Our first order of business this Sunday morning was church. But we walked right past a very nice Lutheran church to go to the Augustinian church, a Roman Catholic congregation that has its own paid professional orchestra, choir, and soloists. It's 11 a.m. high mass every Sunday.
Today it was Mozart's "Kleine Credomesse" in F-Major. Prelude, postlude, offertory and Communion music by Karl Pilss, Felix Mendelssohn, Karl Jenkins, and more Mozart was added. The service was full "smells and bells" with lots of incense, procession with torches, etc.
Not knowing how this all worked, we decided to be there an hour early. We were not the first to arrive, but we had our pick of seats and the musicians were still rehearsing. Perhaps we over-did it a bit, because people really didn't start coming until about a half hour before service time. But we had the right idea, because by the time the prelude began the church was standing room only. Apparently it's packed like Easter every Sunday!
Although we weren't able to participate in the German responses, and I can't say we got much out of the German sermon, the order of service was pretty easy to follow, and the music was very fine indeed.
It had been raining on our way to church, but the sun was shining as we left and the day was already warmer than the forecast high. We decided to return to the hotel to rearrange our clothing for the day. European weather forecasts seem to be more guesswork than science.
We then set off to begin the Rick Steves audio tour of Vienna. Steves, the travel guru, has lots of free audio tours and interviews for download from his website. They are usually quite good. This one took us from the Opera, up to Stephansplatz, and on to Hoffburg Palace.
We had seen almost all of this before, but Steves always points out interesting things we had missed. One was a war memorial not far from the Opera. Another was the Demel shop, that used to make chocolates and fancy desserts for Habsburg princes and princesses. They sold some to us today, too.
One place not mentioned, but that we happened upon, was the "Maltese Church." It was a little chapel with all the trappings of the Knights of Malta, but the only explanation of why it might be here was in German, so it remains a mystery to us.
We also saw the interior courtyards of the Hoffburg, thanks to the walking tour, and got past the plain exterior to see the over-the-top baroque interior of St. Michael's church -- just outside the palace gates and frequented by kings and queens.
We decided on a late and heavy lunch. It was raining again, but we found a sidewalk cafe with a good awning and stayed both dry and well-fed.
After yet another adjustmet to our attire, we returned to the opera. Yes, we had cheap tickets in the balcony, but we got to see the show (Verdi's Macbeth). It was a musical day, indeed.
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