City of Music (and Museums)

After breakfast and more goodbyes, we disembarked the boat one last time - we really enjoyed the river cruise experience as it was more intimate and cozy compared to ocean cruises and the food and service was outstanding!

We ordered an Uber to our hotel as I had booked the Marriott Autograph hotel called the Imperial Riding School. It definitely had an equestrian feel as it was historically a military equestrian school. Our room was ready, so we settled in and rested before heading out. Our top agenda of the day was to see Gustav Klimt’s “The Kiss”:



This is housed in the Belvedere which is a complex of Baroque palaces and walking distance from our hotel. We meandered through the botanical gardens and were early for our timed entry. I had booked two out of three - upper and lower galleries and opted out of Belvedere 21 as I felt it would have been too much and much more modern and unfamiliar.

We walked down the hill to the lower palace / galleries pictured here:





They had a “Cezanne, Monet, and Renoir” exhibit and an exhibition on Franz Xaver Messerschmidt who was a German-Austrian sculptor most famous for his "character heads". Here’s one that I found later in the upper gallery:



When it was time, we walked back up to the upper gallery - here are a few photos of the upper building below which had Christmas markets on one side:







And here’s the art inside from Klimt…









Egon Schiele’s “The Embrace”:



We saw many others highlighting the prominent Austrian artists in this beautiful building. After stopping through the museum gift shop and seeing the small Christmas market, we boarded the D tram and made our way to the Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien or Vienna Museum of Art History.

It’s a building twin and mirrors the Natural History Museum pictured below with a statue of Maria Theresa in the middle:



Inside the art history museum:







The art was impressive and my mom was excited to see one of Vermeer’s masterpieces, “Art of Painting”:



Here’s Bruegel’s “Tower of Babel”:



And his “Peasant Wedding”:



Caravaggio’s “Madonna with the Rosary” and “David with the Head of Goliath” which is actually a self-portrait:





A series of Velázquez portraits:





The museum reminds me of the Metropolitan Museum in NY. We skipped the coin collection, but walked through the Egyptian, Greek, and Roman collections:









In the middle of it all, we enjoyed a latte and hot chocolate in the Cupola with plush red seats and noshed on Viennese sausages:







A selfie with a photobomb from our friendly waiter:



We exited the museum in no time (getting in took awhile) and got on a red tram and transferred to the 59A bus in front of the Opera. We had reservations at Zum Alten Fassl, a local restaurant recommended by my friend Bill who visits Vienna several times a year for work.

We shared a traditional schnitzel and spätzle as recommended by our waiter who had an American accent. He said I did too as he joked, but his parents were from Pennsylvania and New Jersey and they immigrated to Austria when he was 9. Collage below:



After dinner, we had chamomile tea and I ordered a Wiener Melange which is a classic Viennese coffee drink, similar to a cappuccino but made with a milder coffee and a thinner layer of milk foam.

I wanted to caffeinate as we were headed to Konzerthaus for a classical concert. Vienna is known as the “City of Music” and was home to many classical composers, including Beethoven, Brahms, Haydn, Mahler, Mozart, Schubert, Johann Strauss I, and Johann Strauss II. Here’s us in front of the Mozart statue after getting off the tram for the art museum:



As a leading music center, I was overwhelmed by the options especially during the holiday season. So Bill who works in the music industry, perused the performance schedules and recommended Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. It technically has 6 parts, but the Vienna Symphony and Singing Academy were performing I (Birth of Jesus), II (Annunciation to the Shepherds) ), and VI (Epiphany).

I managed to purchase the last two tickets by emailing the box office. It wasn’t technically sold out, but you couldn’t purchase directly on the website with only a few left. We had balcony seats closest to the stage, so we got a close view of the outstanding performers in the Great Hall:





Afterwards, I convinced my mom to walk 5 minutes into the City Park, so we could take a picture of the Johann Strauss Monument. He’s most known for the “Blue Danube Waltz” which is played at midnight of New Year’s Eve to help ring in the year. We were told through the various tour guides, the city is celebrating the 200 year anniversary of his birth:



We drove by all the places we saw today through the river cruise tours, but it was fun to see them all up close and to enjoy what the city has to offer! Also on our Uber ride to the concert, we asked our driver to turn up “Golden” that was playing on the radio and hummed along - my mom is astounded that K-Pop is this popular, but I reminded her we were in the City of Music!

Vienna

Willkommen! We started off with a Treasures of Vienna’s Ringstrasse tour. Ring Street is where the city walls originally were and forms more of an octagon than a true ring. But it surrounds the inner city area and has grand buildings, monuments, parks, and museums.

