Day 12 - Saturday 6th June

We had an early start today and so I set my alarm for 5:45am and we went downstairs for breakfast at 6:30. Because of the early hour, we were just about the first people to come for breakfast. It was another excellent breakfast at the Sofitel Hotel. I had a omelet again.

The bus left on time at 8:30 for our trip back to Vienna. We had a mid-morning break at a service station. It was quite a popular spot and it was easy to see why because they had a good selection of food. They charged a fee for the toilets but David organised the payment to get us through the turnstiles.

Along the motorway was mile after mile of green fields and some occasional yellow (Canola) and purple farm lands. One thing that stood out was the amazing number of wind turbines - there must have been hundreds of them.

We reached Vienna at 11:30am. After driving along the ring road, the bus parked in the centre of town just outside the opera house and we had until 1pm to look around the city and have lunch.

Suzy and I wandered down one of the main streets which is a long plaza that is perpendicular to the ring road. I'm not sure if it is always so crowded - perhaps there were a lot of tourists like us but I suspect they were mainly locals enjoying the shopping and the sunshine on a Saturday.

We continued until we reached St Stephen's church and then went back to Rosenberger, the restaurant that David had suggested as a good place for lunch. It proved to be a good choice - a self-service restaurant with lots of choice.

The bus took us further along the ring road past the parliament and the winter palace before turning off and heading out to the summer palace. This is a very impressive site - a grand courtyard, large palace and vast land with well-kept gardens.

Our guide took us through the rooms of the palace explaining the history along the way. As usual the tour finished at the souvenir shop. Then we went outside to admire the gardens and the monuments. Although you aren't allowed to take photos inside the palace, there are plenty of photo opportunities outside. There were horse-drawn carriage rides again and there was a wedding about to start.

We were back on the bus at 3:30 for the trip back into the city to our hotel, the Hilton. This time our room was on level 2 and we had a view with glimpses of the city.

In the evening we were due to go to the celebration dinner to mark the end of our Insight tour. They told us it would include a concert. The bus picked us up from the hotel at 5:45pm and drove us to a theatre building in the city, Palais Auersperg.

Apparently this building has been used for dinners and concerts for hundreds of years - including the times of the great Austrian composers. It has a grand staircase leading up to the concert hall and an adjacent room where we had our dinner.

We knew what was for dinner because we'd had to select our options off a sheet about a week ago. The limit was two glasses of wine but somehow I managed to get a third glass.

The concert started at about 8:30. It was classical music (as you might expect in Vienna) with a 10-piece orchestra. From time to time, the orchestra was joined by a pair of singers (soprano and baritone) or a pair of ballet dancers (male and female).

There was a short intermission where they served champagne or orange juice. Very civilised and elegant. I don't normally go in for classical music but it was an excellent performance. They improvised somewhat to make it fun.

The concert finished at about 9:45pm and we went back to our hotel on the bus. Because this was the end of the tour, we took the opportunity to say goodbye to the others in the tour group in the foyer of the hotel. They had been a very good group to travel with - punctual, cooperative and good company. We had made some good friends.