[size=120]My husband surprised me last night with reservations for our last European vacation before moving back to the states in November with reservations to go to the royal academy in Vienna Austria where the lippizanners are! I have wanted to go there and see them since I was a kid ( and saw the movie on how they were saved during the war, when they were almost eradicated) it’s an actual dream come true! We are going to get to see a 2 hour practice session in the morning then go on a tour of the stables, only sucky part is no cameras are allowed. 
I will have to buy a book , or try to sneak a pic with my phone. I am so excited we will be going on June 21![/size]
Sounds like fun. 
Vienna’s on my to-travel-to list because of the Lippizaners.
I will let you know what it’s like when we get back , I soooooo can’t wait!
They probably find that the easiest way to make sure people aren’t using flash during the practice…
We got conformation back we got into the morning exercise , and the tour of the stables after! I so wish they allowed cameras, I don’t need a flash with mine, pouts.
Oh awesome. I have a good friend that toured with the traveling Lippizaners for a few years. She said it was a great experience. I saw them once when I was tiny. They weren’t the ones in Vieanna, though.
Yeah I saw the ones that tour the states right after our honeymoon, they were good but I can’t wait to be in THE ROYAL ACADEMY to see the true performers. 
I’ve just booked tickets (event + plane) to see the performance of the Lippizzaners at the Spanish Riding School in September. For good measure, we’re also going to do the guided tour.
Not sure what else we’ll do in Vienna, though we got tickets to the Mozart house/museum, and the Leopold Museum. We’ll be there for ~5 days, so we’ll probably play it by ear a bit.
There is a lot to see, the tour was good then you can take pictures and if you ask and don’t use a flash some guides will let you take pics of the horses in the stables, but you cannot touch them, I did get a couple to come up to me nose to nose and feel his fuzzy muzzle that way, lol, one was napping like a colt all stretched out on his side, it was so cute! Oh we did have trouble finding the building, we actually drove by it 3 times before we saw it, the gps says it’s on the left, but it’s actually on your right(1way street) and it’s a big circular cobblestone road in front of it, there is a big banner with a horse on. It, stay to the right around the circle,go down a ways past the stable and park on the street. The parking lot beside it is for bigwigs. Then when you walk back to go in and get your tickets, the lines are crazy, stay to the left,there is a window for people with reservations, you have o go past the gift shop to go into the ticket area, it’s very crowded and confusing. If I can give you any more tips let me know, there is a good Irish pub in the hotel district we ate at.