Next we caught a tram to the Upper and Lower Belvedere, the former Summer Palace, situated about 20 mins outside the city ring.
This is an internet image of the palace (in summer - and not my image)
Unfortunately yet another Christmas market was being held on the forecourt, so no view.
And the view looking from the Upper to the Lower Belvedere was equally uninspiring on such a grey day (although our guide book said it offered an excellent view of the city skyline, remarkably unchanged since Canaletto painted it in 1760. Canaletto was of course noted for his depictions of cranes).
And housed quite a few Klimts, including The Kiss
Unfortunately the gardens had been put to bed for the winter and the orangery/other buildings were closed. We were too lazy to walk down to the Lower Belvedere so sat on a bench and ate our smuggled muffins before getting a tram back into town.
Still hungry we stopped in a metro cafe for a hot drink and a flavoured bread. As per usual the coffee took forever to be made (must introduce Europe to instant coffee). The bread was huge and looked better than it tasted.
The Ringstrasse is a circular grand boulevard which serves as a ring road outside the historic inner town and included in our VP was a heritage tram ride with recorded commentary. So, suitably fortified we headed off by metro to catch the tram and Ian did a super job of getting us there just as the tram arrived.
Thanks to another piece of impeccable timing by Ian when we left the tram ride and walked over to catch the tourist boat, we were just in time for the next sailing. It was a much nicer boat that you usually get doing city cruises but unfortunately there wasn't much to see as the river doesn't really run through the old town.
