Ed and Annette's Excellent European Adventure: Vienna is a great place

We have decided that Vienna is an outstanding place to visit - the more we see, the more we love it. Our last day was a mixture of gorgeous stallions and gorgeous buildings. We were up and headed to the Spanish Riding School to watch the morning exercises for the Lippizaner Stallions. Since today was a normal workday, we were surrounded by many more people on the street and subway. Wow-lots of activity!

We walked into the Lippizaner facility and were taken aback by the beautiful architecture of a 1800's building with three gigantic chandeliers overhanging the football field size arena. And to think that this is for horses!!!! We were fortunate to get seats on the first level right along the rail; what an amazing view! Since this was their practice and not a show we got to see a little of how the horses are trained. The majestic creatures are such a pleasure to watch. We found it interesting that the colts are born brown and turn to solid white somewhere around four to 10 years old but one in 100 remain brown for life; they call these "lucky horses." Only four to six horses are chosen each year to be the show horses; they only pick the best of the best. The riders begin their training at 15 and it takes four to six years to become an assistant rider and another four to six to become a chief rider. Enjoy the pictures because they had to be discretely taken: Photography is strictly forbidden!

After watching the practice for a couple of hours we went to Schloss Schonbrunn which is the palace and grounds of the last King of Austria. The Monarchy fell after WWI and a social democracy was formed. The Palace is located about five miles outside the city center tucked along the green hills of the open country. The beautiful yellow palace is surrounded by extensive landscaped gardens, decorative features, fountains and is home to the very first zoo in Europe. These grounds and palace may not be as fancy and as extravagant as some of the other country's palaces but it was pretty amazing.

We went to a little cafe where they did a strudel show and taught us the proper techniques for making an apple strudel. Along with the ticket we got to sample the product. The lady that did the presentation was sweet and entertaining. We were amazed how she switched between English and German so effortlessly all the while making a strudel. The dough is thrown like a pizza but ends up much thinner. We have decided that European pastries are not quite as sweet as American - not a bad thing, just different.

We headed back into the old town area for dinner and found a nice outdoor place. We looked around to find the table that had the least amount of smokers nearby but it didn't work - soon we were being bombarded by second hand smoke. Smoking is Europe is out of control, it is just like America in 1960. Cigarettes are sold in vending machines on the street, there are ashtrays at every table at all the restaurants, inside and outside. It is crazy. These people are chain smokers with a continual smokey haze everywhere. YUCK!!!

Before we left the plaza area we strolled by a booth of a Ugandan woman selling products made by women in Uganda. We told her about our past mission trips and she was so sweet to thank us for helping the people of her country. It warmed our heart to connect with her.