Vienna (Part 2)

Day 3 was a visit to Schonbrunn Palace, a short train ride outside of Vienna city.  It was the former summer residence of Austrian royalty and is now a major tourist attraction where you can visit the gardens and take a tour of the palace.

It is huge and pretty impressive.

The view of the gardens upon entering the palace grounds.

View of the palace from the garden.

The structure on the hill at the far end of the garden is the Gloriette, a viewing complex of sorts.   

TIP(!):  If you are not buying the combination ticket (palace tour + Gloriette + Crown Prince Garden + Maze), there is really no need to buy a separate ticket for the Gloriette, you can roam around it for free.  The ticket just allows you to go up to the top level which is really not a big deal.  So don't buy the Gloriette ticket at the gate.  If you really want to, you can still buy it at the Gloriette itself.

Lucas and his new (but not very useful) skill of making faces.  Painting at the back is of the Gloriette.

Our first stop was a visit to the Crown Prince Garden, which needed a separate ticket.  There was nothing to see there, just a couple of lemon trees and some flower beds.  Lucas was probably the only one who truly enjoyed it.  He is happy anywhere so long as there is gravel or sand.  Life for a toddler is truly that simple.

TIP(!):  So here's another tip for you.  If you are not buying the combination ticket (palace tour + Gloriette + Crown Prince Garden + Maze), don't buy the ticket to the Crown Prince Garden as it is not worth it.  Even though it is only a few euros, it does add up if you have a big group.  If you really want to, you can still buy it at the entrance to the Crown Prince Garden itself.  There is no need to buy it at the gate.  

In fact, on the left hand side of the palace, on your way to the exit, there is a lovely garden with flowers and a gorgeous wisteria walkway.  And it is free.

The Gloriette looks really high up but it is not.  The hill is an easy walk.  Don't hesitate to go up, you will get lovely views and it is a very pleasant walk.

Stop by the fountain before going up the hill.

Cute little mermaid tails.

His mer-horse is not behaving. 

Well, this guy says the only way is up, so go on.

View of the palace from behind the fountain.

Isn't this beautiful?

More lovely views.

The glorious Gloriette.

All this is free.  See the balcony above?  If you want to get up there, you'll need the ticket.

And this is what you'll see - not very different from the view just one floor below.

I was expecting Maria to come running over the grass singing "The hills are alive...".

Have to add that having visited Schonbrunn and Henry VIII's Hampton Court, Versailles still tops my list as the grandest of the three.

Day 4 - We spent the first half at Schonbrunn, doing the grand tour of the palace as we did not have enough time the day before.  Photography was not allowed, so no photos to show.

Back in the city, we wandered over to the Museumsquartier for a dose of art.

Museumsquartier is an interesting collection of baroque and modern buildings, dominated by two art museums - Leopold and the MUMOK.

Leopold Museum has a large collection of Gustav Klimt's work, probably Austria's most recognisable artist.

The intriguing 'Death and Life' (1911)

'Medicine'


'Jurisprudence'

Interesting write-up about these painting from wikipaintings.org: 

"In 1894, Klimt was commissioned to paint the ceilings in the University of Vienna’s great hall. The commission included three paintings, Philosophy, Medicine, and Jurisprudence. When Klimt presented them to the university upon completion, they were determined to be pornographic in nature, and filled with “perverted excess.” The university would not display them. Medicine was the second painting in the series, and depicted the river of life, and the continuity of life and death, and had no allusions to medicine or the science of healing. Because of this, he was attacked by critics, who pointed out that Vienna at the time was engaging in major medical advancements, and that the painting did not depict anything about either prevention or cure. In 1945, the paintings were destroyed in Germany by advancing forces, the only remaining portions being a photograph of a portion of Medicine, and certain drawings and preliminary sketches."

View of Museumsquartier from the Leopold Museum.

Art installation at the Leopold's current exhibition on clouds.

We then wandered around the rest of the huge Hofburg Wien.

