Prague and Vienna – November 2013 January 30, 2014
Posted by freda in Birmingham, Michigan.2 comments
Don and I left for our annual November holiday the evening of November 19th and arrived in Prague the afternoon of the 20th. After checking into our highly recommendable hotel – (if you click on any picture you will see it in full screen; I have also added Don’s name in brackets on any of his pictures)
Hotel Pod Vezi
and unpacking in this room:
our deluxe room
our first stop was a late lunch: beer and goulash, of course!
our first Czech beer
Then, as the light was fading (so early!) we started off for a first look at the city, across the Charles Bridge and into the Old Town square.
from the middle of Charles Bridge, looking back at the Prague Castle, all lit up
We walked and walked the Old Town – a good way to fight jet-lag – until we were ready for dinner. Back to our hotel side of the bridge, the area called the Little Quarter, or Malá Strana, we wandered, looking at the restaurant choices, getting lost in the meandering streets, and finally chose a local “Czech” place in the Little Quarter Square, where I had a duck leg and Don had ribs and dumplings – typical local hardy, and tasty, fare.
The next morning, after a great buffet breakfast, we met our tour guide Petr:
Petr Zidek (Don)
We had arranged to take two half-day tours with Petr. He divided the city in half, by the river, and during our first 3 1/2 hour morning we walked all over the Little Quarter and Castle Quarter. He likes to start with this side, as there are great views of the city up on the hill where the Castle is situated. So, up the hill we climbed, to the Prague Castle and St. Vitus Cathedral. The Castle grounds are huge, pretty much a town unto itself, and for over 1000 years, Czech leaders have ruled from the Castle. It continues to be the offices of the Czech President. The Cathedral sits in the middle, an imposing sight:
St. Vitus Cathedral, flying buttresses galore (Don)
St Vitus Cathedral (Don)
members of the symphony play outside the Castle gate, where they can earn more than the symphony pays (Don)
We walked the grounds, but didn’t go into the buildings. Then, we meandered along the streets behind the castle…
cobble-stoned streets
to get to the Monastery for the gorgeous view of the city…
I love this view!
From the Castle Quarter to the Little Quarter, of which Rick Steves, in his guidebook, says: “This charming neighbourhood, huddled under the castle on the west bank of the river, is low on blockbuster sights but high on ambience.”
colourful streets
building detail
One of the “sights” in this area is the Lennon Wall: “John Lennon’s ideas gave many locals hope and a vision. When he was killed in 1980, a large wall was spontaneously covered with memorial graffiti. Night after night, the police would paint over the “All You Need Is Love” and “Imagine” grafitti. Day after day it would reappear. Until independence came in 1989, travelers, freedomlovers and local hippies gather here. Silly as it might seem, this wall is remembered as a place that gave hope to locals craving freedom. Even today, while the tension and danger associated with this wall are gone, people come here to imagine.” (from Rick Steves’ guide to Prague) This link is from a Prague tourist website, with a little more detail: http://www.prague.net/john-lennon-wall
Lennon Wall (Don)
Imagine all the people living life in peace
We crossed a canal that used to be lined with mills, where every mill had its own protective water spirit. I wonder if this was one:
protective water spirit?
Also, a sight that has become ubiquitous in Europe, which apparently started in Russia – couples put padlocks on the bridge rails, a symbol of their love:
padlocks of love (Don)
Three and a half hours of non-stop walking, talking about the country’s history, communism, and Petr’s own history (he defected from the country after completing his university degree in engineering, and after some struggle, ended up in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for several years, before returning to Prague in 2003), and we were back to our hotel for a much-needed rest and late lunch.
Then, off again for some touring on our own. My top priority was the Klementinum: The Czech National Library, one of the most beautiful in the world. The only way to see the library is by a tour, and sadly you can’t take pictures, but there are a number of websites that show what it looks like: http://www.pragueexperience.com/places.asp?PlaceID=844 (You can also google Klementinum Library and click on the images for lots of great pictures.) The tour package includes the Chapel of Mirrors, a lovely room where concerts are held, and the Astronomical Observatory Tower, with several old astronomy apparatases of which the tour guide was quite proud, and a very steep-stepped climb for some great views over the city, worth the climb.
