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This year's spring trip was a 15-day river cruise on the Danube and Rhine. Doug and I flew from Toronto to Paris and then on to Vienna, which we'd also visited in the fall 2008.
It's a beautiful city to explore. Our second day there began with a morning tour of St. Stephen's Cathedral, which is situated in the heart of the city and stands on the ruins of two earlier churches, the first being a parish church consecrated in 1147.
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We stopped by a stable at the Spanish Riding School and luckily caught a glimpse of a few of the performing Lipizzaner Stallions; the breed dates back to the 16th Century and was saved from extinction at the end of World War II by General George Patton.
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The State Hall of the Austrian National Library is one of the most beautiful historical libraries in the world; the library owns about 8 million books and objects, including terrestrial and celestial globes from five centuries.
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Although we've been to Vienna before and attended a number of concerts, the music of Strauss and Mozart is always enjoyable; this performance was at the Kursalon Wien.
(blog entries by Heidi Hutson)