Let 'em eat Cake

May 28
Well,  today was my last full day in Vienna before flying to England.
I'll did some wandering around this morning ... there is still plenty to see.
Making my way to the first district, I decide to follow the canal.  It's raining today so had to make sure I kept my camera dry.  I took some small streets and after 30 minutes or so I was in the Landstrasse area which is where the 'people' live and work.  There was a lovely high street with shops and restaurants ... not a tourist kiosk in site.  I walked for hours slowly making my way back toward the Museum Quartier which is an area I hadn't full explored either. 
I found the Schonbrunn Palace (this was the Royal Palace) quite by accident with it huge garden.  It was hosting an event for Klimt art but I didn't have time to go in due to a tour I have booked in the afternoon, so I wandered the grounds and gardens. 
I started making my way in the direction of the Opera House looking for a place to have some lunch.  I found a nice restaurant and had an omlette and salad ... padding my stomach with some healthy food before the onslaught of what was to come later ... Cake Tour !
I met my tour group just before 3:00pm at the Opera House (there were 6 of us plus the tour guide), the tour was entitled 'Vienna's Best Kept Secret's + Cake Tour'.  I assumed we would wander around for a bit and she would show us quaint historical oddities and then we would sample some Austrian made cake.  It was WAY more than I thought.  It was the best tour I had been on yet.  The 'Secret's' part of the tour was all about espionage, fraud, murder and mob activity of Vienna hidden from view by the dessert industry ... in particular, cake !
The host had been a lawyer for the UN and decided that life was not for her so she started investigating and writing books on the very busy crime activity in Vienna's past and present.  The cake tasting at the end of the tour took place in another palace just behind the Spanish Riding School .. beautiful inside.
There were eight cakes to sample plus some croissants.  Did you know that croissants originated in Vienna ?  me either ... they were taken to Paris by the Archduchess of Austria, Marie Antionette, when she married King Louis XVI.  Some of the cakes we tasted had history behind them like the 'King Cake', the 'Queen Cake' (this one is also known as an Empire Cake) and some were just because the tasted yummy !
After leaving the cake tour, my final event for the day (and for my Austrian adventure) was a Classical concert held in the Palais Auersperg featuring Mozart and Strauss.  The concert was really good and had a little bit of Opera sung by a duet and some ballet.
Very nice end to a culture filled few day in Austria.
Tomorrow I head to England to spend a little quality time with Family and maybe see a few things on the way.