Then, we wandered to find The Family Museum of Postcards inside the Choco Café. Apparently the Austrian Empire invented the postcard – the walls of the café were covered in framed old postcards, and they had several early-20th-century examples of postcards for sale. http://www.choco-cafe.cz/house-of-red-chair_p19.html
Choco Café
After we had fortified ourselves with hot mulled wine and a little snack at the café, and I had bought a few postcards,
old Prague postcard “greetings from children from Prague”
old postcard
we walked back to what we affectionately called “our side of the bridge” and checked out Shakespeare and Sons book store with their large selection of books in english… and, well, you know me, I had to buy a few. 🙂
Shakespeare and Sons book store
Then, off to find a restaurant recommended to us by friends who had stumbled upon it during their visit to Prague: http://www.ichnusabotegabistro.cz/ This Sardinian restaurant was hard to find, tucked into a quiet neighbourhood, but well worth the search. There are no menus, just a verbal list of the specials of the day – you know it’s fresh! Everything was delicious!
Petr was back the next morning at 10:00 for our Old Town, New Town, Jewish Quarter tour, another 3 1/2 hours of walking and talking. The Old Town Square is the centre of Prague. “It has been a market square since the 11th century and became the centre of the Old Town when its Town Hall was built in the 13th century.”
Town Hall, Old Town Square
Next door to the Town Hall is the famous Astronomical Clock, which was installed in the early 1400s and is a marvel of technology.
Astronomical Clock
It has several revolving discs and (apparently) tells Bohemian time, modern time, the time of sunrise and sunset. There are four statues beside the clock face that “represent the 15th-century outlook on time and prejudice: a Turk with a mandolin symbolizes hedonism, a Jewish moneylender is greed, the figure stating into a mirror stands for vanity, and Death, with the hourglass, reminds us our time is running out.”
the statues of the clock (Don)
At the top of the hour, Death tips his hourglass and pulls the cord, ringing a bell,
Death (Don)
the windows open and the 12 apostles parade by, and then the hour is rung.
two of the apostles in the windows
It’s all over in 25 seconds. The crowds gathered for the show, in November, were many. We can’t imagine how crowded it must be in the summer!
crowd waits for the clock to strike (Don)
In the centre of the town square is a memorial to Jan Hus. “Jan Hus (c. 1369-1415) lived and preached a century before Martin Luther. Both were college professors as well as priests. Both condemned Church corruption and promoted a local religious autonomy. Both helped establish their national languages. Hus gave the Czech alphabet its unique accent marks so that the letters could fit the sounds. Both got in big trouble. While Hus was burned at the stake as a heretic, Luther survived. Thanks to the new printing press, invented by Gutenberg, Luther was able to spread his message cheaply and effectively. Since Luther was high-profile and German, killing him would have caused major political complications. While Hus may have loosened Rome’s grip on Christianity, Luther orchestrated the Reformation that finally broke it. Today, both are honoured as national heroes as well as religious reformers.” (Rick Steves guide)
Jan Hus memorial, erected in 1915 (500 years after Hus’ martyrdom by fire)
Also in the Town Square, the Týn Church, which for 200 years after Hus’ death, was Prague’s leading Hussite church. Previous it had been Catholic and after the Hussites were defeated, was returned to Catholicism.
Hus looks over to the gothic Týn Church (Don)
Behind the church is the Ungelt Courtyard, once the commercial nucleus of medieval Prague.
Ungelt Courtyard, a beautiful little square
From the Old Town Square we wandered through the Jewish Quarter. “Of the 120,000 Jews living in the area in 1939, just 10,000 survived the Holocaust. Today there are only 3,000 ‘registered’ Jews in the Czech Republic, 1,700 of whom are in Prague.”
