Vienna goes by in a Flash 10-25-15

We keep wondering how a person can say they've seen a city in two or three days.  We've been here for two and a half days and have barely scratched the surface.  Today we got out fairly early again and made our way over to the St. Stephen Cathedral which was begun in the 1350's  in it's gothic splendor.  It was damaged pretty heavily in WWII and had its wooden roof structure replaced with a steel  substructure (very controversial).  Deb says it's been in a constant state of rehab since WWII. Today when we got there a mass was in progress so we couldn't tour the entire building.  But I was impressed at how full the cathedral was with parishioners, certainly over 70 percent.  We spent perhaps 15 minutes seeing what we could and then walked back to the Heldenplatz at the Hofburg.
They were setting up for what looked like an autumn festival (Octoberfest?).  We think it may have been a national holiday as well because they had a very large military exhibition with what looked like specimens of military equipment for all the branches.
While we walked back through they were doing a precision drill team demonstration, but we were on our way to the Museum of the History of Art.(Kunsthistorisches Museum).

For us the major draw was to see the Cellini Saltcellar, created in 1534 by Benvenuto Cellini for Francois Premier and subsequently given as a gift by Charles IX to a Habsburg Grand Duke who had performed a service for him.  It is one of the great art treasures of the world and a definite must see. So we did.

Not wanting to spend an entire sunny and warm day inside we left after an hour and went to lunch at a restaurant located in a former glass house of the Habsburg palace and faces the Burggarten.
It is noted for its seafood and it didn't disappoint us, Deb had trout and I had river salmon both of which were delicious.  After lunch we walked in the Burggarten and viewed the monument to Mozart.  It is a pity that they didn't appreciate him during his life like they revere him now, I can only imagine what he may have accomplished.
After a short stop in the park we decided to see the city from the trams which follow the Ringstrasse. it appeared that we could take the trams 1 & 2 to circle the city center.  So we boarded the number 2 as it came up and rode it along coming to the conclusion that it didn't feel very circular in its path. We rode it out to its terminus and it was a one-way ride, so we rode it back to where we boarded and decided that the number 1 tram had to be the correct one.   But we got the same result only in an opposite direction, what the heck?  Right before the last stop on the number 1 line
I saw a really interesting building so when we stopped I decided to jump off and get a quick picture.  I opened the door, got off and laughed ruefully when it left without me.  I waved at Deb as she left.  In my defense the number 2 train waited longer before leaving at its terminus so I thought I had time.  So I walked back and took a couple pictures of the building which turned out to be a water tower.  I then walked down to the second stop to wait for the next train and there was Deb waiting for me.  Our little travel understanding in these situations is that the person still on the train will get off at the next stop and wait for the next train to meet again. Good thing I didn't take the subway back to where she said she'd meet me as I got off the first time.
We were riding back in the dark, due to daylight savings coming off it gets dark before 5:00pm now. We got back to where we could change to the tram that goes by our hotel and saw that the two museums were lit up like the light shows we saw in Berlin so we walked over and watched them for a little while before going back to the hotel.  Once again I watched the last half of the other semi-final rugby match between Australia and Argentina, another good match that for a few Argentina mistakes would have been much closer.  So the finals will be New Zealand versus Australia and it should be a very good match, or so I hope.
Tomorrow we have a long travel day from Vienna back to Paris via Salzburg, Munich, and Stuttgart and we leave early.  Don't expect much the next day.