Vienna, Austria

After a satisfying cooked breakfast in the bright and friendly hotel breakfast room, we caught a tram into the outer edge of central Vienna and out a short way to the south-east, down to the Belvedere Palace. The trams of Vienna reminded us of moving around the CBD of Melbourne – a great way of seeing the city, and outside of rush-hour, a peaceful progression. Like Melbourne, many of the streets are lined with trees, but in addition have street cafes and market stalls. Vienna is a mixture of old neo-Gothic, Neo-classical and Baroque churches, museums and palaces with Art-Nouveau and Modernist public buildings and apartments. Particularly delightful were the multi-coloured facades of the buildings in some street-scapes. The Belvedere ‘Palace’ actually consists of two separate Palaces, separated by an extensive Baroque-style garden. The bright sunny day was perfect for appreciating the colour of the floral borders against the extensive, manicured lawns. Formally the Summer Residence of Prince Eugene of Savoy, the Belvedere was built soon after his successful campaigns against the Ottoman Empire in the late 1690’s. After Eugene’s death, Empress Maria Theresa turned the Upper Palace into a venue for exhibiting the Imperial collection and what essentially became the first Museum in the world.

The Upper Palace is a stunning architectural building in the Baroque style with its main entrance fronting a huge circular pool and its back leading down a stairway to the Versailles-like formal gardens. Many of the rooms inside the Palace house a large art exhibition but the Marble Hall in the centre of the building is equally impressive with its two story lofty reddish-brown marble structure, gilded-work, fresco painted ceiling and huge chandeliers. On 15th May, 1955, the Austrian State Treaty (reestablishing Austrian independence after WWII) was signed here, by Leopold Figi and representatives of the the four occupying powers: UK, France, USSR and the USA.

The Upper Belvedere houses a twenty-four painting exhibition of Gustav Klimt, including the famous paintings of ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Judith and the Head of Holofernes’ (we never noticed the ‘head’ until looking up the name of the painting for this blog). The total exhibition at the Upper Belvedere contains 420 works across seven themed rooms and three floors. It includes works by Monet, Renoir and Van Gogh and the famous work by Jacques Louie David of Napoleon crossing the Alps at Great St Bernard Pass on his rearing white charger.

After enjoying the sights of the Upper Palace, Joy decided she just had to have an iced coffee and Austin his pot of tea, before visiting the Lower Palace. A pleasant break, sitting in the sunshine on the outdoor balcony of the restaurant, at the back of the Upper Belvedere, sipping our cuppa’s and watching the world (well – other patrons) wandering by, was so refreshing, we didn’t really feel like moving on. We took the opportunity to send a couple of photos home.

In the Orangery at the Lower Belvedere was an exhibition of Klemens Brosch, an ink-brush artist with incredible talent and an eye for fine detail. We found his drawings of nature and simple objects (e.g. a wall of shoes) fascinating, but his depictions of war and death were extremely sobering. Apparently, he was heavily medicated with morphine and cocaine to counter his mental anguish of the horrors of WWI. Apart from the art exhibitions, other rooms in the Palaces displayed gilded mirrors, ceiling murals and statues.

Following the Palace visits, we found that the Vienna University Botanical Gardens ran alongside the grounds, so we wandered along the little pathways and through the plant displays for some time. Very pleasant place with sections of wildflower ‘meadows’ and large shade trees as well as rockeries and ponds.

Back into town by tram, we stopped for some morning tea (which we brought with us from breakfast) in the Stadtpark (City Park) along the Weinfluss (Vienna River). Lawns and Oaks, a lake, some ducks and dogs being walked, made for a peaceful break in our busy morning thus far. It had the feel of somewhere like the Treasury or Fitzroy gardens in Melbourne, with city workers and families relaxing on the lawns and park benches.

Off to St. Stephen’s Cathedral with its multicoloured tiled roof, Romanesque towers and Gothic Choir, 6 chapels and more than 20 altars. This church is clearly loved and in use by the local community. The stone pulpit was particularly interesting, with its carvings of the Doctors of the Church (St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Ambrose, St. Gregory the Great and St. Jerome), toads and lizards biting each other (struggle between evil and good) on the hand-rail, a puppy at the top of the stairs protecting the preacher and the sculptor looking out a basement window.

Wandering back through town, we found the Palmenhaus Cafe for a cuppa and the nearby Schmetterlinghaus (Butterfly House) full of fluttering colour. Trying to catch a good photo of these ‘never-sit-still’ beauties was a challenge and took some time but we were happy with some of our results. After all this excitement, we decided to call it a day but headed home past the National History Museum to find access to the Herbarium for Austin’s planned visit tomorrow. Another small take-away pizza for tea and we could put our feet up for a well-earned rest.