Gluckwunsch Mutter Tag! It's also Pentecost so a big holiday weekend in Europe!
We are becoming true travellers as we move from hotel to train station in a more relaxed and confident manner. Our backpacks and suitcases feel like extensions of our bodies - although it sure feels good to put them down!
Salzburg to Vienna was a three hour train trip so I was able to plug in the laptop and work on yesterday's blog...when I wasn't looking out the window! We left the mountains behind and the land levelled out and there was more farmland. Gorgeous fields of rape set against the lush green meadows and soft browns of the newly plowed fields. Mix in some chalets and country churches and it was a truly idyllic scene. The man across from me (not Dad!) was sleeping so I didn't think my camera clicking would impress him!!
We are also becoming familiar with the skyline of European cities - looking for cathedral spires as we head towards the old part of town. Our hotel in Vienna is just around the corner from the State Opera House - an immense structure that takes up an entire city block! So large in fact I don't even have a complete photo of it!!
We had some time to walk around the area near our hotel - a large pedestrian shopping street runs from the Opera House all the way up to St. Stephen's Cathedral. 
Mass was being held there so we couldn't get all the way to the front but saw enough to be suitably impressed! Massive columns, vaulted ceilings and gold and marble everywhere! 
For Mother's Day, I had booked a dinner and Strauss concert package for the three of us. We met our guide who took us to an Austrian restaurant for a dinner that included schnitzel and strudel! We met a lovely couple from Edinburgh and had fun comparing travel notes and talking about our time in Edinburgh in the fall.
We were then taken to the Kursalon Theatre for the concert. It is a theatre where Strauss himself and other members of the Strauss dynasty conducted performances. Mozart also performed there.
We entered a magnificent hall through French doors. Three walls of tall, arched windows flooded the room with early evening light. 
Chandeliers hung from the ceiling and the centre one would have rivalled the one from Phantom of the Opera! (It even swayed during the concert!!) 
A chamber orchestra performed a variety of works by Strauss and a few by Mozart and it wasn't hard to be transported back to the time of these great composers. I could picture the lavish ballgowns and the debonair men sweeping the women around the dance floor to one of Strauss' waltzes! There were soloists - a soprano and a baritone - who sang some Mozart arias etc. It was a wonderful evening and a great way to spend Mother's Day!!