The oldest synagogue in Eastern Europe is here, built in 1270:
Old-New Synagogue (Staronová Synagóga)
The history of the cemetery is interesting: between 1439 and 1787, this was the only burial ground allowed for the Jews of Prague. It is claimed the tombs are layered seven or eight deep, and that there are close to 100,000 tombs here. The tombs were piled atop each other because of limited space, and the Jewish belief that the body should not be moved once buried. With its many layers, the cemetery became a small plateau. This picture, from the street behind the cemetery, illustrates how high the ground now is with those layers:
the Jewish cemetery, showing high above the shopping stalls
As we made our way from the Jewish Quarter to the New Town, we passed this statue, a tribute to author Franz Kafka, born in 1883 to a German-speaking Jewish family in Prague, and probably Prague’s most famous author. The sculptor is by Jaroslav Róna, and the work is “inspired by events in Kafka’s story, Description of a Struggle.” (I’ve never read Kafka.)
Franz Kafka monument
Leaving the medieval Prague of Old Town and heading into the modern New Town, one of our first sights is the Powder Tower, “the Gothic gate of the town wall, built to house the city’s gunpowder. This is the only surviving bit of the wall that was built to defend the city in the 1400s.”
the Powder Tower
Next door to the Powder Tower is the Municipal House, built in 1911, housing Prague’s largest concert hall and a few restaurants. The building is “Neo-Baroque, with a dusting of Art Nouveau.”
the side of the Municipal House
front of Municipal House, with “Homage to Prague” mosaic
old and new side-by-side (Don)
Stepping inside Municipal House, the interior is “arguably Europe’s finest Art Nouveau.”
interior Art Nouveau stairwell
Art Nouveau café
Nearby is the Estates Theatre, built in the late 18th-century, and where Mozart conducted the world premiere of his opera Don Giovanni in 1787. It is the only theatre left standing where Mozart performed.
Estates Theatre
Wenceslas Square, is really a very wide boulevard rather than a square, and is the main part of New Town. It is named for King Wenceslas, “the wise and benevolent 10th-century Duke of Bohemia.”
Wenceslas Square, with the National Museum at the end
Close to the statue of King Wenceslas is an important memorial, almost hidden in the garden. “It commemorates victims of communism such as Jan Palach, a philosophy student who loved life, but wanted to live in freedom, and who in 1969 set himself on fire on the steps of the National Museum for the cause of Czech independence. He died a few days later. On the 20th anniversary of his death, huge demonstrations swept the city, leading …after more demonstrations… 10 months later, to the overthrow of the Czech communist government in 1989.”
memorial
On November 17, 1989, 30,000 students began a series of demonstrations that eventually resulted, on December 29, with the end of the communist regime and the election of Václav Havel as the president of a free Czech Republic. On Národní Trída (National Street) there is a memorial to the event, and because we were in Prague just shortly after this anniversary date, we saw the remnants of this year’s remembrance:
17.11.1989 memorial
During both days with Petr, he very cleverly walked us on a route that took us right back to where we started in 3 1/2 hours. We said thank you and good-bye on the Old Town side of the Charles Bridge, right under the statue of Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor who ruled his vast empire from Prague in the 14th century. The statue was erected in 1848 to celebrate the 500th anniversary of Prague’s Charles University. In the statue, Charles is holding a contract establishing the university, which was the first in Northern Europe. The women around the pedestal symbolize the school’s four subjects: the arts, medicine, law and theology.
