Vienna, Austria Day 3 & 4

Day three was May 1st, so a national holiday. My morning S-Bahn commute into town was interrupted by a large labor party protest outside the parliment building. I heard more protest and/or parades later in the evening but I wasn't sure which it was because they were mostly just blasting techno out of a float as they went by.

Once I found the trains that were still operating I got myself to Schloss Belvedere. It consists of an upper and lower half with gardens inbetween. Both house art museums. This is the backside of the Upper Belvedere.

They were very strict about no photos inside but I snuck a photo from the top floor looking outside at the gardens. The highlight at the Upper was Klimt's 'The Kiss'.

The view from Lower Belvedere looking up at the gardens and Upper Belvedere. The Lower had an exhibition called "Gold" which had pieces from every era all somehow incorporating gold. It was pretty all over the place but it has an interesting section on gold leafing and plating processes.

One of the garden sculptures.

After the Belvedere I went back into town in search of the Naschmarkt, the market. On the way I saw some cool ironwork and

Karlsplatz and the Karlskirche. I didn't go inside because I had already spent $22 dollars in admissions that day and was in search or something free. I hear it's a fabulous example of baroque architecture. Here is somebody else's photo of the interior: http://www.flickr.com/photos/autograt/231876178/

Once I arrived at the Naschmarkt I discovered it was closed for the holiday so hungrily searched for something that was opened for tourists. After some food and time to ponder the map I decided to go to the Zentralfriedhof, or central cemetery.

If I had been more organized I would have found some famous composers gravesites but I more in the mood to wander aimlessly.


Don't know who is buried here but I like his Mines of Moria style.

Neat stuff. I got utterly lost for a while and ended up spending an hour more than I meant to there but it all worked out ok.

A WILD HEDGEHOG1!!!11

Once I escaped the giant cemetery I visited the MAK (Decorative Arts/Wiener Werkstaette museum) which I knew to be open late on Tuesdays. It also happened to be free on Tuesday nights! Lucky me. I do wish I'd eaten dinner beforehand so I'd have had more energy to see it all. As it was rushed through pretty fast. This is the lobby/atrium.

The basement level was the museums entire collection arranged for all to see, which is awesome but overwhelming. The top floor had some more Klimt (it's his 150th birthday so he was featured prominently in all the museums) and a selection of the Wiener Werkstaette's stuff (which is one of my favorite periods in decorative art). My camera's battery was running out so I wasn't able to get as many photos as I would have liked.

Last Day!
My last museum while in town was the Secession building. I ponied up for admission to see the inside but all of the changing exhibitions were closed. All that was there to see was Klimt's Beethoven Frieze. It was neat but not really worth the $7 to get in.


Luckily the Secession gallery is located right across the street from the Naschmarkt so I got poke around the market and have some chicken cordon bleu before I left town.

On the train ride home I enjoyed the view of the Austrian countryside. All in all a great trip, although the price of my quiet hostel on the hill (with only one other roommate the whole time) was a couple hours per day spent commuting on the bus and U-Bahn.

Vienna, Austria Day 1 & 2

May 1st is labor day in all of Europe, and in Slovenia it amounts to a 6-day weekend. With such a generous gift of time I thought I should get out of town and see a bit of Europe. I originally planned on going to Plitvice National Park in Croatia but it was not readily apparent how to get there so I went down to the train station a browsed the cheap and timely fares available for the weekend. Vienna was on sale for 75$ round trip and 6 hours each way. After that was settled I browsed the internet for a couple hours and picked a hostel that was outside of town but only $100 for 3 nights and had a lovely view.

Somewhere between Ljubljana and Maribor in Slovenia.

The hostel is the little building on the left. It is situated next to Schloss Wilhelminenberg, a small castle that is now a hotel and public park overlooking Vienna. I managed to figure out how to get from the train station to the hostel via a combination of U-Bahn and bus without too much trouble.

I was a bit tired from the day of traveling and wanted to chill out at the hostel but I managed to drag my butt back down to the city center and wander around a bit. I was curious so see how much I recognized. This is the Rathaus, or city hall. It was decked out for a political rally of some sort that would be happening on the 1st. Unfortunately I had to watch the time while in the city because the bus up to the hostel didn't run very late so I headed back up and found a restuarant nearby for dinner.

