Thursday 24th April 2014

We left Durnstein just after midnight travelling along the beautiful Danube to arrive in Vienna this morning not long after we woke up, to yet another lovely sunny day.

We are to tour the city, first by coach and then have a walking tour of the inner mall part of the city this morning.

Vienna or Wien as it is known in German is indeed a truly elegant and grand city, the architecture is something to be seen. Opulent, elegant Palaces and churches at every turn. In the centre, known as the "1st District" is St Stephen's Cathedral, next to this is "Karntnerstrasse" Vienna's main pedestrian street which leads straight to the Opera House and many other opulent buildings and expensive shops. We had free time to explore ourselves for a while, before we returned to the boat for lunch.

We could have elected to spend the whole afternoon exploring but we are going to see a classical music concert tonight so a little rest might be in order for this afternoon.

We left at 7.00pm all dressed in our finery to be taken to our concert venue in the magnificent City Palace Liechtenstein. It has been extensively renovated over the last 4 years to bring it back to its former glory. It is thought to be the first major building of the High Baroque period in Vienna.

Just as we arrived by coach to the City Palace Liechtenstein the heavens opened up, again our highly organised Tour Director, Arno was ready with heaps of umbrellas to help keep us dry as we walked to enter the Palace.

The Palace is magnificent, lots of gold, silk walls of rich colours, beautiful paintings and many different sparkling chandeliers weighing up to 3 tonnes.

We were greeted with a cocktail on our arrival, then shown to our seats for our own private classical music concert. A thirteen piece orchestra, dressed in formal black suits and the ladies in formal dresses took up their positions to entertain us for the next hour, they played music by Strauss and Mozart, which you would expect being in the city of music - Vienna. How could you not enjoy, being in such beautiful surroundings listening to extremely talented people.

We came out of the Palace to our waiting coaches, it was dry again, but as we drove back, the city had a new magic being all lit up and sparkling from the earlier rain.

Another beautiful day ends.

Chat again soon.