We have been very lucky with weather on this trip but today we woke up to wind and rain.
We put on our rain coats and took the subway into central Vienna. Although it was extremely windy the temperature was not bad (10 c/ 50 f). And although it rained on us a bit it was never a downpour and we managed to not blow away.
We started at Albertina Museum. They have art from all the modern artists that I know and a lot more. It was fun to see the second painting below because it is a Cezanne, and we visited his studio in Aix en Provence.
Next we took a tour of the Vienna State Opera. We looked into getting seats for a performance tonight but they are sold out. Standing room goes on sale two hours before the performance but I don’t want to stand. We plan to go through Vienna again next week and we are thinking about arranging our itinerary to attend then.
The tour of the Opera House was fascinating. Here are some bits of information that I found especially interesting. The Opera House seats 2,300 people. The most expensive seats are €250. Standing room costs €3 or €4 depending on where you stand.
Although they always sing the opera in the original language each seat has its own screen where they display subtitles in English or German.
The opera is subsidized by the government. They put on a different ballet or opera every night. The ten month season includes a repertoire of 50 operas 25 ballets.
After finishing our tour we did the Rick Steves walking tour of Vienna. I have his app on my phone so we just followed his directions. We saw St. Stephens Cathedral.
We went into St Peters and listened to a free organ concert with a soloist singing.
We ended up at the Hofburg Palace.
We took the subway back to our hotel and rested our feet for a while. Right now we are sitting in the lounge on the 57th floor. The view is stupendous The wind is blowing so hard that it is howling in the elevator shaft behind us.
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