Our bus tour took us past many historic monuments, parks, and large buildings including the Vienna Philharmonic, St. Charles VI palace, the Opera House, the twin buildings housing the art history museum ad the Museum of Natural History. We also drove by the Parliament with Athena, the goddess of wisdom, in the front.
Our walking tour took us past a Roman Temple that once housed the head of Napoleon, it’s not there anymore. A statue of Queen Elizabeth, Sissi, is in a garden since she was queen of Austria and beloved by them as well as by the Hungarians. The Winter Palace of the Hapsburgs is 650 years old and has been added to by several other royals and is now filled with museums. A statue of King Frank Joseph is surrounded by women representing religion, peace, justice and wisdom. We walked past a building that housed a church but until you saw the back of the building you would never know it was a church.
The Lippizan Stallions were having lunch so we did not see them. A museum and monument were built over a Jewish synagogue. The monument represents the over 200,000 Jews who lived in Austria with 65,000 killed.
After lunch we returned to the St. Peter’s Cathederal where we enjoyed an organ concert of Vivaldi and Mozart pieces.
Another large church is the St. Stephen’s Cathedral, first constructed in 1220. The entrance is the only original part of the building. Mozart’s funeral was held here but he is buried elsewhere.
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