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.