Strauss And Mozart

In the evening, we went out to a concert by the Wiener Hofburg-Orchester. We were expecting it to be a load of hackneyed well-worn “popular” classics, but were pleasantly surprised by the programme. Whilst it was mostly Strauss and Mozart, they’d managaed to squeeze in some Lehar (who he? -Ed) as well. The Strauss was very polka and waltz-oriented, with ballet dancers for two of the dances. The Mozart was almost all comic arias or duets from his most famous operas. I've consulted my resident music expert and she informs me that they were much better on the Strauss than on the Mozart - even my untrained ear picked out a part where the orchestra and the soloist got a bit out of synch. 

Here’s that programme in full:

 

There was nothing too challenging, but it was a good light-hearted evening of music. There were a few comedy moments when the senior percussionist and the conductor had some disagreements about how a piece should be played (all carefully scripted, of course), which added to the fun. The finished up, inevitably, with the Blue Danube, and then did a couple of encores including the Radetsky March, which we all clapped along to at the direction of the conductor.

We took a circuitous route back to the ship so that we could see all the buildings on the Ringstrasse by night.

 

 

Bratislava

When we left Budapest, we reached the section of the Danube that forms the border between Hungary and Slovakia. Today, we retraced our steps by road, and visited the capital of Slovakia, Bratislava.

We were aboard by 9:15 and set off, soon escaping the Vienna rush hour traffic. Our guide, Janet, was from Bratislava and gave us a potted history of the country as we made the  hour-long journey. We stopped off for a coffee and comfort break, then carried on, across the border into Slovakia. There’s no border checks going this way, but we had been warned to expect them on the way back, so we’d all brought our passports.

Bratislava is a small city of around half a million inhabitants, and the central, historic part of the city is all walkable. Firstly we stopped at the castle, as this is separate, and on top of a hill. We didn’t really have time to investigate the internal contents of the castle – that would take all day – so we admired the outside instead, then got back on the bus and down to the historic quarter. Janet gave us a walk-and-talk guide around the centre, pointed out the best souvenir shops and ATMs which won’t rip you off with additional charges, and then we made our way to our pre-arranged lunch spot, Zylinder.

 

Bratislava castle

The lunch was unremarkable – soup, chicken, cake – and afterwards we had a couple of free hours to explore the sights of Bratislava ourselves. We didn’t have a map so we followed the street signs to the Blue Church, which is a blue church. It’s not open inside, so we took our pictures then navigated again by street sign back to the historic quarter, and wandered around there a bit, taking pictures by the working man sculpture, which you have to rub for good luck, and also the Slovak National Theatre, cathedral, and statuary. It was again a blisteringly hot day, so we selected a local bar/restaurant with outdoor seating under the trees, and ordered a couple of home-made lemonades for ourselves. Eventually we had to get up and return to our rendezvous at the restaurant we’d lunched at, and took the bus home. 

The blue church. It's blue

Slovak National Theatre

Picturesque street scene

Lady Liberty outside the Parliament building

On the way back, they were doing border checks, so we had to pull over. However, it appears that the official recognised our driver (who had the unlikely name of Bob) - presumably because he plies this route on a fairly regular basis - and waved us through, so we weren't unduly delayed. It did mean that we don't get our passports stamped, though.

In the evening we’re going to a concert of popular classics by Strauss and Mozart, so expect to hear the Blue Danube waltz, Einer Kleiner Nachtmusik, Radetsky march, and similar. Dinner will be a special early sitting so that we can get away in time for this.

This Means Nothing To Me

Well, what else was I going to call this blog? Vienna?

Vienna (or Wien as we’re supposed to call it) isn’t quite on the Danube, so we have to dock on the river and take a bus into to the city. It’s quite a way from Budapest, so we got under way as we were having dinner, and drove all night to get there. We were slightly late in arriving, and after breakfast went up to the top deck to watch as we went through the final lock before Vienna (apparently we went through one in the night, but we didn’t notice). Our excursion in the morning was at the more civilised time of 9:30 – this largely due to the fact that it took that long to arrive.

Start at the bottom...

...and get to the top

The bus took us the short distance into the central district of Vienna, and we passed many of the buildings on the  Ringstrasse, which is a road that surrounds the city on the site where the old city wall stood – it was torn down by Franz Joseph I as part of a plan to expand the city. All of the buildings are palatial – some literally so, such as the Staatsoper, Wurttemburg Palace, and the Palace of Justice. Some of these have been converted to other uses now, hotels and museums being popular options. Many of the other buildings were originally private dwellings of the rich and royal – again now converted to other uses.

We parked up, and our guide, Jascha, took us past the Natural History Museum, to the Habsburg Palace, which was hosting a visit from  a foreign dignitary – possibly the president of Slovakia, he wasn’t sure. This involved some military guard-changing type activity, which we watched, then proceeded through the palace. He told us the history of all these places and how the Habsburgs held control over hundreds of years.

Habsburg Palace

Habsburg Palace

Military men and women doing military things

The Natural History Museum

We then headed into the centre, and St Stephen’s Cathedral. At this point he said we were free to roam for an hour before he would again meet us and take us back to the bus. Or not, if we preferred to stay in the centre city. We’d already opted for the latter plan, and been supplied with Metro tickets and instructions on how to return to the ship, so we had a look inside the church, then went to get a cup of tea. Although Jascha had warned us that surliness seemed to be a requirement of waiters in coffee houses, ours was surlily efficient (in a way we hadn’t experienced in Budapest) and was able to supply us with two cups of tea in short order.

Suitably refreshed, we then sought out the Mozart House. We found it. It’s closed on Mondays. Bugger.

Jascha had pointed out some statues in some of the parks we passed on the bus, so we walked back to the Stadtpark to find them again – notably Schubert and Strauss. We stayed in the park and had lunch there, washed down with a beer. Then we walked to the Staatsoper and attempted to get some pictures which didn’t include the tram wires which trail everywhere, hampering the best views. Finally we went to the Burggarten, where there was a statue of Mozart, and also Goethe – he’s my go-to German poet.

By this time we were pretty well walked out – Wien is suffering from the hot summer as is everywhere in Europe at the moment – so we used our Metro tickets to get back to the dock. I say “used” - we were supposed to validate our tickets but failed to do so. Oh well, the ticket inspectors must have been having the day off.

We’re in Vienna overnight, but tomorrow we’re backtracking and doing a day trip to Bratislava, capital of Slovakia.