June 23 – July 3, 2014 Music Lover’s Tour: 7 Days of Vienna with a 3-day Prague Option

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itinerary
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Overview

This trip studies the great composers and musical history of Vienna in more depth than our other tours. Seven days in Vienna gives us the opportunity to experience little-known museums, visit the homes and neighborhoods of more composers, and hear performances almost every day.

When you travel with In Mozart’s Footsteps, the meals are almost as memorable as visiting the musical sites!

We will spend a day in Baden, which is a beautiful small town south of Vienna. Beethoven wrote parts of his Ninth Symphony there (we’ll visit the museum). There are also important sites for Mozart and Strauss. We will have a lovely lunch, and you will have some time to wander on the picturesque streets.

As with all of our trips, you will learn about the culture and general history of each city, stay in centrally-located hotels, eat a variety of excellent meals, and have some free time to explore the cities on your own.

The seven-day trip runs from Monday through Sunday. A six-night option is also available (Monday through Saturday, traveling home on Sunday) for those only wishing to use one week of vacation time.

Travelers can also join us for three optional days in Prague to walk where Dvořák’s and Smetana’s footsteps. Prague is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.

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The Large Hall of Vienna’s Konzerthaus. We will hear Mozart’s Requiem here.

Highlights

  • 7 days in Vienna (with a 6-day option)
  • A day trip to the lovely town of Baden to visit the Beethoven and Mozart sites, and explore the pretty streets
  • Vienna State Opera House
  • Walking tour of Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt
  • Walking tour of Schubert’s childhood neighborhood
  • Lehár-Schikaneder Villa, a private museum dedicated to Franz Lehár (composer of The Merry Widow) and Emanuel Schikaneder (who commissioned Mozart’s Magic Flute)
  • Johann Strauss, Jr. Apartment (where he wrote On the Beautiful Blue Danube waltz)
  • Vienna’s Central and St. Mark’s Cemeteries (graves of Beethoven, Brahms, many others)
  • Vienna’s Collection of Historic Musical Instruments
  • Tours of each city led by local guides

A trip to Prague is not complete without enjoying some great Czech beer!

Highlights for the Prague option:

  • 3 days in Prague
  • Dvořák Museum with a lecture by a renowned Dvořák scholar
  • Czech Museum of Musical History
  • Smetana Museum
  • Orientation walk, led by David Nelson, and a local history tour, led by an excellent Czech guide

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Performances

  • Quatour Ebene (Mozart, Bartok, and Schubert string quartets)
  • Bruckner Orchestra Linz at the Musikverein (music by Osvaldo Golijov and Philip Glass)
  • Concert of Schrammel Music, a Viennese folk music performed by 2 violins, clarinet, according and contrabass guitar. The musicians are extremely skilled.
  • Vienna Symphony Orchestra (Mozart’s Requiem and Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony)
  • Your choice of either Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus or a concert by the Vienna Boys’ Choir
  • Imperial Mass sung by the Vienna Boys Choir in the Imperial Chapel of Vienna’s Hofburg

The Estates Theater in Prague is where Mozart’s “Don Giovanni” was first performed, and where the opera scenes in “Amadeus” was filmed. We’ll see it.

Performance(s) during the Prague option:

  • An orchestral concert in Prague, yet to be determined. This will probably be in the Smetana Hall of the Art Nouveau Obecní dům (Municipal House)
  • On the first night in Prague, there will be options to attend other concerts or operas

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What’s Included in the Price

7-Day Vienna Tour

  • 7 nights in a 4-star hotel in Vienna
  • Public transportation passe
  • Tickets to the performances listed in the itinerary
  • Walking tours in each city led by local guides
  • All museum admissions listed in the itinerary
  • Two meals a day (breakfast and lunch, or breakfast and dinner); drinks not included.
  • Hotel and restaurant gratuities
  • Maps of each city
  • Electronic adapter to use U.S. devices in Austria and the Czech Republic
  • David Nelson’s guidance and assistance at all times
  • Copious amounts of fun

The Prague option includes everything listed above, plus the following for the three days in Prague:

  • 3 nights in a 4-star hotel in Prague
  • Transportation from Vienna to Prague
  • All Prague museum admissions listed in the itinerary
  • Tickets to the performance listed in the itinerary
  • Walking tour of Prague with a local guide
  • Map of Prague

Travelers on our trips enjoy good conversation and food at excellent restaurants.

The following are not included with the price of the trip

  • Airfare to and from Europe
  • Airport transportation
  • One meal a day
  • Drinks at lunch and dinner

An important note on hotel rooms:

  • The first night that is included with the tour is Monday, June 23.
  • If you would like to arrive on Sunday, June 22 (or earlier), or stay after the tour has ended, please contact us and we can arrange for you to stay these additional days at the discounted group rate.

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Preliminary Itinerary

Note: items with an asterisk are only part of the 7-day Vienna tour and not the other tours that spend 5 days in Vienna.

Haydn’s Clavier in the Haydnhaus Museum

Monday, June 23 – Vienna

  • Morning: walking tour of the center of the city with a local guide
  • Afternoon: Haydnhaus Museum with a room dedicated to Brahms
  • Evening: attend Quatour Ebene in the Mozart Hall of the Konzerthaus

Tuesday, June 24 – Vienna

  • Morning: private tour of the Vienna State Opera House
  • Morning: Mozarthaus Vienna, a large museum devoted to Mozart and his years in Vienna
  • *Afternoon: Vienna Museum of Technology which had a fascinating exhibit on unique musical instruments and how instruments are constructed
  • Evening: attend Bruckner Orchestra Linz in the Great Hall of the Musikverein

The young Franz Schubert often performed in this church. We will visit it.