Charles IV
We walked back over the Charles Bridge (something we did once or twice a day!) ate lunch, and then went to our hotel for a much-needed rest. In the early evening, we walked back over the Charles Bridge and bought tickets for a classical performance at the Municipal House later that evening, then had a light meal at the Grand Café Orient, in the Cubist House of the Black Madonna, a building designed and built in 1911-1912 as the first example of cubist architecture in Prague: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_of_the_Black_Madonna
Then, off to the Municipal House for a 12-string ensemble presentation of Dvořák’s Serenade in E Major for Strings, Op.22 and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
beautiful Smetana Hall, Municipal House
another view of the hall
string ensemble plays
The concert was just over an hour long – a perfect amount of time. We walked back to our hotel, got a bottle of wine and took it up to the small roof-top patio to enjoy the night views of the city. (Yes, it was chilly – we wore our coats – but not too cold to enjoy the wine or the view.)
wine for two
Prague rooftops
top of the Gothic gate at the end of the Charles Bridge (Don)
This gothic gate (above, at night) was just steps from our hotel:
Gothic gate, Malá Strana side
the gateway
from our hotel window, the start of the Charles Bridge
I can’t believe we didn’t take any pictures of the Charles Bridge, since we walked it at least twice a day, but here’s some information about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Bridge
The next day, Saturday, we toured a few museums. First to the Museum of Communism, which tells the history of communism in Prague quite thoroughly, and with all information in English. It also includes a short video of the protests in 1989 which culminated in the end of communist rule. It was very worthwhile.
A stop for coffee and strudel recharged us before we went to the Mucha Museum, dedicated to the work of Czech Art Nouveau artist Alfons Mucha, of which Rick Steves says, “This is one of Europe’s most enjoyable little museums. …With the help of an abundant supply of sultry models, Mucha became a founding father of the Art Nouveau movement.” He is perhaps most famous for the many Sarah Bernhardt posters she commissioned him to create. We recognized his work immediately, and I’m sure you will too: http://www.alfonsmucha.org/
Afterwards we went walking, first heading to Charles Square, of which Rick Steves said, “Prague’s largest square is covered by lawns, trees and statues of Czech writers. It’s a quiet antidote to the bustling Wenceslas and Old Town squares.” You know the mention of statues of writers intrigued me. Well, we walked pretty much the whole square and huge park and all we found was one statue! I think I need to have a talk with Mr. Rick Steves!
Vitezslav Halek – poet
From the park we headed towards the river, and came upon this intriguing street art along the way:
intriguing street art – no explanation
he’s not Mary Poppins 🙂
sitting atop the Mosaic – a music club
And then at the river’s edge, what is called “Dancing House” and nicknamed ‘Fred and Ginger’ – designed by Frank Gehry of Toronto, Canada:
Dancing House
It was past time for a very late-lunch. We stopped at Cafe Louvre http://www.cafelouvre.cz/en/ where Franz Kafka and Einstein, among others, liked to spend time, and had a delicious meal:
vegetable pancake and avocado salad to die for, and Czech beer, of course
Then, back to the hotel for a rest before an evening out. We love jazz and earlier in the day had walked past a few different clubs to decide on a place for our evening. By chance we picked the Agharta Jazz Club http://www.agharta.cz/ and had the BEST night of our trip, actually the HIGHLIGHT of our trip! We got to the club an hour before the show started, luckily, because it turned out all but three of the tables in this small club (seats about 60) were reserved. (Reservations hadn’t occured to us.) As the club began to fill up we ordered a bottle of wine and waited for the show. It turned out the place was full because the Czech’s top jazzman was performing!! Jiří Stivin & Co Jazz Quartet blew us away!!
Jiří Stivin
We stayed until the very last note, at midnight, and loved every single moment. Their CD has been my soundtrack while I write this blog.
Wandering home, we passed this bakery for the umpteenth time and this time bought a treat to eat as we walked.
delicious bakery treats (Don)
The next day was our last in Prague. We wanted only to take a few pictures and buy “Bohemian garnets,” mined from a mountainous area of Bohemia and, (according to Rick Steves), the major source of garnets from the Renaissance through Victorian age.
