Vienna Part 2

Happy New Year! 
We last left you heading off to celebrate New Year with 75,000 others. The New Year's celebrations, known as Silvester, made a night to remember. There was a New Year's trail that wound its way through the city streets of Vienna. At certain points there was food and entertainment that catered to a wide range of tastes. There were pink pigs everywhere. We stood outside the Rathaus (Town Hall)  next to some guys wearing pink pigs on their heads.  Hearing the guys speaking English or should I say American,  I asked as to the significance. Apparently having a pink pig on New Year's Eve means good luck will be yours for 2012. Inspired, BT and AT rushed off and bought themselves a pig hat to wear for the night. They certainly were distinctive and we instantly recognised our new American friends at various places throughout the night. 
We listened throughout the night to pop music from the 60's, 70's 80's and 90's, rock and some R&B. All of these were live on stage and also projected onto big screens to enable all to see the action. At Stephansplatz GT and I waltzed ( along with many others!) to the orchestra playing hits from musicals such as Hello Dolly, Kiss me Kate and West Side Story etc. I think we have some practise required before we enter Dancing with the  Stars! We listened to many groups busk and some of the old fellas who played their instruments were something amazing. The weather was fine, warm and the night was calm. We couldn't have asked for a more perfect night to bring in 2012. The grand finale at midnight was 8 minutes of the most splendid fireworks that showered above our heads in glorious displays of colour and lighting configurations. We headed home as soon as the locals took over with their own fireworks display due to "missiles" flying vertically and horizontally and landing very close to us without warning.
We returned to the Rathaus on New Year's day to see the Vienna Symphony Orchestra playing wonderful classical music on the big screen.  However the rain set in and we wandered off home. Later that night we went to the Volksoper (the people's opera) to see Die Fleidermaus, a Johann Strauss operetta. It was in German with English subtitles. Apart from the funniest scene where people laughed endlessly and they didn't translate the jokes it was easy to follow. The music and performing was great and the story line had revenge, romance and  humour. Due to our increasing expertise of the underground we found our way to the Volksoper at the edge of the city and home again on 2 different trains and different levels of subway each way. It was a great night out to end our Viennese part of the trip before heading to Prague. JT