Wednesday, June 25 – Vienna

  • *Morning: Schubert Museum and a walk through his childhood neighborhood including the church where he first performed
  • *Afternoon: Beethoven’s Pasqualatihaus Museum, and then free time to explore Vienna on your own!
  • Evening: attend concert of Schrammel Music in the Mozart Hall of the Konzerthaus

You can see instruments from the middle ages through the 20th century in Vienna’s Collection of Historic Musical Instruments.

Thursday, June 26 – Vienna

  • Morning: Collection of Historic Musical Instruments, one of the world’s finest museums of instruments
  • Morning: Austrian Imperial Library
  • *Afternoon: Johann Strauss Apartment
  • Evening: attend concert of the Vienna Symphony Orchestra in the Great Hall of the Konzerthaus. Mozart’s Requiem is the featured work.

Two chairs that were on stage for the first performance of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute”. We will see these in the Lehár-Schikaneder Villa.

Friday, June 27 – Vienna

  • Morning: Beethoven Walk in Heiligenstadt, where the composer spent several summers and where he realized his deafness would not get better. We will visit the Heiligenstadt Testament Museum, see three of him homes, and walk along the little stream that was an inspiration to him.
  • *Afternoon: Lehár-Schikaneder Villa, a unique private museum that few people ever get to see
  • Evening: your choice of attending Johann Strauss’s Die Fledermaus at the Volksoper or a concert of the Vienna Boys Choir at their new (2012) concert hall. Unfortunately, the performances are scheduled at overlapping times so we can only attend one of them!

One of the highlights in Baden is its beautiful rose garden.

Saturday, June 28 – Day trip to Baden

  • *We will take a day trip to Baden, a beautiful little town about an hour south of Vienna. Beethoven lived here when he composed his Ninth Symphony. We’ll visit the Beethovenhaus museum (where he lived during this time), a famous Mozart church, other musical sites, have a nice lunch, and have some time to wander in this picturesque village.
  • *Evening: David Nelson will take anyone interested to have dinner at a Heuriger, a uniquely Viennese type of wine/food restaurant where they make their wine from their own vineyards. This will be a very authentic Viennese experience!

Strolling musicians entertaining guests on a past trip in a historic Viennese restaurant.

Sunday, June 29 – Vienna (not part of the 6-day Vienna option)

  • Morning: Attend Imperial Mass at the Chapel in the Hofburg. This is where the Vienna Boys’ Choir has sung since 1498. This is a very cultural and historical experience.
  • Afternoon: Central and St. Marx Cemeteries. The graves of Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, the Strauss family, Schoenberg, and others. Also the Mozart memorial in the approximate location of where he was buried in an unmarked grave in 1791.
  • Evening: Auf Wiedersehen Wien dinner at a historic Viennese restaurant

Prague’s Charles Bridge at night

Monday, June 30 – Vienna to Prague (for those electing the Prague option)

  • Morning: take a chartered bus from the Vienna hotel to the Prague hotel
  • Afternoon: orientation walk to Old Town Square, Karlova shopping street, Charles Bridge

This cat lives at the Dvořák Museum. Here, the kitty is taking a nap on the composer’s desk, on a copy of Dvořák’s “New World Symphony”!

Tuesday, July 1 – Prague

  • Morning: walking tour of Prague with a local guide. This will take us through lots of picturesque, small streets, which is why we do Monday’s orientation walk on the main streets that you need to know!
  • Afternoon: Czech Museum of Musical History and the Smetana Museum
  • Evening: attend concert, probably in the Smetana Hall of the Art Nouveau Obecní dům (Municipal House)

Wednesday, July 2 – Prague

  • Morning: Dvořák Museum with a lecture with one of the world’s foremost Dvořák scholars
  • Afternoon: free time to explore Prague (a trip to the Castle is highly recommended!)
  • Evening: Closing Dinner to celebrate our trip

Thursday, July 3- travel

  • Stay on your own to see more of Prague, travel to another European city, or return home

Important Note: Tickets for all of these concerts are not yet available, and In Mozart’s Footsteps cannot guarantee these tickets can be obtained. That said, Dr. Nelson has always been able to purchase whatever tickets are needed for these trips, and he expects to get the tickets for this trip without any problems.

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This street, Karlova, is one of Prague’s ancient lanes that connects Old Town Square with the Charles Bridge.

College Credit

Students enrolled in the MALS program at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro can go on the trip and receive elective credit towards the MALS degree. Contact Dr. Nelson for more information.

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Price

  • 7-days in Vienna $2095, double occupancy
  • 6-days in Vienna $1795, double occupancy
  • 10-day Vienna and Prague $2990, double occupancy
  • For travelers wishing to be guaranteed a single room, the single supplement for the 7-day Vienna trip is $395. For the 6-day Vienna trip, the single supplement is $345, and for the 10-day Vienna/Prague trip, the supplement is $595.
  • For those traveling alone, you may be placed in a double room with another person of the same gender traveling alone. Depending on who signs up for the trip, you may be in a double or a single room, and will still pay the double-occupancy price. The only guaranteed single rooms are for those paying the single supplement.
  • If you want the single supplement, please indicate that in the message window on the Book My Trip page.

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Book Your Trip

  • Go here to book your trip.

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