Vienna -- Sunday February 19th, 2012

The Augustiner Church, part of the Hapsburg Hofburg Palace Complex, is where royal weddings (and many modern ones too) take place.

On Sundays, an amazing service takes place with a live orchestra and choir.

Added bonus.....Antonio Canova's Tomb for Archduchess Maria Christina

From this angle, you can see the immense sorrow of the procession.

Walking around town, it took me a while to figure out this was Vienna's equivalent of a newspaper box.

And this AWESOME clock where each hour a different historical figure marches across the clock face.  Look closely and you can see the figure that has already passed and is about to enter.

Ever heard of the Sacher Torte?  Invented right here in Vienna.

Sacher torte.....dry (VERY) chocolate cake, with a layer of marmalade and crusted with sweet chocolate.  The original recipe is under lock and key and seen by fewer than 50 people ever.

Vienna claims to be the classical music capital of the world, and one reason is that you can go to a public bathroom and do your business while listening to the Blue Danube Waltz!

Around the turn of the last century, a few Viennese artists (the most famous being Gustav Klimt) resigned from the Vienna Kunsthaus and created the "Secession" movement.  They built this "modern" building.  It's affectionately called the "Golden Cabbage" after the gold dome on top.

"To Every Age Its Art, To Every Art Its Freedom"

The contrast between the classical architecture and the Secession kind of lets you know how "radical" this building must have been when it was built.

Walking through an underground passage, you can only imagine how excited I was to see this as one of the displays.

The number of digits of Pi spanned 50 feet!!

Next stop....The Wien Kunsthistoriches Museum!!

First thing you see ascending the stairs.....ANOTHER Canova.  This time "Theseus Defeating the Centaur"

That's me staring in AWE!

Raphael's "Madonna in the Meadow"  I recognized this from Art History.  I didn't realize Vienna was so full of famous art!

This one I just liked....it's titled "Summer." I guess you are what you eat.

This hits JUST KEEP ON COMING, this is Caravaggio's "David With the Head of Goliath"

Why so many pictures........

.....of the same girl?

These portraits, by Diego Velazquez, were painted of Maria Teresa of Spain, who was to be married to a Hapsburg in Vienna.  These were paintings sent every few years as documentation of how she was growing up.  Life before digital photos and email!

The Kunsthistoriches has a large number of paintings by Flemish painter Bruegel.  This one is "Children's Games"

I need to learn about the Northern Renaissance...of which I know nothing.  But I do know the Northern painters had fewer religious subjects and painted landscape and scenes of life, like this one, another Bruegel titled "The Hunters in the Snow"

Vermeer's "The Art of Painting"  In a quick Google search, apparently the painting is one of the last paintings of disputed ownership.  Apparently Hitler purchased the painting from a family.  It was rescued by Americans and presented back to Austria.  The family is now in litigation.

Rembrandt...a man known for portraits.  I particularly liked this one.

Another one that caught my fancy.

Venice's Dogana....been there!

St. Peters....live there!

For some reason, whenever I see and Adam and Eve of this style...I think Cranach...and I'm always right.

After three hours of museum, D and I took a tram out of town about a half hour to a "Heuriger".  There are many vineyards near Vienna and many of them bottle their own wine and set up little restaurants.

Festive and simple.

Wienerschnitzel!!!