VIENNA BY NIGHT
We docked in Vienna at 6 pm and after dinner, took a taxi to a Chamber Music Concert at the Auersperg Palace. The chamber group performed a program consisting of Mozart and Strauss numbers and 2 very talented opera singers that did a couple of numbers. A very memorable evening! Then we walked around central vienna looking at the incredible buildings and architecture. We had a coffee and Sacher Torte at the famous Sacher Hotel.
Mozart and Strauss Concert by the Residence Orchestra.
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Auersperg Palace
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The Vienna Opera House
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The Sacher Hotel, Vienna
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A slice of the original Sacher Torte mmmmm!
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The Historic Sacher Cafe
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Our day in Vienna ....
We went on a city tour in the morning. Most of the photos from the bus window were not-so-good, but here are a few photos from when we were walking around.
St. Stephen's Cathedral
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| The Vienna Opera House |
Kärntner Strasse Pedestrian Zone in Vienna
We visited a Residential Courtyard near St. Stephens in the heart of the city
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Hundertwasser House
The Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment building in Vienna, built after the idea and concept of Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser . Hundertwasser started out as a painter. Since the early 1950s, however, he increasingly became focused on architecture, writing and reading in public manifestos and controversial essays (e.g. 1958 a ‘Mouldiness Manifesto.’ advocating natural forms of decay) In 1972, he had his first architectural models made for the TV-show ‘Wünsch dir was', in order to demonstrate his ideas on forested roofs, "tree tenants" and the "window right" of every tenant to embellish the facade around his windows. In these models Hundertwasser also developed new architectural shapes, such as the "eye-slit" house and the "high-rise meadow house
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| Note the trees growing out of the building and the uneven, hilly sidewalk that provides "music for your feet" |
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| Norm in the Cafe |
We spent the afternoon at Schonbrunn Palace
At the end of the 17th century Emperor Leopold I commissioned the gifted Baroque architect Bernhard Fischer von Erlach to built a palatial hunting lodge for the heir to the throne.
Half a century later under Maria Theresa (mother of Marie Antoinette) Schönbrunn Palace was to become the magnificent focus of court life. From that time onwards it played host to the leading statesmen of Europe. Although Austria is now a republic, Schönbrunn has remained a place of political encounter at the highest level.
The Gardens
The park at Schönbrunn Palace was opened to the public around 1779 and since than has provided a popular recreational area for the Viennese population and international visitors alike. Extending for 1.2 km from east to west and approximately one kilometre from north to south, it was placed together with the palace on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites in 1996.
The palace and its grounds form a unit and reflect each other, in accordance with the Baroque notion of the princely palace, according to which architecture and Nature should interpenetrate. The Baroque layout of the gardens, together with the additions made during the last decade of Maria Theresa's life, have survived more or less intact and today still determine the characteristic appearance of the gardens at Schönbrunn.
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