Vienna - Day 1

Over Memorial day weekend, we decided to head to Vienna.  We had one morning back when we headed to New Years in Budapest.  It was such a beautiful city, we really wanted to see more.  It was a long drive there, over 7 1/2 hours without stops.  But after the two days there, it was sooooo worth it!

When we arrived at the apartment, the boys needed to run off some energy, so off they went!  There was a great area with lots of grass where we played tag and hide and seek.

Sue was enjoying the nice weather on our balcony.

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What is a vacation without games?!?  We love to play and enjoy each other's company.

Another wonderful dinner - I really do love being able to cook and eat in the apartment.

After dinner fun, Spinner Dominoes!!  It was a lot of fun!!!

On Saturday morning we got up and headed into the downtown of Vienna.  In the evening, we were heading to the Opera house to see this show Don Quixote.

The Opera house was amazing from the outside!!  I couldn't wait till tonight to see the inside of it.  The history has a tragic beginning as the construction of monumental building of the “Ringstraße’” became a calamity for its two architects.
Due to deep foundation, the building resembled a “sunken crate”. Such criticisms finally made Eduard van der Nüll commit suicide and two months after August von Siccardsburge died of a heart attack. Unfortunately they did not live to see the big opening with “Don Giovanni” in 1869. The imposing building is characterized through its “Renaissance elbow style”.
A central tract with a huge loggia leading to the “Ringstraße”, a transversing set of wings, a domed roof over the stairs, an auditorium and a stage. After the war the Opera House was rebuilt with many additions and reopened to “Fidelio”. The new auditorium accommodates 2,200 seats and standing places. Significant details of the building are the loggia, with its allegories in the arcades, the wall paintings, and the imposing staircase with the statues of the seven Free arts, made out of marble. The Schwind Foyer, the Gobelin Hall and the Marble Hall among other things make the Opera House very unique. In addition, the stage area covers a gigantic 1.500 m².

This is a statue of Mozart.  The sculpture is made of Laaser marble from South Tyrol in Italy, and the stairs are made from diorite. This memorial portrays the musician with his music stand on a decorated pedestal.

These two statues of horses are in fron of the Austrian Parliament Building. Seen from Ringstrasse, opposite Volksgarten and Hofburg. Theophil Hansen designed it.

This is a monument to Johann Andreas von Liebenberg.  Johann Andreas von Liebenberg (1627 - 1683) was Mayor of Vienna; his leadership during the plague epidemic of 1679, and during the second Siege of Vienna by the Ottoman army, earned him high respect.

I am not sure what this symbolized, but I thought it was hilarious to have them on both sides of the bridge.

John and Sue getting ready for our city walk around Vienna.

In front of the opera house, they have a walk of fame with many stars for classical music - famous composers, singers, musicians, and conductors.  It is like a Hollywood walk of fame, but Vienna style.

Next on the walk was Café Sacher.

This is home of the world's classiest chocolate cake the Sacher-Torte, two layers of cake separated by apricot jam and covered in dark-chocolate icien.  It was invented in a fit of improvisation in 1832 by Franz Sacher, dessert chef to Prince Metternich.

So of course we had to try one and it was yummy!!

Sue tried this chocolate coffee drink.  They even gave you extra chocolate to put into it.  She said it was yummy!

This is the Albertina Museum.  It is housed in what was once the tip of the Hofburg Palace - the sprawling complex of buildings that was long the seat of Habsburg power.  The balustrade terrace up top was the balcony of Empress Maria Theresa's daughter Maria Christina.  This is the only permanent residence of the Spanish royalty outside of Spain.

The Albertina Museum houses 50,000 drawings and one million prints dating from all major epochs.

I love how this hallway looks, with the different statues at the front and the beautiful chandeliers towards the back.

This is the table that Maria used while she stayed there.

This is the gold room where she took visitors.  Look at the beautiful woodwork on the floor.

I love how interested AJ is in of the museums that we go to on our trips.  He retains so much as well!!  What an education he is getting.

This is the central stateroom, the Hall of the Muses.  It was used as a dining room and as a glamorous venue for balls. The grand hall was transformed into a sea of light by five crystal chandeliers and 258 candles set in a rosette frieze that ran around the hall.

The opulence is enhanced by precious stucco marble wall panels and pilasters, and gilded doors and decorative elements. The hall derives its name from the life-sized sculptures of Apollo and the nine Muses.

John and Sue checking out the statue of the muses.

The charm of this room lies in the four large wooden wall panels that are elaborately painted with naturalistic scenes representing the classical elements earth, water, air and fire, and inlaid with porcelain reliefs depicting mythological subjects. The reliefs were made by the English china manufacturing company which Josiah Wedgwood had founded in 1759.

