Sunday, 4 September. This morning was free, too (thanks to the cancellation of the Vienna Woods drive). After breakfast at the hotel, we took a streetcar into town with Mrs. Smith. This time my unfailing sense of direction failed due to some street repairs that caused a rerouting of the streetcar. We got lost but finally managed to get a cab which got us to St. Stephan's in time for Mass. Work was still going on to repair the church which was heavily damaged by the Germans when they were driven out of Vienna. Then we went by the Hofburg again and walked down the street to Demel’s Coffee House, where we had a pastry and coffee and bought some cookies to take home. Everything, even the coffee, was loaded with schlag (unsweetened whipped cream), and we eventually concluded that the high fat intake was causing Jane's nausea.
Jane still wasn't feeling too well and went back to the hotel with Mrs. Smith. I went to the opening performance of the Spanish Riding School. The horses were remarkably well trained, but the show was not as spectacular as I had expected. It's held inside of an elaborate building of the Hofburg with magnificent crystal chandeliers. I sold Jane's ticket at cost (5 shillings) to a French woman who was one of a large crowd unable to get tickets. She was amazed that I didn’t ask more, and she fairly insisted he take ten times that. (I didn't.)
Jane and I met again at the group lunch at Quisisana. We decided not to go on the optional tour to Mayerling. Instead we joined Captain and Mrs. Schultz and Mrs. Smith for a tour of the Opera House. It had been almost completely destroyed by U.S. bombs during World War II and most of the interior has been rebuilt in a very modern style. We were disappointed to learn we had missed Leontyne Price's performance the night before, but found the Opera House quite impressive. It had four moving stages which went left and right, forward and back, to facilitate scene changes and create effects. When we left the Opera house, the five of us took a 90 minute ride in a horse-drawn carriage. We saw dozens of smaller "palaces,” actually just homes of former nobles; a beautiful garden dedicated to Elizabeth (wife of Emperor Franz-Joseph); and old Roman ruins.
We drove by the Parliament and Rathaus and many other buildings we'd seen on the bus tour of the city. Then we came to the Hoher Markt, once the Roman market. There we saw the Nuptial Fountain and also the Ankeruhr, an unusual clock with the twelve apostles representing the hours. We stopped briefly at the house where composer Franz Schubert lived. We also saw the Donnerbrunnen (1739), an ornate fountain representing the four Austrian rivers that flow into the Danube. Because there were only seats for four in the carriage, we took turns sitting up by the driver. But Jane had to shorten her turn because the driver apparently took a shine to her.
We rejoined the rest of the group for the "night club tour" which didn't include any night clubs. However, we went to the Prater, a large fair ground, and rode on the giant Ferris wheel that has small boxcars hanging from it, rather than seats. We only went around once, very slowly, but had a nice view of the city by night. We then rode up into the hills and had a drink at the Cobenzl Bar, where the view of the city was magnificent.
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