The outdoor seating was a little dark but atmospheric. I had some schnitzel with potato pancakes and tomato sauce.

Nightcap of Kings: Budvar and Austrian Funyons.

The next morning I took my sweet time getting ready much to the disappointment of the woman trying to clean the rooms for the day. Once in town I rode the streetcar around the Ring Strasse, the circular avenue surrounding the Inner Stadt. It was a good way to get the lay of the land. Then I wandered up the the main church Stephansdom. Like the one in Florence it was in the middle of being restored as you can see from the black and white surfaces.

Inside they had covered up the plain windows with colored gels so there was a riot of color on the walls.
I peeked into a few more churches like this one where the pews had women carved into them.

I remained in that same church for a while because someone was rehearsing on the organ and I've always wanted to hear one played in a gothic style space.

After that I visited the Albertina which had a great collection of Impressionist and Post Impressionist pieces (not photos allowed), then Starbucks to get some $6.50 iced tea, then to a movie theater to see The Avengers because it was released a week earlier in Austria than it was in Slovenia.

Back at the hostel I decided to try the fancy restaurant at the neighboring castle. This is a salad topped with fried feta cheese (or shall we call it fried gold?).

Florence, Italy Day 2

Day two was more of me abandoning the tour group and wandering around on my own. The tour guide lent me an English language guide book so I started a suggested walking tour at the Ponte Vecchio.
It is one of the oldest bridges in Europe and is lined with jewelry shops.

It's the closest bridge in this photo.

Next I headed up a little alley and enjoyed the surroundings as well as the lack of tourists.

I got a little off track and stopped using the guidebook but enjoyed what I saw.


I did not end up visiting this church but was able to see it as well as the Boboli Gardens from above (no time to actually go there).

I'd been told we would be visiting the viewpoint pictured above right before we left town but I decided to hike all the way up and enjoy the intermediate views as well. I'm glad I did because our visit on the way out of town amounted to 5 minutes to snap a couple photos and then high tail it out of there.

The plant life and dripping water under one of the walkways for some reason reminded me of the water and light show at Enchanted Forest. I'm really not sure why.

I was very hungry after all the hiking around so I found a moderately expensive pizza joint across the street from what looked to be the flagship Salvatore Ferragamo store. Buffalo Mozzarella and porcini mushrooms, yum!

The sun finally decided to come out after lunch and the street performers appeared.


Shortly after lunch I rejoined the tour group and we went to the Santa Croce cathedral.

The apse was completely covered in scaffolding and several museums not open to the public so admission was free!

The church housed several famous figures tombs including Dante's, Galileo's, and Michelangelo's pictured above.

After the church and some quick gelato we were bussed up to the viewpoint where I took a few more photos. The olives trees behind my head are actually the classiest looking RV park I have ever seen.

The city hall and Duomo.

On the bus ride back it was clear enough to get some romantic views of the Tuscan countryside. Makes me want to find a hostel near a vineyard and just soak it in.

Next: Vienna

Florence, Italy Day 1, Part the Second

One of my favorite things that I stumbled upon on day one was this outdoor gallery next too the Gallery Uffuzi (where Michelangelo's David resides) and the city hall.

For a sculpture with the word rape in the title (The Rape of the Sabine Women), I thought this was pretty amazing.


I was also taken with these feet. Amazing stuff.


There were several ancient roman sculptures along the back wall. The bird is real, not marble.
Raise the roof Mercury.
Here's one of the outdoor Davids, this one is in front of the city hall.

I found a smaller church that was originally a merchant's guild market, then turned into a church. It was a nice place to escape the rain, other tourists, and sit down for a bit. Church pews are the only free place to sit in Italy. Restaurants and cafes charge a seating fee, and there are no benches anywhere. There was a no photography sign but I sneaked one photo.
Back at the Duomo I decided to take a couple detail photos because the facade is so intricate.

One tiny part of the Cathedral door. Back at the 4 start hotel I was treated to the previous guest's child's artwork all over the wall.