Included Vienna Tour . Your ship docks early this morning. After breakfast aboard, set off on your half-day tour of one of Europe’s most elegant and romantic cities. Your coach and walking tour features the remarkable Ringstrasse, lined with imposing palaces and grand residences, encircling the medieval Innere Stadt (“Inner City”). See the magnificent Hofburg Palace, glorious St. Stephan’s Cathedral with its gleaming spire and the beautiful State Opera House.
Vienna Leisure Time & Optional Schönbrunn Palace Tour . Return to your ship for lunch, and enjoy an afternoon exploring on your own. Take a ride on a traditional horse-drawn fiaker, sample some mouthwatering Viennese pastry (try the famous Sachertorte or a Topfenstrudel, a sweet pastry made with fresh cheese) in a sidewalk café or visit the spectacular Art History Museum. You may choose to join us for an optional tour to Maria Theresa’s wonderful baroque Schönbrunn Palace, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. See the palace’s opulent rooms and collection of period furniture, and admire the beautiful formal gardens (cost of the optional tour is 49 euros, which includes motorcoach transportation, entry fees and a guide).
Optional Concert -. After dinner, you can attend an optional concert. Held in one of the city’s historic venues, the concert features compositions by Mozart and Strauss performed by a Viennese orchestra (cost of the optional tour is 64 euros, which includes motorcoach transportation and the concert). Your ship remains docked until early morning.
Included Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner
Best Streets from NYT, by Andrew Ferren
Kärntner Strasse, Graben and Kohlmarkt
Every time I visit Vienna, I return with at least a dozen photos in my phone nearly identical to ones I’ve taken on other visits.
I love Vienna, especially its arty Sixth and Seventh Districts where galleries and independent and eco-friendly clothing shops share the sidewalks with cozy cafes and restaurants. But my camera doesn’t lie,and the sites for which I want a lasting visual record are right there along the touristy First District’s main drag running between Hofburg Palace and the Opera House.
Here, on the “Golden U,” as the prime shopping streets of Kärntner Strasse, Graben and Kohlmarkt are known, sit a handful of astonishing edifices that have nothing to do with the splendor of the Austro-Hungarian empire. Rather,they are tiny, quirky boutiques tucked among the palatial facades and renowned emporiums.
Designed by the pioneering Austrian architect Hans Hollein (1934-2014) and dating from the 1960s to the early ’90s, they provide a refreshing antidote to much of the city’s imperial pomp. Despite being beloved by Viennese and thewinner of the 1985 Pritzker, Mr. Hollein is little known outside the city and architectural circles.
The first shop is the Retti Candle Shop dating from 1965 at Kohlmarkt 10, with its sort of die-cut steel facade evoking a stylized candle and its interior completely clad in reflective surfaces like aluminum and mirrors. Nearby at Kohlmarkt 7 and among the most legibly “postmodern” in style is the second shop Mr. Hollein created for Schullin Jewelers.
Around the corner at Graben 26 sits his first effort for the same jeweler, known as Schullin I, which sits empty. Built in 1974, it has a facade on which it appears that metals and gems are bubbling out of the stone. Steps away at Graben 31 is Tabaktrafik, a tiny tobacconist beneath a massive bronze tobacco leaf, built in 1992.
While any visitors to the city will likely find themselves on the “Golden U” at some point, Mr. Hollein’s work is definitely worth checking out in person. The architect died last year, just as he was being celebrated with two major exhibitions, including one at the city’s applied arts museum known as the MAK. You can even sleep in one of his buildings (the now-iconic, once-controversial Haas Haus in St. Stephen’s Square), which was conceived as a shopping center in 1987 but now houses the swank Do and Co hotel with stunning views of the first district’s other architectural marvel, St. Stephen’s Cathedral.