The Spanish Riding School

The one activity I wanted to do in Vienna was to go see the horses at the Spanish Riding School. Before we left California, I booked tickets for a Saturday matinee performance. Standing tickets were significantly cheaper than seats, so that's what I booked.

The Spanish Riding School (Hofreitschule), located in central Vienna, is a traditional riding school for Lipizzaner horses.The school has been active for over four hundred years and still focuses on classical dressage. Originally, performances were only presented to guests of the court. The school opened up performances to the general public at the turn of the in 1918 after the Austro-Hungarian empire fell at the end of World War I.

G and I arrived on time to the performance, but apparently, many others arrived before us, so we were forced to squish in among hundreds of people.

The show began with a performance piece with the young horses. Next, fully-trained stallions performed several pieces. The next performance piece was the Pas de Deux where two horses moved in mirror image. The horses did some jumps. Then, one of the riders led one of the horses on long reins through the routine; the rider held the reins and walked behind the horse as the horse performed. The show ended with the school quadrille. Eight riders came in on their horses in formation. The Spanish Riding School quadrille is the longest and most difficult in the world.

The horses were beautiful. Although not as action-packed as I was expecting, I enjoyed the performance immensely. The horses were impeccably dressed and groomed. After the performance, we saw the horses as they were led back to their stables across the street from the school performance arena. G and I thoroughly appreciated the performance.

Vienna

Vienna is a wonderful old city filled with the history of Mozart, St. Stephen's Cathedral, and the Hapsburgs. I've been to Vienna before, so I'm actually most excited about seeing the horses perform at the Spanish Riding School. G and I have standing room tickets for Saturday. In the meantime, we will be exploring the city by foot and by tram.

St. Anton am Arlberg, We Meet Again

We arrived in St. Anton am Arlberg late Tuesday night from Zurich. St. Anton is a small ski town in the Tirol region of Austria. Popular in the winter for skiing and in the summer for hiking and other outdoor activities, the town was completely dead at the end of September.  

St. Anton

G and I may have been the only tourists in the whole town.

We didn't see many people, but we did see horses and cows!

I first visited St. Anton in the summer of 2002 on my first trip to Europe. I remember the amazing scenery and the nice Austrian woman and the fabulous duvets at the hotel where we stayed way back when. I no longer remembered the name of the hotel, so I found an apartment to rent. When we arrived at around 9 PM, the owner of the apartment was at the train station waiting for us. He drove us to the apartment where he told us that since his larger apartment was available, he had given it to us!

Amazing room in St. Anton at Appartements Kohlereck

The apartment we stayed in was huge! The apartment had a kitchen, living room/dining room, bathroom,  bedroom, and a huge balcony. This place was amazing. Because September is off season, we got a really good deal on the room.

The apartment's balcony

We spent much of our time in St. Anton relaxing. G went on a couple of hikes, but the weather was only good for part of our time in the town. It was cold and rainy most of the time.

View from the apartment's balcony

St. Anton was a great place to relax in. We spent time reading and cooking. This was the first place we stayed at where we actually had access to a kitchen. We bought some fresh ingredients and enjoyed eating. While in France, we got so tired of the food. At some point, we just couldn't force ourselves to eat any more cheese and baguette. In Colmar, G and I broke down and purchased food from KFC. G went alone and left me at the hotel. He came back and said he had such a hard time ordering. He tried to order mashed potatoes and biscuits, but the guy behind the counter had no idea what G was even talking about. Imagine that! Kentucky Fried Chicken didn't have okra or biscuits or mashed potatoes or anything! G managed to come back with corn on the cob, a couple of pieces of chicken, and a sundae with chocolate hazelnut sauce, but I don't think we will try to go back to KFC again. I'm not sure I understand how a business could call themselves KFC if they don't even sell biscuits.

Finally, it was time to leave. At the train station, I said, "Goodbye," to St. Anton as we left for the next part of our adventure: Vienna.

St. Anton from the train station

Getting Ready to Leave!

Our itinerary is pretty much set. We will start in France then travel to Switzerland, Austria, and Czech Republic. Then we will fly to Denmark. G will fly home from Copenhagen, and I will fly to Iceland. I will fly fly to Sweden, see Norway, then fly home. We are finishing up our packing and are excited about leaving tomorrow.