Vienna Pt. 2
We walked along the Kärtner Straße, and it seemed just about everywhere we turned was packed. We stopped to look at St. Stephansdom, the large cathedral with the beautiful mosaic roof. We didn’t go in, instead planning that for another day and a special stop off. We turned down the Graben, Vienna’s other main walking spot, with hopes to find other cafes to try. The street was beautifully decorated for the holidays, with streams of light across the path and large light-chandeliers hanging overhead. There were glühwein stalls set up all around, and lots of activity building up for the New Year celebrations.
Down a side street we found a little place called Bräunerhof. It was a beautiful café with plush seating, marble table tops, and dark wood all throughout. It wasn’t too bright, was a bit cramped, and had wonderful coffee and pastries. In all, I think this is a much better example of a true Viennese café than what you would find at a touristy place. We had the mélange of course, and tried their version of the Sacher Torte. It may not have been the original, but it sure was delicious. We hung around for a while, just taking in the scenery and the bustle around us. Viennese cafés were made to be social, relaxing places rather than a quick drop in for coffee. We had a second cup, and while there were so many other things to do, we felt it would be a waste to come to Vienna without taking a bit of time to relax. The culture here in the café is as much a part of the city as any museum or sight would be.
We headed back towards the MuseumsQuartier to see if we could get into one more before it got too late. We passed through the Jacobsplatz and cut through to the Volksgarten. There are so many squares and plazas here in Vienna, something new to find at every turn! As we went through the park we passed by one of my favorite buildings in the world. The Neue Burg is a 19th century extension of the Hofburg Palace, and it is such a visually stunning building with its rows of pillars, imposing front, and semi-circular curve. Famous of course from WWII where the spaces in between the pillars were draped with Nazi banners, to see the building in person is awe inspiring to say the least. It is always interesting to see historical landmarks in person that you’ve seen many times before in pictures, but a place like Neue Burg has a wonder that extends beyond just the historical impact. This building is simply beautiful. A few times on my travels have I stood in awe, marveling at the beauty of architecture, and Neue Burg is one of those places.
We hurried back into the Maria-Theresien-Platz and were happy to find the Kunsthistorisches Museum was still open, and would be for a good while yet! We headed up the steps, bought our ticket, and then went in.
And our jaws dropped to the floor.
All the artwork throughout the museum aside, the interior of this building is amazing! The structure itself was as much a work of art as any of the paintings or sculptures within. The dome in the main hall stretched high overhead, the white walls decorated with gold designs up to the ceiling. Marble pillars bookended the staircases that rose from the patterned floor, and the ceiling was painted by noted artists, Mucha being one of them (Mucha is one of the tops on Beth’s list).
Most of the paintings were arranged Salon-style, where the high walls were covered going up to the ceiling, almost like a collage of pictures on the walls. It is beautiful and interesting… and if you think I knew anything about this before being told by Beth, well… I wondered why they put them so high up instead of in a row at eye level, but apparently this is a thing, and has been a thing for quite a while. One of the things that really struck me is the size of some of the paintings. Easily they stood a couple stories high!
Honestly, I do appreciate art and paintings and I did enjoy what I saw there, but the actual knowledge of it all came from Beth. Good thing she was there to tell me about it. I can get what some of the artists were trying to say or do in their works, but her knowledge of the artists themselves added a much greater perspective, added a bit more of a why to the what. We saw works from Albrecht Dürer (pretty cool since we just hung out in his platz back in Nuremberg), Titian, Caravaggio, and Peter Paul Rubens (another of Beth’s favs). We also saw all kinds of subjects, from self portraits, regular portraits, paintings of famous people from the time, still life, and a good old fashioned boob-grab! Of course considering the time periods, there were lots and lots of Christian religious subjects, as the church was a big spender that commissioned many of these artists, and those commissions were paying the artist’s bills. Thinking back on Schiele and on lots of weird art I see today, I stood wondering what could have been made with the talent level of these artists if they could have painted what was on their minds. Not just Jesus or angels or Adam and Eve or demons - but the weird and unique, and even the weird and erotic, the stuff from their dreams that I just know they had a desire to create. I would have loved to see what other crazy subject matter these masters could have come up with.
Back up the pedestrian-only Kärtner Straße, we decided to seek out a place for dinner where we ate all those years ago when visiting dad. But first, we stopped off in a gourmet grocery store called Merkur Gourmet. Amazing place! They had nice looking baked goods, beautiful produce, a respectable craft beer selection, and tons of chocolates, in addition to everything else the grocer would carry. In the produce section we saw a barrel that looked like a deli pickle barrel from back home. When we lifted the lid… it was full of fresh sauerkraut!
I think Vienna would be a very livable city for us!
We got a few bottles of water, a couple local hard ciders from the cold section, and a couple pretzels from the bakery, all to be later snacks. Off to find dinner!
Heindl’s Palatschinkenkuchl is a nice little restaurant in the north-eastern part of the Innere Stadt that is known for Palatschinken, or traditional Austrian pancakes similar to French Crepes or Irish Boxtys. We were here before and it was wonderful, and now all these years later we came back. It was a cold night, so we started with soups to share – Pumpkin and Cream of Garlic, both outstanding! We each got a Palatschinken order, I chose the wild boar and Beth got the salmon. The salmon was nice, but the boar was absolutely fantastic. We paired them with a glass of Stiegl for a true Austrian meal!
We took the long walk back the Kärtner Straße to the Wiedner Hauptstraße back to the hotel. We were considering whether or not to take a day trip to Bratislava, and we’ve decided that tomorrow is a good day to go. We head out to the train station early tomorrow for the one hour ride, and get to add another country on the trip!
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