We mostly had the wonderful architecture in our camera focus:
taken from the Charles Bridge
heading into Old Town Square
take a good look at this one (in the Old Town Square) as the whole building is being turned into a McDonald’s…
..joining the Starbucks right next door (though, at least slightly hidden on the ground level under an arch)
these buildings reminded me of those in The Netherlands
some were extraordinarily decorated (this shows the top of an old well in front of the building)
many had beautiful doors
and a few beautiful windows
We had a great day of walking, eating, and shopping – I got a pair of earrings and Don got a pair of cuff links. Our last dinner was at Klub Architektů, a kind of modern vibe in a medieval cellar, with very good local white wine. And then, to the Hemingway Bar for an evening cocktail. (Well, two.) http://www.hemingwaybar.cz/bar-prague/ The bar was another highlight, recommended to us by friends. Hemingway never drank there, but they are dedicated to cocktails in a way Hemingway would approve. We sat at the bar watching the expert bartender shake and stir. It was great fun!
cocktails for two
One last walk home across the Charles Bridge…
one last view of the beautiful Prague Castle at night (Don)
And that was the end of our wonderful time in Prague. The next morning we were up and out, on the train to Vienna. We left Prague at 9:45, made one connection, and at 2:20 arrived in Vienna. We got a taxi to the hotel, checked in and unpacked. It wasn’t such an atmospheric hotel as the one in Prague, but in a convenient location, fairly modern, very clean, and the breakfast buffet was good.
our room
Having missed lunch (just snacks on the train), we looked to Rick Steves’ book for local restaurant recommendations and walked just a short distance for a typical German meal of schnitzel, potato salad (very different, but delicious) and beer, and the only picture of the two of us together on the whole trip:
first meal in Vienna
yummy and huge – very filling schnitzel
And then, as it started to get dark, off we headed to the centre of Vienna – St. Stephen’s Cathedral square, where we were surprised, but very happy, to find a Christmas market.
St. Stephen’s Cathedral (Don)
Christmas market booth
cheery Christmas decorations galore
best of all, “Glüwein” – hot mulled wine
We walked and walked, past many high end shops, more churches, up to the palace gates, and then back towards our hotel, stopping at the Marriott’s bar for a glass of wine before heading to our hotel and bed.
The next day, after breakfast, we started our sight-seeing with a tour of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, the heart of Old Vienna. There was a sign inside to tell us of a tour in english, and the fellow’s detail was good. Then we remembered that Rick Steves has podcast tours (which I’d very cleverly downloaded for our iPods before we’d left home) and one of his podcasts is a tour of St. Stephen’s, so we listened to his version as we wandered through the cathedral taking pictures. I won’t go into all his detail, but a few highlights include:
the old pulpit – a Gothic sandstone pulpit, c.1500 –
Gothic pulpit
closer view of carved detail
peeking out from under the pulpit stairs, thought to be a self-portrait of the sculptor (Don)
a carved statue of the Madonna of the Servants (from 1330), a favourite of working people –
Madonna of the Servants
and the tomb of Frederick III (1415-1493), “who is considered the ‘father’ of Vienna for turning the small village into a royal town with a cosmopolitan feel. Frederick secured a bishopric, turning the newly completed St. Stephen’s church into a cathedral. The emperor’s major contribution to Austria, however, was in fathering Maximilian I and marrying him off to Mary of Burgundy, instantly making the Habsburg Empire a major player in European politics. The lavish tomb (made of marble from Salzburg) is as long-lasting as Frederick’s legacy. To make sure it stayed that way, locals saved his tomb from damage during WWII by encasing it (as well as the pulpit) in a shell of brick” –
Tomb of Frederick III
carved detail is incredible
the cathedral has just a few stained glass windows
As we walked out of St. Stephen’s we were hit with snow flurries. We felt terribly sorry for the horses waiting in the cold.
horses waiting in the snow (Don)
From the cathedral we walked over to the Opera House to check on tour times, and felt sorry for the pigeons, too!
huddling against the snow (Don)
Having ascertained the english tour times, we went to the near-by Tirolerhof Café for lunch.
