What a great fun day this was! We started out with a visit to the world famous Spanische Reitschule or Spanish Riding School.

This is the home of the Lipizzaner horses. Since we will not be here for a weekend performance we watched their “morning exercises” to Baroque music. (No pictures allowed inside.) These exercises take place “in a ballroom that seems to be a crystal-chandeliered stable.”

From here we hoofed it over to the great Wiener Riesenrad, or Riesenrad.

This Giant Ferris Wheel was erected in 1897 and was the world’s tallest Ferris Wheel from 1920 until 1985. (For those of you who don’t already know, I am a Ferris.)

It has been a prominent feature of the city’s skyline ever since. It has fifteen box-like cars, similar to the first Ferris Wheel built for the 1893 World’s Fair in Chicago. It is built just like a bicycle wheel with spokes in tension.

 

Chris was particularly fascinated by the rim-drive mechanism. (You’ll have to ask him to explain.)

The view from the top is great. From here you can see the Donauturm, the tower I went up yesterday as well as the tall black building I photographed a few days ago.

On our way to our next stop we passed by this guy who would run out in the middle of the street when the light was red and juggle.

And many of the buses/trollies have these two flags on top of them.

We are now at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, “the mother-ship of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna”. Built in the 12th century it is one of the most iconic buildings in Vienna.

 

 

There is a pain-staking renovation effort underway to clean the black from the facade that was caused by air pollution. They use very small brushes and water so as not to damage any of the detail.

Inside the church is massive.

The stained glass windows are very simple, unlike most cathedrals we’ve seen.

And check out this staircase I spotted way in the back of the church.

Here’s a picture of the the top of the south Tower.

And here’s a picture of the south Tower from a block away.

As we headed back towards our pension we came upon this “theatrical?” performance. Imagine this woman? singing (in a voice like Bernadette’s on Big Bang Theory) “I am Pretty…” complete with musical accompaniment.

Then, while still singing I am Pretty, out come these two performers.

Apparently this troupe is called Souvenirs on Tour. I thought it was great but it was time to move on. After several more blocks of walking we heard music – great piano music and came upon this scene.

He was incredibly good as was the next guy who sat down to play. It’s something called Open Piano. Later in the evening, after dinner closer to our pension we came upon the sound of great music again.

Same piano moved to a different location. Different people playing and once again amazing music.  Here’s a snippet of what it was like.

As I said at the beginning what a great fun day this was.