You can see how big the heating unit is in the room.  It has to be fairly big to heat up the whole room.

This is a black chalk drawing by Rembrandt.  It is amazing to see some of these major artists in person!

This is "Portrait of a Young Girl" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  Another one of  the great!!!

This is one by Claude Monet.  They say the closer you are the less sharp it is.

As you go farther back, the image gets clearer and clearer.

This is one by Henri Matisse.  I like his art and how he paints.

There are not a lot of paintings that I like by Picasso, but this one is the least riscay of them all.  It shows the villa La Galloise  in Vallauris in  Southern France where Picasso moved in 1948 with his partner.  Even though the painting seems idyllic at first sight, the congested composition and the angular, vigorously aggressive linear fabric reflect the unbearable tensions between Picasso and Francoise.  The reduction of spatial depth, the interlaced architecture, and the walled garden suggest narrowness and oppressions, whereas the sea and the sailing boat express the artist's wish for change and a new start in life.

This is Face in a Landscape by Karel Appel. 

What I found interesting about this painting is that the artist painted in the dark and with her hands.  You can see how think the paint is in this picture.

We then went to another gallery in the museum.  It was so different.  This was the most any of the paintings/drawings had.  We couldn't really see anything in the art in this part of the museum.  It was just very strange.

The boys at the beginning of the museum.  They thought the statue was a little strange.

Michael stands in front of the cast statue of the Hapsburg Emperor Joseph II.  Josefsplatz is centred on a full-sized equestrian statue and monument of Emperor Joseph II, erected by sculptor Franz Anton von Zauner between 1795 and 1807. Modelled on the statue of Marcus Aurelius on Capitoline Hill in Rome, the statue was commissioned by Emperor Francis II who, from the age of 16, had been raised under the supervision of his uncle, Joseph II. The depiction of Joseph II as a Roman conqueror, dressed in a toga and a laurel wreath, reflects the Habsburg belief that they were descendants of the ancient Roman emperors.

As we were coming down the stairs the boys told us to look back up them.  So we had John and Sue stop so we could take a picture of them.  It is a painting of the special exhibit from the Russians in the museum.  We weren't able to take photos in there.

This is the Monument Against War and Fascism, which commemorates the dark years when Austria came under Nazi rule (1938–1945).  The memorial has four parts. A split white monument, The Gates of Violence, remembers victims of all wars and violence. Standing directly in front of it, you're at the gates of a concentration camp. Then, as you explore the statues, you step into a montage of wartime images: clubs and WWI gas masks, a dying woman birthing a future soldier, and chained slave laborers sitting on a pedestal of granite cut from the infamous quarry at Mauthausen concentration camp. A hunched-over figure on the ground behind is a Jew forced to scrub anti-Nazi graffiti off a street with a toothbrush.

Viewing this monument gains even more emotional impact when you realize what happened on this spot: During a WWII bombing attack, several hundred people were buried alive when the cellar they were using as shelter was demolished.

Of Vienna's 200,000 Jews, more than 65,000 died in Nazi concentration camps. A sculpture with its head buried in the stone is Orpheus entering the underworld, meant to remind Austrians (and the rest of us) of the victims of Nazism...and the consequences of not keeping our governments on track. Behind that, the 1945 declaration that established Austria's second republic — and enshrined human rights — is cut into the stone.

All of decided that it was time for lunch.  So while lunch was cooking, the boys and Grandma Sue played Trash.

This was Grandma's Sue's first time playing Trash and she did really well!!

Then it was time to eat!!!

And we all enjoyed our meal!!!

This is the four rivers fountain, which is showing Lady Providence surrounded by figures symbolizing the rivers that flow into the Danube.  The "sexy" statues offended Empress Maria Theresa, who actually organized "Chastity Commissions" to defend her capital city's moral standards.

This is the gothic church St Stephen's Cathedral, the third church on this spot.  It is in the middle of Vienna.  It was built between 1300-1450.  It is known for its 450-foot south tower, the colorful roof and covering more than an acre. 

This is Maria Pocs Icon, brought here from a Hungarian village church.  The picture of Mary and Child is said to have wept real tears in 1967, as central Europe was once again being threatened by the Turks.

Looking from the back at the nave - more than a football field long and nine stories tall.  It's lined with clusters of pillars that support the ribbed crisscross arches of the ceiling.  There 77 life-size stone statues on the nave's columns.