Tirolerhof Café
I had soup, Don had a salad and then we shared this amazing apfelstrudel with our coffees.
apfelstrudel to die for
We had discovered the “café culture” of Vienna as Rick Steves describes: ” In Vienna, the living room is down the street at the neighbourhood coffeehouse. This tradition is just another example of the Viennese expertise in good living. Each of Vienna’s many long-established (and sometimes even legendary) coffeehouses has its individual character (and characters). These classic cafés can be a bit tired, with a shabby patina and famously grumpy waiters who treat you like an uninvited guest invading their living room. Yet these spaces somehow also feel welcoming, offering newspapers, pastries, sofas, quick and light workers’ lunches, elegant ambience, and “take all the time you want” charm for the price of a cup of coffee.”
inside the Tirolerhof, maybe a little ‘tired’ but delightful nonetheless
After our lunch we still had some time before the tour of the Opera House started, so we wandered over to the Naschtmarkt, which “roughly translates to ‘Munchies Market.'” This would be a great place in the summer.
Naschtmarkt
Naschtmarkt
Back to the Opera House for our tour.
Vienna Opera House (Weiner Staatsoper)
Interestingly, the architect of the building received a great deal of criticism for his design, mostly because he failed to create a grand entrance, which led him to commit suicide. (We actually walked most of the way around the building looking for the entrance.) It was also destroyed by bombs during WWII and has been rebuilt. It’s still beautiful, though, especially inside.
main entrance staircase
pillar and ceiling detail
one of several lovely salons
We were lucky to get to see backstage, work in progress. Unbelievably, every night is a different production at the Opera House in Vienna – which, I guess, keeps hundreds of people employed.
backstage work
not sure what production will be playing, but the lighting is electric (Don)
such beautiful arches
The tour was worthwhile, the only way to see the building unless you’re attending an opera – which we weren’t.
From the Opera House we walked just a short distance to the Kunsthistoriches Museum, built in 1888 as a showcase for the Habsburgs’ collected artwork, collected between 1450-1650 approximately. For the two hours before it closed, we saw just a tiny sample of what’s on display,
another gorgeous entrance – Kunsthistoriches Musuem
including many Dutch and Flemish painters – Rubens, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Pieter Bruegel the Elder…
this woman paints an amazing copy of a Bruegel “Hunters in the Snow” (Don)
Vermeer’s “The Art of Painting”
Peter Paul Rubens’ “The Little Fur”
inside the Rubens room, as lovely to look at as the paintings
Exiting the museum at closing time (6 pm), we were confronted by snow flurries, Vienna’s biggest monument- the Maria Theresa Monument, and a lovely Christmas market.
Christmas market around the Maria Theresa Monument, in the snow
First up, “glühwein!” and a wander through the market…
our two mugs of glühwein, market stalls behind
and then Don found chips!
Don *loves* chips!
From this market, we market-hopped: food at one – (sausages for Don, a gyro for me) – and then hot wine wine at another, where we also bought advent calendars, and finally at the St. Stephen’s market (so close to our hotel) for one last hot wine before retiring for the night, exhausted and foot sore!
so many sausages
The next morning, clear skies, and we discovered the view from our hotel balcony:
St Stephen’s Cathedral pokes its’ tower up (Don)
rooftops, and Vienna’s famous ferris wheel way in the background (Don)
After breakfast, we started our day by following Rick Steves’ city walk tour on our iPods. Following his directions while listening to his descriptions was like having our own personal tour guide – we can’t recommend his podcasts enough!! He starts his walk at the Opera House (because “if Vienna is the world capital of classical music, this building is its throne room”). Behind the Opera House, the famous Café Sacher, at the Hotel Sacher –
Hotel Sacher
home of the world famous Sacher-Torte – two layers of cake separated by apricot jam and covered in dark chocolate icing. (We didn’t indulge. ) To the horror of Viennese purists, Starbucks (with chutzpah) opened a branch right across the street from this most famous of cafés. In Don’s picture you can see the Starbucks logo in the ground-floor window:
Hotel Sacher and Starbucks – the traditional and the upstart
I love this ‘wrapped-up-for-Christmas’ building in the same block
In the Albertinaplatz, this “Neoclassical building marks the tip of the Hofburg Palace (a sprawling complex of buildings that was long the seat of Habsburg power); today it is the Albertina Museum” –
Abertina Museum
Within the ‘platz’ are several statues that make up a Monument Against War and Fascism, commemorting the years when Austria came under Nazi rule (1938-1945). This piece is called The Gates of Violence, to remember victims of all wars and violence.
