Monday August 24th to Wed August 26th, Vienna

On Monday we drove from Budapest to Prague.  Upon arrival we had a city tour.  Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria, with a population of 1.8 million.  The city is filled with large buildings, ornately decorated with many statues both on the buildings and on the streets.  We had a brief tour of the key parts of the city. The first two pictures show some of the downtown Vienna.  The third picture is entitled “the break”, the fourth picture shows atlas holding up the world on top of the national library.

We saw the home of the Spanish Riding School, more commonly known for the 72 Lipizzan horses.  We were not able to see a performance as they are only held on weekends.

We toured the St. Stephens Church, which has portions dating back to 1137, but was completed as it now appears in 1365.  It is currently undergoing an exterior cleaning.

On Tuesday we went to the Belvedere Palace and it’s grounds/  The Palace is now used as an art museum.   We toured some of the art exhibit later in the day, and looked at a large collection of work by Gustav Klimt.  This was the museum that had the Woman in Gold Painting from the recent movie, Woman in Gold.  The last picture in this series is Klimt’s the Kiss.

We then drove to the Schonbrunn Imperial palace, with 1,441 rooms. The Schönbrunn Palace in its present form was built and remodeled in 1740—50s during the reign of empress Maria Theresa who received the estate as a wedding gift It was modeled after Versailles.   We had a few minutes before our tour of the interior, so we took a 30 minute wagon ride around the 360 acre landscaped grounds.  We then toured the interior, with much discussion of its use by Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning emperor of Austria, was born at Schönbrunn and spent a great deal of his life there. He died there, at the age of 86, on 21 November 1916. Following the downfall of the Habsburg monarchy in November 1918, the palace became the property of newly founded Austrian Republic.

On Wednesday, Nancy and I had a day on our own in Vienna.  We started the day with an hour walking tour of the old part of the city.  While it duplicated some of our earlier tour, the guide was a little better then our first guide.  There are monuments everywhere, including this one to the victims of the black plaque.

 

 

We then toured the state opera building.   The Opera House was built in 1869, but 80 percent of it was destroyed during world war II, major renovations were completed in 1954 using original blueprints.  The new auditorium has a capacity of 2,274, of which 567 are standing only.  The standing only positions go for only $4, so it is actually a great way to see the opera for virtually no cost.   There is a glass ring on the ceiling that weighs three tons.   We went up onto the stage, which was huge.   They had lowered the spot lights so they could work on them.  The final picture shows the grand ball they hold once a year with 5,000 guests.  Mission Impossible 5 has a scene in the Opera House with Tom Cruise.

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We ended our day of touring with a visit to the Hofburg Palace which was the winter home and office of Franz Joseph and Empress Elizabeth (Sisi).  They discussed her life, and tragic death.   The museum included the china collection for the palace, which included room after room of plates and fine silverware.

Sunday August 23, 2015 Budapest

 

After breakfast at our hotel, which again has an old bombed out church in the middle, photo, we went on a bus tour of the city.

In Hero’s Square, we saw the main monuments. 

The column is topped by a statue of the archangel Gabriel. In his right hand the angel holds the Holy Crown of St. Stephen, the first king of Hungary. In his left hand the angel holds a two barred apostolic cross, a symbol awarded to St. Stephen by the Pope in recognition of his efforts to convert Hungary to Christianity. In Hungarian it is referred to as the double cross or the apostolic double cross.

At the base of the column is a group of seven mounted figures representing the Magyar chieftains who led the Hungarian people into the Carpathian basin.

At the inner top edge of the left colonnade is a male figure driving a chariot using a snake as a whip representing War.

We then drove up citadel hill, where we had panoramic views of Budapest.

We then drove to the small town of Szentendre.  Szentendre is on the Danube river and has become an artist colony and shopping area.

 

We visited this Serbian church, which has skulls and cross bones on the outside to scare away evil spirits.

We had lunch at a sidewalk vendor who had wonderful sausages and kraut, salads and potatoes.

 

We visited a museum with the smallest art in the world.  For example this pyramid and camels inside the eye of a needle.  The first picture is a sign they have for the museum, the second is the actual pin, with a microscope aimed at it so you can see the art, and the third is a picture taken through the microscope.  They had a 12 page book that was maybe 3mm by 1mm, the artist used spider web to sew the pages together.

When we arrived back at the hotel we visited the nearby Matthias Church.   We tried to get to the Hospital in the Rock, a 120 bed hospital built and used during WWII, but we did not have enough time to see it.   It looks amazing, with a dramatic recreation of what it looked like during the siege of Budapest, which was the second longest siege of a city during the war.   They had 300 patients, and at times staff were killed just going out to try to get supplies and water.

We had dinner on a Danube river cruise that included entertainment.  Unfortunately the entertainment lasted from the start of the cruise to the end, so you could not really spend the time to talk and enjoy the scenery.   We did get this last look at the beautiful parliament building.

Tomorrow we are off for Vienna.