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First impressions, Vienna is a relatively small city that packs a lot in. The country’s population is a little over 1.6 million, and even with most people living in Vienna, along with all the German tourists, its still refreshing after spending so much time in NYC.
Vienna’s streets are winding and built around the oldest part, the circular Innere Stadt. This Innere Stadt is surrounded by the Ringstrasse and these two areas house the oldest architecture, mainly in baroque & rococo styles and the best museums, the Hofburg palace and government buildings.
Innere Stadt
As you move further away from the Innere Stadt the buildings become more modern. The area where we’re staying is where the Vienna International Center and United Nations are and this area is completely modern.
People here smoke like its healthy and the favorite seasoning is salt. The fast speed internet is still very slow and I’m using an European keyboard that has the letter Y on the lower row plus these letters, Ö and Ä, could be worse I could have no internet!
This city takes the term Cafe Culture to a whole new level, they love ice cream and coffee and enjoy sitting around in cafes eating and drinking both, while smoking, for hours on end.
I don’t smoke, but I do enjoy my ice cream!
Unemployment throughout Europe is at 12% (could help to explain the Cafe Culture). And right now one Euro = $1.40 US so we’re not to happy with the prices of things, but we have to eat!
And its amazing how much of the Austrian empire has influenced the rest of the world through music, architecture, fashion and more. The Hapburgs ruled for over 600 years, up until the early 1900s, and their empire reached far beyond Austria, so this makes sense.
According to my guidebook there are 15 palaces in and around Vienna, of which I’ve seen three. The word palace could also mean mansion or castle so basically a really big house, and people complain about America’s “Mc Mansions,” those are nothing compared to these grandiose monstrosities! All three were decorated in the classical baroque style that was all the rage with the Hapsburgs through the centuries.
Our first palace was Schloss Schonbrunn, which is second only to Versailles in size. Like with many of the important buildings here in Vienna it’s history is filled with original buildings that were destroyed by war or two and rebuilt by the next generation of rulers who’s main goal was to outdo the previous generations efforts.
Schonbrunn is home to the very first zoo in the world! And the surrounding gardens include an alpine forest, rose gardens, Labyrinth, the Neptunbrunnen Fountain with its dancing Greek gods and the Gloriette which offers one of the best views of the entire city.
The palace interior is baroque decor at its finest. Each room out does the other with grandiose. There is the Round Chinese room and an Oval Chinese room both with amazing wooden inlaid floors. And a Blue Chinese room where more important things happened. In the Millions Room Persian miniatures were cut up and set in rosewood panels and framed in gilded rocaille frames, its said Maria Theresa paid a million dollars to have this room done.
Besides Maria Theresa, Marie Anntoinette lived here, Napoleon, Napoleon’s only son who died when he was 21, the tormented empress Sisi and over the years lots of other famous people resided in this huge palace.
I also visited the palace Schloss Belvedere that consists of two palaces, the upper or Oberes and lower Unteres separated by a huge manicured garden and several fountains. Both palaces have been transformed into art museums and the upper was showing the work of the important Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, his famous The Kiss is on exhibit here and is breathtaking.
And the third palace I’ve seen is the grand Hofburg which was built in the 13th century in the Innere Stadt and was started as a Swiss Guard camp. Like every other important building structures were added throughout the years to one up the previous tenants and the Hofburg is sprawling and has kept this tradition up quite nicely.
Me in front of Hofburg, this photo does not do the size of the complex justice!
Hofburg is home to the SiSi Museum, (Sisi is the poor little rich empress the Austrians love to hate), the Hoftafel- und Tafelkammer or court tableware and silver depot and the Kaiserappartements where Franz Joseph and his wife Sisi lived. My favorite was the porcelain, silver & gold tableware exhibit, these people knew how to set a table. For every major and minor event a new table setting would be commissioned.
They originally ate on gold and silver plates but not much remains as most of it was melted down to make coins to fund various wars. No wonder the lower classes revolted. Most of the beautifully crafted porcelain displayed was made here in Austria and was executed to celebrate historical events, victories in battle, some ruler’s love of botany, the country’s natural resources and of course baroque tributes to romance and love.
The Kaiserappartments were better at the Schonbrunn, but still very opulent and the portraits old and splendid. There are more museums in Hofburg than I saw and currently the Prime Minister of Austria uses part of it as his official office, nice!
I also visited their biggest and most important museum, the Kunsthistorisches, which houses much of the Habsburg family’s personal art collection plus some of the finest art in Europe. The building itself is a work of art, done in marble with amazing ceilings with murals and stucco embellishments. It was just room after room of beautiful art work of all generes.
But its summer here and very hot, one of the ways Austria has gone green is to not air condition their public spaces i.e. museums and palaces, also the very easy to use subway system is not air conditioned!
And though the Lipizzaner Stallions are on their summer vacation I did get to see a small show at the Spanish Riding School where these magnificent animals are trained. The Spanish Riding School is also housed in the Hofburg Palace.
The show was about an hour and featured historical carriages, three year old colts and the mares with their one month old colts. These horses are very well cared for and beautiful, and I was surprised to learn they are on the endangered species list.
Its true I borrowed this photo from another site, I didn’t get to see the horses dance like this one, but I was in this beautiful arena to watch the show.
And on Saturday we returned to NYC and though I’ve enjoyed myself here immensely I was ready to be home!
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