17th January - Vienna
Trip Start
Dec 26, 2008
1
22
28
Trip End
Jan 26, 2009
Vienna,
Vienna,
Austria
Saturday, January 17, 2009
First we went to the Schloss Belvedere, to the Unteres Belvedere, where there was an exhibition on Klimt and the 1908 Vienna Art Show. After we had caught the U-Bahn, then the A-Bahn, then a tram, there were no signs pointing us in the right direction, and Penny may have been excused for getting grumpy, if she weren't so even-tempered (not!!). Something may have been said about wanting to go home, but she didn't mean it. The exhibition, when we found it about 3 steps from the tram stop in the opposite direction to the one we'd tried, was pretty good. The definite highlight was the Klimt room, which included the famous painting The Kiss
Gutenberg
. Those of Prinz Eugen's rooms we saw were also pretty impressive.For a bit of a change, we then caught the tram to the KunstHausWien, which was designed by and features the works of Friedensreich Hundertwasser (born Friedrich Stowasser, and confirming Penny's prejudices about people who change their names, perhaps a bit nutty). He was quite clearly a genius though, although Darren thinks he could have knocked up some of his paintings quite quickly. He is most impressive as an architect and we loved the KunstHausWien and the nearby Hundertwasserhaus. Penny would have liked a Hundertwasser-designed teapot from the shop, but not at 500+ Euro! Also it would be heavy.
We caught the famous no. 1 tram back to Schwedenplatz, or nearby, and walked back to the apartment, stopping at the bakery for some rolls for a late lunch (salad - again!). We had a bit of a bludge before going back out, to do a little bit of shopping (a little present for the Lucie Pie and a present for Penny's mum's birthday, plus a souvenir T-shirt for Darren) and then walk the few steps to the Mozart museum, just on the other side of the Stephansdom. Mozart apparently lived in 13 places in the 11 years he was in Vienna, but stayed in this house, the only one remaining, for two and a half and wrote some of his most important works here. It was a great museum with some funky exhibits.
We decided it was time for a drink and went to the Gutenberg, a bar/restaurant nearby, for a beer for Darren and Penny's second wine for the trip (first was last night). It was quite nice but, like many places in Vienna (and I guess elsewhere in Austria), quite smoky
Klimt exhibition poster
. Not so bad when you're there, but a bit revolting when you smell like smoke afterwards. We then dropped into Figlmueller to see if we could reserve a table for later and were told no, just to come back and we'd get a table even if we had to wait for a little while.We went back at about 7.30 and only had to wait 10 minutes for a table. Having declared she would never eat another schnitzel, Penny was convinced by Darren to try one. We both had them, with potato and green salads, and they were great. Big but very very thin and not greasy - yummy. So good we had to have dessert - Topfenknoedel with apricots for Penny and Apfelstrudel for Darren. At 60 Euro with a tip, this was our most expensive meal of the trip so far, but excellent.
And such a short walk back to the apartment, for cups of tea and blog updating.
