Tonight's The Big Night, But First...The Belvedere Palace

We have tickets this evening to a gala ball at Vienna City Hall - a black tie affair highlighted by a balcony view of the fireworks at midnight.  I'll be all over that one tomorrow. 

But today, while we counted the hours until time to get dressed up, we visited the Belvedere Palace and museum.  It houses the world's largest collection of Gustav Klimt's work.  And if you saw the movie "Woman in Gold," you know that work used to be here, b  ut now resides in New York.

So, go get your iPod again...I'm just going to let you enjoy some of what we saw today.

An amazing piece - The Five Senses     Hans Makart

Cupid & Psyche     Theodor Freidl

Delicate and so expressive

Paul Hermann & Paul Contard     Edvard Munch

(I know...I thought it was Ed Sheeran and Ashton Kutcher, too!)

The Plain of Auvers     van Gogh

Sunset/Largo     Hofmann    

The Kiss     Gustav Klimt

Outstanding!

Judith     Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Fritza Riedler     Gustav Klimt

Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl     Gustav Klimt

Unfinished - he died before finishing it

Farm Garden with Sunflowers     Gustav Klimt

The Poppy Field     Gustav Klimt

Men by the Sea     Edvard Munch

After the Bath     Renoir

The Chef     Monet

Garden in Giverny     Monet

I'm off to take a nap before the celebrations begin.  Happy New Year, everybody!

I'll Just Leave This Here For You

Go to Spotify, or Pandora, or find anything in your ipod library that sounds classical and reflective (preferable Mozart or Strauss).  Put it on in the background.  I'll wait for you.

Ready?  Okay.  Today we went to the Albertina Museum.  I'll just leave these here for you.

The Water Lily Pond 1917-19   Monet

Nude Woman with Bird & Flute Player    Picasso

Still Life with Guitar, 1942   Picasso

Future, 1938    Miro

The Enchanted Domain   Magritte

Sleeping Woman with Flowers     Chagall

The Great Circus    Chagall

Inner Alliance    Kandinsky

Approaching Lobtau Train Station     Kirchner

Winter Landscape    Munsch

Young Woman in a Shirt    Modigliani 

Danaide    Rodin

Seated Nude    van Rysselburghe

Parrot Tulips     Matisse

Architectural drawing     Frank Lloyd Wright

Self Portrait, 1506     Raphael

Madonna dell'Impannata     Raphael

Madonna Aldobrandini     Raphael

Study     Raphael

Yeah, we saw some good shit today.  Okay, you can turn off your iPod, now...or not.

Plan B

We had planned to go museum hopping today.  We had planned on hitting the art museum (Das Kunsthistorische) and the treasury (to see the crown jewels).  We had planned on scoping out Opera House and Belvedere Palace tours.  We had planned on not drinking and eating as much as we did yesterday.  Ah...the best laid plans... 

Instead, we slept in - waaaay in.  Explored a bit more, found a fine lunch at a beer hall across the street from the Opera House, shopped some on the Ringstrasse, took a nap, and then got dressed up for a fancy dinner (our concierge helped make reservations for us - THANK YOU EVELYN!).

Seriously, as much as I love an agenda and scheduled professional tours, there's nothing like a day that takes you where the wind blows.  We slept past 9am.  We didn't actually get downstairs until almost noon.  Then the wind began to blow.  We had decided that perhaps we should get gussied up and go to a fancy dinner this evening, so we stopped at the concierge for some advice.  Evelyn gave us about six choices - all of which sounded delicious.  I have to tell you that she also recommended an Italian restaurant (not Spaghetti Leviathan).  We love Italian, but didn't come to Vienna to eat spaghetti.  After Evelyn made several attempts to get us a reservation for the evening, she hit upon a next-level spot that would fit the bill...traditional, but upscale Viennese and Austrian food.  Yeah, baby!

Our evening plans in place, we set out toward the museum quarter.  We found a beer hall across from the Opera House and settled in for lunch.

The State Opera House

Just a typical Austrian Beer Hall, Bier & Bierli.  Let me sing you the song of my people!

Now THAT's a Vienna Lager!

We enjoyed a fabulous lunch - Joe had beef/potatoes/bacon/onion-something in a skillet, topped with a fried egg.  I had the grilled salmon (grilled to perfection, by the way) with a buttery dill cream sauce.  Okay, maybe NOT your typical beer hall food, just damn delicious!  While basking in our new-found fullness, we decided that we didn't want to be rushed through the museums and so decided that we would just wander aimlessly - following that wind.  

