Vienna, austria

Had a nice day in Vienna yesterday. We spent the morning on a scheduled excursion and saw much oF the historic areas in Vienna. We ended up in the center of the historic area in front of st. Stephens cathedral . It is incredibly big and beautiful, but crowded. The have tours throughout the church and you have to pay for each one. Entry to the church was free, but to go see the catacombs, 5 euro; to go up to the top of the tower and view Vienna , 4euro; have a guided tour through the sacristy, 5,50 euro; listen to a recording describing the art in the church 1,50 euro; light a candle, 0,80 euro! We wandered through, and Pete did light a candle but that's about it.  Now, within Vienna the streets are lined with shops. The buildings are all old and architecturally beautiful, so it seems odd to see a McDonald's sign or H&M hanging outside the old structures. And so many people walking along the cobble-stone streets. You have to look out for cars and other vehicles driving on what appear to be walkways until around 10:00 am. They were making deliveries to the shops and restaurants and just drove down the cobblestones to the doorways! I really enjoyed hearing the stories of the past rulers and why the statues were constructed.  After strolling around all day and having sacher torte and strudel with Viennese coffee, we rode the subway back to the ship. The weather was beautiful ( about 82 degrees) but the humidity made us hot and sweaty . We were glad to have time to shower before dinner.  At 10:30 the group who attended the mozart concert returned and everyone was treated to the cooks specialty, Goulash soup. FYI: It is said to be a hangover cure! Although I was really only mildly tipsy from the wine at dinner.  We left Vienna at 1:00 a.m. But the ship is very quiet so I heard nothing.  In the morning, on the way to Melk, our cruise director Andrew has been giving short snippets of information about the scenery. There is much to see! Now we are in the valley area and are cruising past vineyards and very old castles on hillsides . Andrew has told some of the folklore about kings in castles throwing the non-taxpayers down the hillsides, and Catholics overtaking the Protestants castle and locking the kings and priests up.