This card features the Burg Theater, front and center, significant because it's where Rony and I were to meet at either noon or 6 PM today. I started the day with a trip down to the Belvedere Palace, somewhat south of the old city. This old palace was the summer residence of someone who wasn't quite King, but was pretty well up there. It appeared to be the largest privately held piece of property (?) right near Vienna. It consisted of two: a large Palace and a small one, separated by a very nice set of gardens and fountains; around the side it has a botaincal garden (quite unkempt) and an alpen garden wit all varieties of alpine plants. The latter was amazingly dense with plants, and very well maintained, but not really very interesting, except to afficionados, not me. The upper palace contained a collection of modern art: 1850 on. I really liked a lot of things in this museum.

Up to Burg to meet Rony. 1/2 hour late because I'm too proud to use my map, then waited until 1:30 - no show. But she had a great excuse involving a ferry, a taxi, and a train which she saw pull away from the station. I spent the rest of the afternoon browsing and eating and reading. Went to Burg @ 5:30 and they had an orchestra out in front of City Hall playing waltzes, or beer hall tunes, or something. At 6 plus a couple of minutes she arrived (Yay!), so we sat and listened to the music until it ended and then rushed off to hear some Mozart to which she had bought tickets (yay again, or so I thought). It turned out to be a second-rate orchestra, dressed in "authentic period costumes" that played Mozart's greatest hits. In all fairness, the operas were fairly well done and the whole second half held together pretty well, but the first half was occasionally painful.

We walked back to St. Stephens and ate at a little place on Kärtner Strasse, oddly enough the food I had on this most famous street was the worst I found in Austria (given a few days hindsight).