for you Meg!
Apparently the best tea house in all of Vienna. :)
On the way back yesterday we found this amazing place for frozen yogurt, we partook again today. For anyone visiting Vienna, I highly recommend the mango yogurt with no topping.
As is tradition at my work, if anyone is to go overseas a snow dome must be purchased for Amy in our finance team, she has quite a collection indeed. Job done.
Having relaxed for the afternoon, we started to get ready as I has purchased tickets to a quartet concert, how could we stay in Vienna and not see some live classical music! From the brochure it told us that the venue for this concert was right near us so we planned our night around that. We would have dinner close then go to the show. What I didn't realise when I booked was that only for tonight was the show at a different venue which didn't become clear until 40 minutes before it started.
So into damage control, I discovered (as I mentioned earlier) that the venue was actually the cathedral that we saw in he he morning so we had a couple of options:
1. Catch the train
2. Grab one of the crazy bicycle taxis we have seen around and see if they eh could get us there in time.
Luckily we found this really nice guy who spoke perfect English and told us it would only be 10EURO so we accepted, he also had classical music playing for us which was great. Electric assisted pedal, thought you would like that Rhys. :)
We got there with plenty of time and were so greatful that we tipped him another 10EUROS for his help.
And this was the venue for the concert. :0
While we waited and at Rae's request we took a few selfies.
Attempt number 1, hmm took too long to lift up the camera before the timer went off. :)
A couple more for good measure.
Then the musicians entered and play some magnificent pieces from Mozart (Jagdquartett or translated "The Hunt"), Haydn (Serenade), Beethoven (Streichquartett number 4). The first and last pieces had 4 movements. The acoustics in the he hall were incredible. The quartet were brilliant and after the final applause that didn't stop they came out for an encore, Pachelbel's Canon, simply breath taking, the atmosphere was just amazing.
So ended another awesome day with so much seen, experienced and learnt. Tomorrow is our last day in Vienna and we will be sad to leave but excited to be visiting Salzburg, the birth place for Mozart no end the location for the Sound of Music. We travel there by train so should have some amazing shots of there country side which should be stunning. Until then.
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