The Road to Budapest - Day 2

23/03/09
This morning the group met for an orientation walk through Vienna. We passed amazing, huge and decorative buildings (most of which are now Museums) and gardens that still look beautiful even in the bareness of winter. The history of this city is quite interesting ranging from stories of the beginnings of musical greats, the rule of Communists and the presence of Hitler. We were also told that on the balcony of the Imperial Palace – Hofburg Palace, Hitler made an important address to the nation during his reign of terror. St Stephen’s Cathedral is an amazing structure – the gothic style, with brightly tiled roof and the gold interior were all equally beautiful and is what makes it such a striking building. For lunch we had the traditional Frankfurt in a roll – the sausages are huge, and actually quite oily, yet still enjoyable. We stopped during our walk and watched a video of from the Spanish Riding School – the dancing White Horses, the talents of the horses and riders was awesome and I was a little disappointed that I would have time to see an actual performance while I was there, but of well, you can’t do everything.
Gail & I then went to the outskirts of the city to visit the Kunst Haus Wien – a unique gallery for the artist Hundertwasser. The building is full of curves and randomly shaped and located windows, with black and white tiles in various sizes creating a funky design. The poles of the portico are made of colourful balls, poles and shapes of tiles. The building is like nothing I have ever seen – it was magnificent. The floors of the gallery were curves and uneven, either wooden or cement and stone and the walls were lined with a biography of the artist, blurbs written by Hundertwasser and then of course his art. His art is a mix of paintings and models of townships and buildings he has either just dreamt of or actually seen come to life. His paintings are very unique and are a mixture of shapes, lines, people (similar to how Picasso draws them) and pieces of foil – to create a wonderful piece of artwork.
That night I went to a Viennese Orchestra performance in the beautiful Vienna Imperial Hall. On the way I passed the famous ‘Mozart Cafe’. The performance was of music by Mozart, Strauss, Beethoven etc and was accompanied by Opera Singers and Ballet Dancers. It was a great night and it felt good to see such a traditional performance in the city that classical music began and is still so prevalent in today.