The Cubicle is empty!!!

Where: Vienna, Austria
When: Sept. 11, 2005

God Bless to those Americans affected by the events of 9/11. Our generations Day of Imfamy. May those that perished rest in peace.

Today we started by going to the high mass service at St. Stephens Cathedral. Not as big as St. Peters but big none the less. The Bishop presided over the mass and an orchestra with singers were at hand to sing the hyms that were all written by Mozart. Needless to say the music for the mass was devine! The mass was in German of course, but I could follow it at times. The sermon was done in German, Italian and English. We sat in the first row of the second section of pews. But there were people standing in front of us, since the service was crowded. But they settled in once the “tourist” left after taking their pictures. VEry rude since they were instructed not to snap photos during service. And no I did not take any during service.

After the service we went to Zinone und Zinone for a bite to eat. Just some sandwitches.

After the lunch braek, Deanna and I climbed the south tower all 361 steps of it and Maria and her parents went to the north tower, which has an elevator. They had a decent view of the city and this is the tower with the bell on it. The south tower stands at 137 meters and the lookout point in this tower is at 63 meters. We climbed the spiral staircase and I had to stop twice to catch my breath. Very out of shape. The view of Vienna was spectacular from this vantage point. You can see the outlying mountain ranges that sorrounds this flat valley. Too bad two of the windows had obstructed views due to refurbishing. Nonetheless it was awesome! The walk down was easier to manage and did not take us long to do. We then went window shopping around the Cathedral before we had to meet with Maria and her parents for the english tour of the Cathedral.

The tour lasted about an hour and the guide just gave us the basic information regarding the construction of the Cathedral, which took several centuries. It incorporates several styles of Architecture including Baroque, Gothic and I can’t remember the others. The north tower was originally suppose to be as tall as the south tower, but the labor and material were diverted to build a wall around the city from defending invaders many hundred yrs. ago. Most recently the Cathedral was 50 % destroyed during WWII. Some by bombs but mostly bz fire since some of the construction were made by wood. Since money were scarce after the war, the Austrian’s decited to build the Cathedral back in three sections. The Tirol (west) of Austria donated their money to rebuild the floor. Another section of Austria donated money to rebuild the walls and the stained glass. The area around Vienna donated money to rebuild the roof and the towers. The symbol of each regions or states are emblazoned on the marbled floors and stained glass. That is all I can remember about the tour. Oh, he did go over the meanings and symbolism of the pulpit and the altar. And some important guy is buried in the south wing of the church. The name escapes me.

After the tour, we stopped at Z&Z for some gellato. Ate, not as good as the gellato in the Veneto region.

Then, hoping on the subway it was off to the Palais Auersperg. Where Mozart first performed for the royalty when he came to Vienna. The place was beautiful. The concert with orchestra, ballet, and opera was very exciting. The first half consisted of Mozart and the second was Johann Strauss. I guess the ambiance of Vienna and Austria made this orchestra event exciting to listen. We (the audience) even participated in a little singing. I was a great evening to end the night.

After a little dinner near the boardinghouse, we called it the night. Wonderfull day in wonderfull Vienna. The weather is perfect high 70’s. Hope our luck will hold regarding the rain. It seem like when we take our umbrellas, it does not rain. If we don’t, like last night, it would rain. We’re definitely taking our umbrellas everywhere.

Tommorow we have a surprise lined up for Don and Mary for their 46yr anniversary.

Veilen Dank, auf wiedersehen.

ps – pack is losing 7-0 in the first. will have to check the final tomorrow morning.

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 11th, 2005 at 6:28 pm and is filed under C The Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.