Vienna
Wednesday–Saturday May 25–28, 2005
We arrived in Vienna by train from Prague. The weather was unseasonably warm, and there was a lot of outdoor urban life on display. Vienna is a great city.
It is hot. People do not know what to do, except to drink beer or eat ice creams at outdoor cafes such as those on the left of this photo. And the right side, too. Vienna is a great place—people know how to live well.
Note the number of cars in view here in a world–class city, which is also a Unesco World Heritage site.
Another street scene, more outdoor cafes, more pedestrians, more of the good life. But where are the cars? Aren’t automobiles necessary?
Finally, we found where the locals park their four–wheeled vehicles—at the cafe.
It is May. We often find ourselves in European cities in May, while the residents are celebrating Corpus Christi. In Andalusia one May we hit three celebrations in a row, each of which closed the little towns we were in. We stumbled on a celebration in the Stephansdom cathedral, which was packed. What brought us inside was the wonderful singing. It ended too soon, and then a precession started to leave the cathedral. Here is a contingent of priests wearing Maltese crosses. In front of them were two cardinals in their red uniforms.
Vienna also has art museums. Quite a few of them, in fact. Here is a photograph of the entrance to the Secession Building, which opened in 1898. The “golden cabbage” dome is made of 3,000 golden laurel leaves.
These grounds had signs that indicated people should not sit on the grass (and enjoy life) during the heat wave.
The Belvedere is another one of Vienna’s small art museums. It was built in 1714. Masterpieces by Klimt (The Kiss) were here when we visited.
Not enough can be said about the cafe culture in Vienna. These photographs are from Café Demel, which opened in 1786. Here we have a Cremeschnitte and a Kaffenussetorte.
This is Hundertwasserhaus, an apartment house built in 1986. It is a magnet for tourists interesting in the colors, shapes and foliage.
The roof of Stephansdom (the principal cathedral) consists of 250,000 colorful tiles. The original roof dates to 1490, and there was a necessary restoration after the Second World War.
Next—We fly back to Berlin via Air Berlin.