Goethe - just sitting around thinking about things.

Just past the Opera House and across from the Albertina Museum (a new one to put on our list), we spotted the Mozart Cafe. 

I would have loved to check this out but the line was too long.  So we headed into one of the shopping districts - the Ringstrasse-Galerien.  

About 70 stores and a very cool market.

Back out on the streets, we passed this lovely, designer gown...

It's what I'm really wearing New Year's Eve.

The wind blew us next to a huge shopping center - Stephansplatz

Blocks and block of shops on a pedestrian-friendly plaza.  Literally anything you could want.

By now we were a bit wind-blown and decided to return to the hotel for a nap and to get ready for the evening.  We brought fancy for New Year's, but I wanted to get more than one wear out of my new velvet shoes (plus break them in a bit before the big night), so we also brought dressier stuff to wear to an upscale dinner.  

It was a nice night, so I wasn't worried about ruining said velvet shoes in the rain or snow, but...it's been so long since I've worn heels, I really don't know how to wear them anymore.  I'm sure I looked like one of those dogs trying to get used to wearing those little galoshes.  Muscle memory did not serve me well...I guess that's one of those things my retirement brain deleted.  But I finally got the hang of it, and we made it to the restaurant in time for our reservation.   

At Plachutta Gasthaus zur Oper.  Roast beef, crispy onions and mashed potatoes.  Das ist gut!!!

Franziskaner coffee - coffee with whipped cream and crushed chocolate

Mohr im Hemd - Traditional warm chocolate nut cake with whipped cream and ice cream.  

Traditional holy crap that's good.

We'll try again tomorrow for the museums...depending on the wind.

Bratislava Is Fabulous, And Don't You Let Anyone Tell You Any Differently!

When I think of eastern European capitals that have survived several different realms AND Communism, I picture bleak and dilapidated Anatevka - the "The Fiddler on the Roof" village.  But while there are a few buildings in the old town section of Bratislava that vaguely resemble hovels,  the ones that were unharmed during the many wars or that have been preserved or restored, are beautiful! 

Our adventures in old town Bratislava began with a quick one hour train ride and a 15 minute walk from the station to the historic city center.  Good signage (and several groups of tourists) showed us the way down the hill.  St. Michael's Gate is the entrance.

This spire can be seen from about half-way up the hill to the train station - a great welcoming beacon.  Bratislava was called Pressburg under the Hapsburg empire and Pozsony under the Hungarians.  It became Bratislava when Slovakia won its independence, but there are still shops and city signs that have retained their former names.

Originally built in about 1300, it's been rebuilt, restored and preserved several times.  In medieval times, the city was surrounded by fortified walls.  These days, only the gate remains.  

Just inside the gate is this large inlay.  It's basically ground zero for all of Bratislava...the point from which all destinations are measured.  Major cities and their distances from this point are engraved along the outer ring.

Once inside the gate, you're greeted with shops, restaurants, bars, statuary, embassies, and churches.  It's a feast for your soul!

This clock tower adorns City Hall - one of the oldest in the country.  It was built in the late 1300s - well preserved and just lovely!

From just past City Hall, you can look up the hill and see the castle.  It's a bit of a haul, so we passed, but I understand that the views of the city and the Danube are spectacular.  Yeah, I know, but we were hungry and in the mood to find some good local craft beer.

Along one of the first streets past the gate, there was a Scottish pub, a Mexican food place, and an Irish pub.  Who says Bratislava isn't diverse?!

We settled on the Solvak Pub and were well rewarded.  

Another option.  I suspect it's a local chapter of Pastafarianism.  

Alright, this totally cracked me up.  At home we have a beer fridge covered in a melange of stickers - oriented in all directions - from breweries all over the country.  It is a work of art.  We stopped into Zil Verne and noticed their beer stickers.  Are these people organized or what!?  

We found several stores that specialized in locally made souvenirs (which we bought), tons of upscale retail options (beautiful jewelry, handsome menswear, shoe and purse shops...).

What a great day...the food was outstanding, the shopping was brilliant, the scenery and architecture was amazing, the people were friendly and helpful, and the beer was delicious.  Bratislava is fabulous!

After the weak sun went down, it turned really cold and started to drizzle a bit.  We decided it was time to head back to Vienna.  We caught the next to last train and had a wonderful surprise when left the station - it was snowing!  Maybe tomorrow we'll have a bit of a dusting as we do a bit of museum hopping in Vienna.