Map and an impressive list of museums.

Ended our visit where we started off - on the busy Karntnerstrasse shopping street.

Breakfast at this stately cafe before our flight home.

Vienna (Part 1)

The land of Mozart and wieners - welcome to Wien/Vienna.

We did not have a chance to sample the former.  The only live music performance we saw was a street string quartet which played Pirates of the Caribbean instead of Mozart.   We did sample the latter though, and it was most delicious.

From the hotdog stall outside the Albertina.

Vienna was an easy 1.5 hours flight out of Schipol on KLM.

The very modern Vienna Schwechat International Airport.  The glass walls of the arrival hall doubled up as a huge LCD screen showing the flight arrivals - clever.

Vienna has huge stately buildings.

 
And lots of dramatic wrestling statues.

And what must be the cleanest streets in Europe - look at this pavement.

Day 1 was spent getting an orientation of the city.  First thing we do in a European city is always to head to the cathedral.  There's bound to be one.  Doesn't matter if you don't know anything else about the city (like us).  Just go to the cathedral, it's usually where the action is.  

'Walking' along Karntner Strasse, Vienna's main shopping street, on the way to Stephansplatz.

I say 'walking' because Lucas wanted to walk/run off in every direction except the one in which we wanted to go.  But he couldn't because we were holding tightly to his hand.  So he ended up running circles around us, much like the moon circling the sun, just a lot faster.  Occasionally he would lie down on the pavement in protest.  Every few steps were accompanied by whines from him and threats from us.  And so in this manner, we inched our way to Stephansplatz to visit Stephansdom, Vienna's cathedral.

Stephansdom with its unique multicoloured tiled roof.

It had a rainbow-coloured interior, thanks to these stained glass windows.

We didn't know what else to do, so we decided to take a horse and carriage ride around the city.  We had seen plenty of these before but never tried it as the price is quite steep.  But we were glad we finally did it as it was very pleasant and relaxing.  You get great views due to the height of the carriage, plus lots of gentle clip-clopping and breeze.  

Lucas probably thought he was in a strange giant stroller.

Tail-gater.

He was very mesmerized by our driver's moustache.

And the kindly old man obliged.

From moustaches to giant bubbles - what a day.

Want to make your own giant bubbles?  Here's how:

http://youtu.be/zUJ5HBtGCYQ

Day 2 was spent at the Kaiserappartements, the most touristy part of the sprawling Hofburg Palace complex right in the city centre.

More wrestling statues at the entrance.

Josefsplatz

It got quite crowded on the rooftop.

All. That. Space.

Doing a spot of gardening at the Hofburg.

The silhouette of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known by her nickname, Sisi, awaits you at the entrance to her museum.  Spouse of Emperor Franz Josef I (who was a bit of a workaholic), she is now Vienna's no. 1 tourist attraction.  No photos were allowed in her museum and apartments but I can tell you that her life was more tragic than fascinating.  

The Silver Collection part of the museum showcases the silverware, china and glassware used by the imperial family, an amazing and grand array of beautifully crafted items.  

If you dine with royalty, you get your own little cute bottle of water, in crystal no less.

Oh, and choose whichever artwork on a plate that tickles your fancy.

Don't like Greek mythology, how about one of these beautifully drawn life-like flowers?   

Don't like white?  It's okay, there are black ones too, all equally beautiful.

While we are at it, let's have an amazing centrepiece on the dining table, yes?

They even have something for days when you are tired of all the gold and splendour and yearn for a wooden plate.  Of course, your majesty, you can't dine on a wooden plate so let's have a beautiful pretend one.  The artist will just do a simple sketch in black and white, okay?

A simple set, by royalty standards.

How about some Chinese tonight?

We were hungry after all the dazzling display of china and crystal, so we headed off to Hofburg Cafe for some Viennese dessert.

He was not done with the gardening.  

This time at Heldenplatz in front of the Neue Burg section of Hofburg Palace.












See you in part 2.