Vienna, My City of Dreams

The title of this blog is the title of a song I used to play on the piano when I was about 10 years old. I found myself humming it as we rode in the coach down the famous Ringstrasse in Vienna, looking at the beautiful buildings and elegant shops. (Much of Vienna was like every other large city, with its share of graffiti and clutter).
This is the renowned Vienna Opera House - the main entrance. It is so large it covered nearly a city block. I had to take a picture of the stage door entrance!

And this sight fascinated me - the men are pushing a huge truck (scenery, maybe?) into one of the back entrances of the Opera House.

And of course, here's the cathedral, covered with scaffolding as usual. This one was different, though. Can you see on the right where the scaffolding is covered with a tarpaulin with a graphic of what the restored steeple will look like?

Here's the interior of the cathedral, with the elaborate pulpit on the left, and most of our group on the right.

This is a different church - notice the wonderful tiled roof with the Austrian eagles.

This fountain pretty much captures the essence of old Vienna.

But Vienna is modern as well. This photo contrasts the old and the new.

This is one of the elegant hotels on the Ringstrasse - the Imperial. No, we didn't stay there.

We were so close to some of the famous Lipizzaner horses that we could have touched them.
They were being taken out from their stables for exercise and practice.

This is the house where Richard Strauss lived and wrote his beautiful waltzes.

And this is where Hubster and I had lunch, dining under the umbrellas at the Cafe Mozart. Orson Welles' film "The Third Man" was filmed in Vienna - about a month after we got home, I happened to discover a vintage sheet music of the "Cafe Mozart Waltz", which was played in the movie and had photos of the stars on the cover. A very exciting find!

And here's another outdoor eating spot, not quite as elegant as the Cafe Mozart, but great if you're homesick. I had to take this photo for D2 Diane, who can't go a day with a visit to Starbucks. Now she knows she can get her fix in Vienna. And I got my casino fix here. The single room was dark and gloomy, with only two poker machines, in German of course. But I won 10 euros! I think there was another back room, but I didn't dare go in there.

So that was Vienna, not exactly the "city of dreams" of days gone by, but there were remnants of glory if you knew where to look.