The Gates of Violence statue
On we wandered, up and down winding streets, listening to history and architectural detail, admiring the beautiful buildings…
building detail
and the prepartion for Christmas…
Mozart decorations
The Graben (which means ‘ditch’) was originally the moat for the Roman military camp, then it was a busy street of traffic, until the 1970s, when it was turned into one of Europe’s first pedestrian-only streets. (The statue-column at the far left of this picture is called the Holy Trinity Plague Column: 60 feet tall, erected by Emperor Leopold I, in gratitude to God after saving Vienna from total devestation, after the Plague hit in 1679, wiping out 75,000 Viennese, a 1/3 of the city at that time.) Note the Christmas decorations hung, but not lit. Every evening we hoped they would be…
building detail, and Christmas decor, on the Graben
We stopped for lunch at another atmospheric café, Café Hawelka; and then drooled over the window display at Demel, one of Vienna’s famous chocolate shops –
delectable window display
before venturing inside to see the bakery in action –
bakery in action
Back outside, we came to Michaelerplatz and the Neo-Baroque facade of the Hofburg Palace, where the Habsburg emperors lived (except in the summer).
Hofburg Palace, Imperial apartments
We went in to tour the Imperial apartments, home to Emperor Franz Josef I (the last of the Habsburg monarchs) and his reclussive, eccentric empress, Elisabeth, known as “Sisi.” The tour included the Sisi Museum. The apartments (which you can not photograph) are as lavish as you would expect. More interesting was the museum dedicated to the life and death of “Sisi.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empress_Elisabeth_of_Austria We knew nothing of Sisi prior to visiting this museum, whose “beauty, bittersweet life and tragic death helped create a larger-than-life legacy” and found the details quite fascinating.
Next, we went to the Austrian National Library, actually part of the Hofburg Palace, and another one of the most beautiful libraries in the world. This was once the library of the Habsburgs. Construction of this beautiful room began in 1722 under the authority of Charles VI, whose statue is in the middle. Here we were allowed to take photos; please forgive the many that follow!
first view as we walk in
Charles VI
gorgeous shelves (Don)
old books
old globes
stunning ceiling
And from an exhibit in the library on children in Austria over the years, a sign I couldn’t resist –
the more things change, the more they stay the same
it was hard to leave this beautiful library
We went back to the hotel to relax, and then out to an intriguing little Italian restaurant for dinner, Cantinetta La Norma, rustic, artistic, and great food – an Italian restaurant run by Arabs, with much coming and going, and maybe more going on than meets the eye. If only they didn’t allow smoking inside!
intriguing decor
One last mug of glühwein at the St. Stephen’s market and back to our hotel and bed.
Thursday morning was crystal clear, sunny and cold. We started the day by walking across the Ringstrasse from our hotel to Stadtpark (City Park), Vienna’s major park, honouring many Viennese musicians and composers with statues. Most beautiful in the sunshine, the golden Johann Strauss, “waltz king.”
