Vienna, Austria
Sunday May 8, 2022
The third excursion today in Vienna was a concert in town and that meant getting on the bus for the third time for the day now at 7:30 PM. We were tired and had thought we had clearly over extended ourselves for the day. Also, it was the night to get dressed up with whatever our most fancy apparel was, with running shoes. Actually more than a few surprised us with some ladies wearing dresses and some of the fellas wearing sport coats, with running shoes. Do you know how much precious room a pair of shoes take up in a suitcase?
Our tour guide Benjamin had been recruited for the night from the concert venue, he was a ticket taker and he did a very good job. He was young, more relaxed than most local guides and asked us what we wanted to hear as he had just Googled some local sights to help him wing it. As he started to talk his voice and rhythm of speaking reminded me of an old roommate from college, Bob, who was from Montreal, Canada. Weird. The dry jokes even sounded like Bob’s , then as we departed the bus we discovered that his mother was from Canada.
We were expecting some huge concert hall with a full symphony orchestra and that we would be seated some in the middle so we could drift into our post dinner slumber without much notice.
However we checked in, got our tickets climbed the marble stairs to see that it was a small venue with only three chairs and a few music stands for the musicians on the stage. A string quartet? Ok.
The usher told us the Gate 1 group was to be seated to the left and towards the front and we shuffled in that direction to find two empty seats on the front row. The piano was on the floor directly in front of us about 6 feet away. It was then that we decided to try to look classy and not take a nap because the musicians would noticed.
The lights dimmed as the musicians entered, there were two violins and a solo violin, a cello, a stringed bass, a pianist and a flautist. After a nod from the lead violinist “bam!” they launched right into the fast and furious Marriage of Figaro. It was a night of music from every period movie we have ever seen, or Bugs Bunny cartoons and ended with some traditional waltz’s and a polka. It was exciting to be so close to the pianist that I could actually follow along with her sheet music on certain parts.
Bugs and Daffy would have been proud.
Cruising the Danube 