Music in Vienna

We spent the day in Vienna today and had quite the amazing experiences. We started off by going to mass in the morning to see the Vienna Boys Choir! I have some amazing videos to share when we get home. You pay big bucks at home for what we got to see today and it was free!!!!! We didn't stay for the entire mass (tourists get to stand), so we took the trolley around the outer ring of the old city for a short overall sightseeing trip. The transit here is amazing with all the trollies and subways, we've had a lot of fun figuring out how to get places and haven't gotten lost!!!!! We visited Schronnburn Palace in the afternoon and spent over 2 hours there! This was the "summer" residence for the Emperors AND the place where Mozart had his first public appearance in 1816 at the age of 6. Yes Mozart stuff is everywhere, especially since this is the 250th anniversary since his first public appearance. The palace itself was spectacular. We got to tour some of the inside, the queen had 1,500 in her enterage so the place is massive to say the least. It was shoulder to shoulder tourists inside, a little overwhelming. But we got to tour the grounds as well, a beautiful garden, a lookout over the city and palace property, and best of all a maze! that was so much fun, and I think we made pretty good time.
I got schintzel for lunch again today, SO YUMMY, I'd like to eat it everyday!
This evening I think was the best experience of the day. We got to see an OPERA at the Vienna Opera House!!!!! Tourists can get "standing room" tickets for just €2 (About $4)!!!!! We got there JUST before curtain call and had to RUN up three flights of stairs, if your late you don't get it. We made it just in time and took 2 steps at a time. We were out of breath and sweaty but we were there! And oh my goodness, it is breathtaking! The Orpheum is nothing! This Opera house was lined with boxes from floor to ceiling. To hear the orchresta start up and see the singers come out on stage....it was seriel (sp?, i love not having spell check). I couldn't believe I was watching an opera in Vienna! The singers where amazing, I think the best thing was hearing the clapping and people actually yelling bravo!!!! Yes, I yelled it once, I couldn't help myself, gotta do it. Of course the singing was in Italian, and it was fun that I actually understood some of it! Then we discovered little screens infront of us that showed the words in English! It was of course a tragic love story of some sort. We only stayed till intermission as we were standing and we had a side view and were straining our necks. If you get there early some of the standing tickets had quite an amazing view.

I forgot to share a story about our trip through the Medivel cities..... Dad you will LOVE this one!!!! We were in Dinkelsbruhl (love the name, eh), and walked around and came back to our car.....we had a parking ticket!!!! Apperently we missed the sign OUTSIDE the city that said you had to have a pass of some sort..... well we found out that you pay the ticket at city hall, we found city hall and Rita went in to pay for it, and yes Dad we sure did get out of it!!!!! I can get away with warnings even in Europe!!!! It's awesome! I know one day my luck will run out and I'll get a really big one to make up for all the warnings I've collected.

Time for bed...... we've got a day of driving ahead of us tomorrow.....of toSalzburg for the Sound of Music!!!!!!!!