Johann Strauss
golden (Don)
Franz Schubert
a lovely pond
crow walks away from the penguin statues – sad because they aren’t real! 😀
We were heading for the Belvedere, but saw a few sights along the way. First, this Russian Monument, built in 1945 as a forced thank you to the Soviets for liberating Austria from the Nazis: formerly a sore point and now just ignored (Rick Steves) –
Russian Monument
monument detail (Don)
this fellow was playing beautifully in the square
and this fellow was taking photos
Next we came upon Karlskirche (St. Charles’ Church) and discovered it was being “yarn-bombed:” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yarn_bombing
Karlskirche dome
Love the bright colours!
school kids were doing the yarn work
they’ve done a good job, don’t you think?
Onward to the Belvedere Palace – “the elegant palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736), the still-much-appreciated conqueror of the Ottomans. Eugene, a Frenchman considered too short and too ugly to be in the service of Louis XIV offered his services to the Habsburgs. While he was indeed short and ugly, he became the greatest military genius of his age, the savior of Austria, and the toast of Viennese society. When you conquer cities, as Eugene did, you get really rich. With his wealth he built this palace. Only Eugene had the cash to compete with the Habsburgs, and from his new palace he looked down on the Hofburg, both literally and figuratively. Prince Eugene had no heirs, so the state got his property, and Emperor Joseph II established the Belvedere as Austria’s first great public art gallery.”
The Belvedere (beautiful inside and out) has Vienna’s best collection of local artists, including several Gustav Klimt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustav_Klimt
Belvedere Palace entrance
After wandering through the Belvedere, we took the tram to see the Parliament buildings and City Hall.
Parliament buildings
detail (Don)
At City Hall we found another Christmas market.
City Hall
pretty walkway
It was the biggest Christmas market we’d seen, so we decided we’d come back when it was dark and enjoy the sparkling atmosphere. We headed back to the hotel to rest our feet. When it was dark, we returned to the City Hall market. It was lovely.
City Hall at night (Don)
sparkling (Don)
beautiful decorations for sale (Don)
Christmas tea lights (Don)
more Christmas tealights (Don)
yummy goodies
and Glühwein, of course! (Don)
We were also very happy that, on our last night, the city had finally turned on the power to light up the Graben street decorations we’d seen every day, but never lit:
the Graben is lit up
highlighting the Holy Trinity Plague Column on the Graben (Don)
detail
After enjoying the beautifully lit up night, we went out for a last dinner, at an Italian place we had passed a few times, and which looked inviting:
last dinner at Da Capo, decorated for Christmas
last dinner cheers
We had a last full morning in the city before taking the train back to Prague, so we decided to take a long walk, across the Danube Canal (not the river), to the north corner of the city, to see the Prater Amusement Park, with the famous ferris wheel. In 1766, Emperor Josef II gave his imperial hunting grounds to the people of Vienna for a public park. In 1896, English engineer Walter B. Basset submitted the idea to construct a Giant Ferris Wheel (something his company had already done in other locations), and in 1897 construction was complete – 30 cabins with 20 seats each. During WWII the ferris wheel was damaged when a fire destroyed all 30 cabins and the operational facilities, but it was reconstructed in record time and re-opened in May 1947. It features in such famous films as James Bond’s The Living Daylights and 1950’s The Third Man, based on a novel by Graham Greene, set in bombed-out, post-war Vienna, starring Orson Welles and Joseph Cotton (which we had watched before we left on this trip).
Vienna’s Giant Ferris Wheel
large cabins
Walking back to the hotel, we passed this statue of Dr. Karl Lueger, the influential mayor of Vienna, from 1897-1910, who together with architect Otto Wagner, helped to shape modern Vienna.
mayor Dr. Karl Lueger
It was time to say goodbye to Vienna. We took the train back to Prague, arriving in the evening, and stayed at the Airport Courtyard Marriott, an excellent hotel with a great restaurant, and just steps away from airport check-in the next morning.
We had a wonderful trip, with Prague being our favourite – a city to which we’d be very happy to return. Vienna was lovely too – we especially enjoyed the cafés and Christmas markets – but we didn’t have the same feel for it as we did for Prague. It was all fun, though.
Next up – Winter Olympics in Sochi! Stay tuned….
freda's world adventures 