A lovely three rest days in Vienna gave us a chance to rest our weary bodies, wear ‘normal’ clothes and enjoy the wonderful culture this city has to offer.

Day 1:
After a lazy start to the morning we headed into town. Our hotel isn’t brilliantly located in terms of its immediate surroundings, but it is right near the subway, so easy access to main attractions. The wide promenades of truly gorgeous shops make Shopping mandatory in Vienna – and a handbag purchase was inevitable!

Spent most of the afternoon in the Alberina – real mix of modern and classical art – great exhibition of 1960s photography, and the Michelangelo to Monet exhibition (including collections of Rubens, Matisse and Chegall) Truly amazing works.
Spent the early evening strolling. As luck would have it, the Vienna Festival is on this weekend so the city is buzzing in preparation. We were lucky enough to walk past the Choirs rehearsing on an outdoor stage at the Rathaus. Stages and eateries being erected everywhere, so looks like we are in for a fun weekend.

Day 2: horses and music
Today was all about horses. Started the day with a visit to the Spanish Riding School to see the Lippizanas – sat in on a 2 hour training session. The most glorious stadium, sat right down in the front – I just LOVE the smell of horses! They were training the young stallions – very feisty- you would think they were really dancing to the music – amazing. Sticking with the theme we then did sn open carriage ride around the city (as all good tourists do) – it was just gorgeous clopping round the cobble stoned streets.

Took the lift (much like being zipped into a cylindrical pencil casw) up to the top of StStephen’s Cathedral – the largest cathedral in Austria. Once at the top had to climb the external circular staircase with only wire mesh between us and eternity! Lots of positive self talk required on my part but I made it – Brave David pranced up!

Finished the day off with the Europe Sings concert (along with another 50000 plus Viennans) – the concert we had seen them practicing for. Choirs from all over Europe sang accompanied by the Vienna Philharmonic – finishing with a massed choir. Light rain, but we had all been issued with ponchos at the start, so stood amongst a sea of orange and blue. We arrived early and managed to get right up close – hmmm do they call it a Moah Pit for classical concerts?

Day 3: A birthday in Vienna. Woke up to wonderful birthday wishes from all of you back home. David spoiled me to death – lunch at the Sky Restaurant overlooking the Vienna roof tops a touch of shopping (stay tuned for the new European look- at least from the knees down) and then afternoon tea at Cafe Sache – including their apparently famous Sache Tort.

About to head out to finish a perfect day with a Vienna Philharmonic concert (Mozart & Strauss) at the Hoffburn Palace. Tomorrow we are back in the saddle with a big 70k ride ahead of us.