One of the first we saw today explained by our tour guide Christine, is the Parliament building which is Greek inspired due to it being the birthplace of democracy:



We walked through People’s Park where you can sponsor roses, but they are covered now to protect them from the cold winter:



The main tour was of the outer buildings and courtyards of Hofburg Palace, the winter home of the Habsburg royal family. Originally a castle, it expanded several times and now is the official residence of the Austrian president:





Here’s the Emperor Franz I Monument in one of the courtyards:



An imperial seal on the ceiling of one of many passageways:



Here’s unpopular King Joseph who tried to implement too many laws, like the reusable coffin we heard about in Melk. He is in front of the library:



We walked by the famous stables of the Lipizzaner horses of the Spanish Riding School - we actually have booked tickets for their practice session on Tuesday:



St. Michael’s Gate - one of many entrances to the palace complex:



In front of the gate, there are some excavated Roman ruins:



As it was Sunday, the churches rang all around the town and here’s St. Michael’s church near the gate:



We also walked by St. Peter’s church:



And the Column of Pest on Graben street, erected to honor those who died during the plague - it has the Holy Trinity and Emperor Leopold I kneeling to it:



We ended at Stephansplatz, the plaza of St. Stephen’s Cathedral, one of the most important religious buildings. The basilica in Budapest is apparently named after their first king, but here the cathedral is named after the saint. It has a multi-colored tile roof that we learned about in Budapest but since it was a little foggy, you can’t see the colors as brightly:





They gave us the option to walk around the Christmas markets and shop in the area for over an hour. My mom and I decided to participate and we also saw other passengers in the 10:15 am mass:



Which had a very talented organist:



After mass, we took pictures and walked around to see the altar:





After picking up some gifts at Manner, famous for Viennese Neapolitan wafers, instead of taking the bus back to the boat, we hopped into a taxi to visit Christkindlesmarkt at Rathausplatz Town Hall - the most famous Christmas market:





We lunched on sausages and hot wine:





After returning our wine mug, we ordered an Uber to return to the dock. We snacked a little and rested before joining the optional excursion to the “Versailles of Austria” or Schönbrunn Palace which was the summer residence of the Habsburgs. The name Schönbrunn means "beautiful spring" and Dieter, our guide was great at annunciating his explanations.

The gardens are supposed to be lovely, but we only looked out once from the palace - here you can see this “crown” at the other end:



This was the main gallery of which its ceiling had been restored after a dud bomb fell on it during the world war. Thank goodness it didn’t actually explode…







Here’s a room where secretive talks were held - on the bus earlier, it was explained due to Vienna’s position and alliances, it was a hot bed of espionage and secrecy. Furthermore, I didn’t realize how many international organizations are headquartered in Vienna:



Another corner room with delicate floors:



A dining room:



An important room for the emperor where he met his counselors and the walls are lined with delicate rice paper glued on gently:



The porcelain room, but the walls actually imitate the look with wood and paint:



Another room with restored furniture and rice paper cutouts:



A painting from a wedding and here, the painter included a 6 year old Mozart, but he was actually 4 at the time of the nuptials and didn’t actually attend. They just wanted to pretend that he did, because he was so popular!



A snow globe from the gift shop which I didn’t purchase, but snow globes were invented by an Austrian:



In front of the palace was a Christmas market as well and part of the tour included hot wine or punch. We decided to keep our mugs as a keepsake this time. We meandered, took selfies, and people watched!





The bus ride back was about 30 minutes due to the traffic and we got ready for our cruise’s last night gala. Instead of 4 courses, it was 5! We shared: lemon pepper-crusted salmon, kale house salad, oxtail consommé, Wachauer Kürbissuppe (Wachau-style pumpkin soup), broiled half-rock lobster tail with risotto and saffron sauce, saffron risotto, grilled halibut, beef tenderloin with a double stuffed baked potato, and a puff pastry filled with jam and cream:



Before dessert, the hotel manager brought out the entire staff for their catwalk and for us to express our appreciation. About 40 members across 17 nationalities comprise of the kitchen, guest services, and housekeeping teams for the ~120 passengers and this was the last cruise of the season. They have worked together since March and they will return home for the offseason and therefore this last cruise of the year was special for them too. The service, food, and hospitality has been excellent and kudos to all who made the experience so wonderful!

Furthermore, we said our various goodbyes and since the Arkansas couple celebrated their birthdays, the crew brought them a whole cake which they shared with us. Cheers and kudos all around for our last night on the river cruise!