The Lord of the Ring... Roads

The best way to see Old Town Vienna is to ride the O-Ring Tram. The ring road is a circular grand boulevard around the historic Old Town District of Vienna, Austria.

It was the first time for us to ride a city tram. What a wonderful way to go around the city. All the buildings in this ring are built in a “historicist style” called the Ringstrassenstil, (Ring Road Style), a blend of classical, Gothic, renaissance and baroque architecture that in its combination can be called “Viennese”

Because of its architectural beauty, this road has been dubbed, “Lord of the Ring Roads” and is designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. Definitely a sight not to miss when in Vienna.

Interesting Buildings to see in the O-ring

Vienna State Opera House

(This was our group pic taken in 1998 in front of Vienna Opera House)

Rathaus

Burgtheater

Votivkircke

Losing my camera on the first day

As we strolled around the city center, one figure stands tall and catches our attention. The spire of Stephansdom. ST. Stephen 's Cathedral (more commonly Known by its German title: Stephansdom) is the mother church of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vienna and the seat of the Archbishop of Vienna. The current Romanesque and Gothic form of the cathedral, seen today in Stephansplatz, has borne witness to many important events in Hapsburg and Austrian history and has, with its multi-colored tile roof, become one of the city's most recognizable symbols. 

like a moth drawn to the fire, our group slowly made our way to the church. along the way we saw in posters that there was a youth choir festival in Vienna happening today. it said that there was an American youth choir that will perform in the church a few minutes from now. 

We made our way to the church and found the way to the seats blocked by a barrier. you have to pay to sit down or stand in the barriers if you wanted to watch for free. easy Choice, we stood up.

as we were listening to the concert, we could not help but take note of the interior design of the church. it was truly a beautiful church, the most beautiful enemy so far. it was so beautiful I had to take a photo of it. 

as I brought my camera up, someone jostled for position to hear the concert and bumped me. I tried to grab my camera as it flew in the air. It was futile. It fell to the ground with a loud cracking sound and deep down inside I knew it was damaged. I picked it up and the shutter was stuck. I could not rewind it nor use the shutter. my first day in Europe and I would have to spend the rest of this tour without a camera. What a tragedy!

Can I exchange for Austrian Schilling Please?

Right after breakfast we went to the Philippine Embassy so that we could rehearse. Competitions are tough if you are travelling. You are forced to compete with who can pay for the tour instead of your complete roster. We were finding the Competition song difficult, O Tod Wie Bitter Bist Du by Max Reger because of balance issues. (song for 10 voices but only 16 singers on tour)

(How I wish we sounded this good)

We had lunch in the embassy and it was decided that the first order of the day was to exchange our money. I found it tough to figure out how much to exchange because at that time there was no Euro yet and you’d have to go change leftover money in the next country. I was always conservative when it came to exchanging money.

One problem Filipinos had before was that our currency is not commonly  exchanged. We had to exchange pesos to US Dollars and then exchange these US dollars to the local currency. We lose money 2 times to commission fees and the challenge was finding a place with the lowest commission.

The Staff told us that we could exchange our money in the old town or the tourist square. What a treat, we get to do our business and sight see at the same time.