My blogging is not in strict chronological order however, I will return to the past couple of days shortly. Tonight (Sunday) is my final night in Vienna for this trip. I could easily return here again. I’d even suffer the cold to see it in winter. Tonight I left the hotel about 7pm and walked towards the grand Parliament building (apparently it has 17km of passageways) and the shopping malls – although the shops are not open on Sundays. It was still over 40C and people were strolling along the avenues, the parks and through the grounds of beautiful and historic buildings.
There was music. At first I thought that there was a street sound system through which it was being piped, but it turned out to be live performances. I listened to a Strauss Waltz played on guitars in a beautiful park for about 20 minutes. Becoming hungry, I wandered in the direction of the city centre and listened to a woman singing opera.
I have no idea which opera it was, but her voice was pitch perfect. Then as I was having my dinner in the mall, an older gentleman set up his squeeze-box and he belted out more waltzes and the odd polka as well.
My dinner was filling, good ‘sausages’ and a cold, cold beer. Then I treated myself to a gelato (three flavours) ice-cream. Walking back past the Sisi museum I sat a listened to one of Beethoven’s compositions being played followed by a piece composed by Mozart.
The string music was delightful. It was dusk as I strolled back through the Volks-garten with the faint sounds of the two guitars still playing. A beautiful evening and wonderful memories of Vienna.