The Gothic sandstone pulpit is carved from three separate blocks.  A spiral stairway winds up the lectern surrounded and supported by the four church "fathers," whose writings influenced early Catholic dogma.  The guy peeking out from under the stairs may be a self-portrait of the sculptor.  In medieval times, art was done for the glory of God, and artists worked anonymously.  The artist included what may be a rare self-portrait bust in his work.

The lizards on top of the stairway are symbols of light, toads are animals of darkness.  The wheels that go up have three parts, which are the Holy Trinity going up to meet trinity in Heaven.  The ones going down have four parts going down towards the Earth.  The four parts symbolize the four seasons, the four  cardinal directions symbolizing mortal life.

You know me and my organs, this is a 10,000 pipe organ, a 1960 replacement for the famous one destroyed during WWII.  This organ is also one of Europe's biggest, but it is currently broken and it is too large to remove. 

Here is a similar self-port of Pilgrim (or is it Gerhaert?)  in color taken from the original organ case.

This is the baptistery where Mozart's children were baptized.

This is the chapel that Mozart was married in.

This is a plaque on the wall that honors Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who had strong ties to this cathedral.

This red-marble tomb of Frederick III.  Frederick III is considered the "father" of Vienna for turning the small village into a royal town.  Frederick secured a bishopric, turning the newly completed St. Stephen's church into a cathedral.  To prevent bomb damage during WWII, locals encased it in a shell of brick.

This is the organ that they use currently.  Not quite as impressive as the big one.

The high altar is make out of black marble and topped with a statue of Mary that barely fits under the towering vaults of the ceiling. 

This triptych altarpiece (meaning it has three panels) - the symmetrical counterpart of Frederick III's tomb - was commission by Frederick in 1447.

I love how the blue lights they have on the ceiling lighting up the church.

We then headed down into the tombs under the church.

This is where they bury all the bishops.

These are some of the statues that where in the church until WWII and the bombings.

This is where they royal family is buried. 

The Hasburg family have part of their innards here.  They decided that they wanted to buried in more than one place.

The small ones are the children that past away.

This was part of the bell tower before the bombing.

There were mass graves under the church.  They would just put coffin upon coffin.  They finally had to move a lot of the bodies because of the plague.  They had prisoners come and stack bones to try and make more room.

This colored roof doesn't show the two-headed eagle of Habsburg times, but two distinct eagles of modern time: the state of Austria on the left and the city of Vienna on the right.

The boys thought it was very interesting watching them put on a new horse shoe.

They were restoring this part of the church, but there is a Turkish cannonball stuck in a buttress from 1683.

One of the main streets in Vienna and you can see how many people were out and about.

Peterskirche (St Peter's Church), seen from Graben though Jungferngasse. Peterskirche, with its origins in medieval times, was transferred in 1970 to the priest of Opus Dei. The dome is 57 m tall. The baroque church was completed in 1733.

Taking a moment to check the map to make sure we are on the right track!!!

This is the complex of palaces where the Habsburg emperors lived, except during the summer.

This is the ornate top and side of the Hasburg palace.

This statue is of Habsburg Emperor Franz II, grandson of Maria Theresa, father-in-law of Napoleaon.

The boys getting our souvenir coin for the city!

The rabbit is the animal for Vienna.  We saw a few around town.

I really liked their sidewalk lights - this one looks like two people holding hands waiting.

This is for crossing the street and there is a little heart above the two people.  I love it!!!

That night we decided to take in a show at the opera house.  Look at everybody looking so good!!!

My boys on the main staircase.  They sure clean up nice!!!

The inside is as beautiful as the outside!!!

We had a whole box to ourselves and were very excited to get the show started!

Family selfie before the show!!  A little blurry I know.

Grandpa John and Grandmas Sue looking so cute together!!!!

Let the show begin!!  We watched Don Quiote and it was a ballet and was fantastic!!!  It even kept the boys interest

There were two intermissions, so we decided to go and check out a little more of the Opera house!

Me and my handsome man!!!  He looks so good all dressed up!!!!

I love the chandeliers!!!

We had so much fun at the opera and  it is nice getting dressed up!!  Grandma Sue and Grandpa John and the boys!!

At the opera house they do ballet and opera.  I think we were lucky it was ballet, because I am not sure if the boys would have enjoyed the opera too much!

Sue and I enjoying a drink!!

This boy cracks me up.  He  was just standing there like that and I couldn't help but take a picture of him!

Grandma Sue, AJ and Michael at the front of our box!

The outside of the opera at night - doesn't it look beautiful?!?

This is the screen where they showed the ballet to people on the street!!  I think that is a wonderful idea!!  So even if you can't go in and see you, they put up chairs so you can sit outside and watch it!!!  It was a fantastic end to a wonderful day!!!!