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Friday, 2 September (continued). By the time we reached Vienna Alice had alienated Miles completely and he refused to help her with the language. I used a map I had to guide us through Vienna, but Alice complicated matters by not passing the directions on to the driver (a pleasant Italian) until we had gone by the street we should have taken. We finally got to the Quisisana Restaurant for lunch after 14:00. By the time we ate, we had very little time for the tour around the city even though we didn't go to the hotel first.

The local guide was very good, a well-educated woman. Because of our inexperience, though, we were disappointed when the bus merely drove past most of the places we expected to see more thoroughly. We learned later that this is the normal routine for city tours. Anyway, we passed St. Stephan's Cathedral, the University, the Burgtheatre, the House of Parliament, the Rathaus (City Hall), museums, the State Opera, and numerous other things.

 

 

The “Ringstrassen" arrangement was interesting. When the old city walls (inner and outer) were torn down, these roads were built in their place, forming concentric circles around the heart of the old city.

We did go into the Hofburg, the former Imperial Palace, for more than six centuries (1278-1918) the seat of the Habsburg rulers of Austria. Since nearly every ruler ordered additions or alterations to the palace, it is a hodge-podge of architectural styles. There are ten major buildings and several lesser ones, with 2,600 rooms.

 

 

The most impressive of these are the Imperial Apartments. This was the first large palace we'd been in, and we were awed by its opulence and the fact that it had been the residence of so many major historical figures we had studied in our European History classes.

 

 

We also went through the Capuchin Chapel where the bodies of the Emperors are kept in huge copper and lead vaults like gigantic, ornate coffins. (The hearts and intestines are kept somewhere else.) We also saw the Belvedere palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy, but only on the outside. It was almost dusk by the time we got there.