In brief: On a short but busy return visit to Vienna, we found a city even more beautiful and interesting than ever.
It was a quick trip to Vienna to visit with my son to a place that Nancy and I had not visited for 15 years. But he and I filled the days in this beautiful city – with art, music, beer, Austrian wine, Viennese food, and lots of walking. We ate just one pastry, after the opera; the imperial cityscape offered confectionery enough.
The Hofburg palace at night, a 19th century confection among so many others
A typical 19th century street
Interior, Stadttempel synagogue. It’s now 200 years old and quite splendid in its restoration of a very theatrical space. Here we learned of the many highs and lows for the Jewish population during the time of Imperial Vienna. This is the only synagogue in the city that survived the 1930s: its records of Jews living in Vienna made it too valuable for the Nazis to burn. We were horrified to learn that Adolf Eichmann himself came here to supervise the use of those records.
At night, the city hall of Vienna, the Rathaus, looks somewhat like a wedding cake. You can tell that we enjoyed some excellent glühwein before a superb dinner nearby. Around us ice skaters also delighted in an elaborate network of trails and rinks laid out in front of the building.
Another view of the city hall, designed in the late 19th century as a pastiche of historical styles.. Surrounding it in winter is an elaborate expanse of open spaces, ramps, and bridges like this one for hundreds of people to skate along an icy course.
The weather was so good during our stay that we could enjoy outdoor seating at a boat-shaped café along the inner channel of the Danube River, right near the oldest part of town. Hours and hours drifted by.
The cathedral of Vienna, St. Stephen’s, with its Gothic exterior and geometric roof. All lanes seem to pass it at the center of old Vienna.
A lane in the small section of medieval Vienna with non-medieval graffiti
An unusual clock from the Jugendstil period, the Viennese Art Nouveau. Though the 12 life-sized figures commemorate Viennese art and culture, the rest is a subtle ad for the life insurance company that paid for it. Decorations remind us of Time, death, and divine punishments.
The soaring café at the Kunsthistorische museum, a palatial building built to display centuries of art. We also visited the modern art collections of the Albertina and Leopold Museums, as well as some contemporary galleries.
In a room packed with chiaroscuro paintings styled after Caravaggio, his Crowning of Thorns at the Kunsthistorische museum stood out, as great art should. The drama, the horror, and the hope for a better world thrilled us. There are just too many stunning masterpieces in the museum, including a whole room of world-renowned Breughel paintings – or Rubens, or Venetian painters, etc. Spending time with just a few, like this Caravaggio, made for a rewarding experience.
The five tiers of the Vienna State Opera house. Unhappily, the Vienna Philharmonic was performing in NYC, so instead we relished a night at the opera – enjoying the hall and exploring all the glitter of this late 19th century building, including the Mahler Hall that celebrates great opera conductors of the past. We opted for a new piece based on Orwell’s Animal Farm, with some challenging music and wonderful costuming.
Alex suits the opera house well, as he reflects on an upper floor of the grand staircase.
(To enlarge any picture above, click on it. Also, CLICK HERE to view the slideshow at the end of the Austria itinerary page.)
