Vienna. It was a very cold morning with the forecast for rain. We headed out for a Broadbent/Rick Steve’s one day city walking tour. As we walked past the Hofsburg Palace we were approached by a ticket seller for a musical performance at the Palace that night which included Orchestra, Ballet and Opera at a very reduced price of 39 euro. DB had received an email the night before advertising a show similar with dinner the night before and the pictures the guy was showing looked the same. So thinking it was something I would really like to do DB agreed to book this. As we got to the Vienna Opera House which was where our tour was to start we were approached by another ticket seller for a concert at the Opera House for the same thing. DB started to smell a rat but I was just a little disappointed as I would have loved to go to the opera house for the concert as the building looked amazing. Oh well I thought at least I am going to one concert which was more than I thought I would do. We started our tour at the Opera House which was an amazing building built in 1869 in Neo- Renaissance style. After this we headed to Café Sacher, the home of the world’s classiest chocolate cake (two layers of chocolate cake separated by apricot jam with dark chocolate icing and whipped cream). This was invented by Franz Sacher who was the dessert chef to Prince Metternich in 1832. It was made famous when sold in the hotel next door. It is now shipped around the world. We then saw the Albertina Museum and Plaza with its powerful “Monument against War & Fascism”. We then had a hotdog from the traditional “Wurstelstand” which had heaters is the roof for the customers comfort whilst eating their hotdog. There were many varieties of sausage to choose from. We then followed the tour to 3 other cafes. Rick Steve must have been hungry the day he wrote this tour. We then saw the Capuchin Church, Neuer Markt Square and arrived St Stephens Cathedral in the centre of the city. Which was another amazing Cathedral built in 1300-1450. Mozart was married in the chapel. We climbed to the top of the 450ft south tower for a good view of the city but by now the rain had set in and the view wasn’t as good as it could have been. We then went to Buffet Trzesniewski a classic sandwich shop which sold open finger sandwiches with lots of fancy toppings ie egg & salmon, egg & crab, egg & bacon. They were very meagre portions for 1.2 euro. I think Rick must be on the café’s payrolls. Then we saw the Holy Trinity Plague column which is a statue on the Graben with a gilded Trinity (Father, Son & Holy Spirit) at the top. We then went to St Peter Church and saw some fancy toilets built in 1900. WE then went to a gourmet supermarket that was established in 1862 called Julius Meinl am Graben. We then walked through Kohlmarkt which is the most elegant and unaffordable shopping street. Then we headed to Michaelplatz which is the entrance to Hofburg Palace the home of the Habsburgs who reigned for approx. 600 years. The Palace like all others is grand, enormous and occupies vast areas of land. We walked through her to the Museumplatz where there were 3 museums. We went through the Natural History Museum something DB has great interest in. Rocks, fossils, dinosaurs etc. Throughout the day we were approached every corner of our tour by another ticket seller for the same and different concerts as the one we were going to tonight, all dressed in costume and all sporting the same type of folders to explain the concerts. By the end of the day we were pretty sure it was a scam and we had been HAD, especially as we put it all together 1. No dress code, 2. You could take pictures and videos of the performance 3. Everywhere we went there was someone selling the tickets. We felt very silly to have been scammed but decided to reserve our judgement till after the concert. As we approached the venue that we thought was to be a part of the Hofburg Palace we found a small museum to be the venue. We were forced to remove our jackets at the cloakroom (I thought DB was going to walk out and he would have if I didn’t make him stay) and then were made to pay 1.5 euro for the privilege as it was house rules. It was as if we were going into a grand ballroom which was really weird as we were told no dress code. They made at last 200 euro from that scam. Then we were showed into the concert room which was a little bigger than a school classroom and the stage was two steps up to a small red carpeted platform. On taking our seats DB checked Tripadvisor reviews on the concert and found that others posted that it was a scam. Oh well, lets leave our judgement until after the performance. As thought it was a very average performance by a very small cast – 4 violinists, a cello player, a pianist, an opera singer, one male and female ballet dancer. The pictures showed about a cast of 15 and DB thought they were just the dancers. We stayed to see if it improved but probably should have left at interval. Oh well. Lesson learned. A shame because even though the weather had been very average all day we liked Vienna but this left a sour taste in our mouths.