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!

Austria

We entered Austria at night and apparently waited awhile through the locks, but our cruise director was pleased we arrived on time in Melk.



We boarded buses and drove through several towns hearing about the Wachau Valley, the vineyards, and the many monasteries…



Our agenda for today was Melk Abbey or in German, Stift Melk which is a Benedictine abbey. It was donated by the royal Babenberg family and therefore very palatial. As my childhood priest was Benedictine, this stop as part of the itinerary was appealing and as we have visited monasteries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Montserrat in Spain, and of course Latrobe, Pennsylvania (our annual trip to pay our respects to our beloved priest). Here we are as we enter the complex:







As we’re not allowed to take photos inside, here are some of the courtyard area - in addition to being a working abbey and monastery, it’s also a school:







We walked through the museum and royal dining room to an overlook of the Melk and Danube rivers. Since we were outside again, we could take photos:











We couldn’t take photos in the famous library, but here’s a photo from one of the courtyard exhibits:



Then we entered the baroque and gilded abbey church and then made our way through the gift shop. I managed to take a photo of one of the famous staircases as we exited:



We returned to the boat and stopped by our room. A certain passenger wanted to stay in the cabin, but I insisted we join the talk in the panorama lounge as the cruise director was narrating the scenic Wachau valley and playing classical music. This certain passenger ended up enjoying it more than she expected with her hot cocoa and asked me to take photos of her:



The highlight of the float-by was Dürnstein Castle on the hilltop where King Richard the Lionheart was captured by Leopold V, Duke of Austria due to a dispute during the Crusades. Also, you can see the blue tower of the Dürnstein Abbey (Stift Dürnstein):





For lunch, we stayed in the lounge where we enjoyed a bistro lunch, a more casual version of the buffet in the dining room. The local specialties included Zwiebelrostbraten (minute steak) and Sauerkrout soup with potatoes which my mom thought tasted like kimchi jigae (stew).

Back in the room while napping and resting, we got to observe going through one of the many locks in the river:



In the afternoon, there was an Austrian Cookies Tasting and presentation explaining the tradition and the different kinds of cookies:



For dinner, we didn’t have the full four courses and just ordered a soup and entrees and shared a salad. A collage below of the Alt-Wiener Suppentopf (Austrian beef broth) with root vegetable and vermicelli noodles, Wiener Kartoffelsuppe (Viennese potato soup) with forest mushrooms and marjoram croutons, Wiener Schinkenfleckerl (Viennese pasta) with sautéed ham, Spring onions and shredded cheese, and Wiener Schnitzel with cranberry jam and mixed vegetables:



After dinner, we booked the optional excursion to a concert in a nice hall in an old palais, or wealthy person’s home. They played delightful Strauss, Mozart, Sound of Music, and jingle bells along with some ballet and operatic performances. It was pop classical music and very enjoyable:



Back on the boat, they treated us to goulash and a little piano playing. I was excited for the goulash night cap even though I wasn’t hungry. As our time in Budapest was cut short, we didn’t get to visit a popular goulash spot:



I ended up chatting with some Texans who were super sweet. Everyone on the boat has been very kind and we all love talking about travel and have nothing but nice things to say about the shared experience!