Vienna 10/28

Vienna, Monday, October 29

I was very self-sufficient yesterday and went to the Bellevedere Palace Museum by myself on the bus.  I asked at the desk which one to take and the stop and walked there by myself as Garrett wanted to do his own thing.  There are 2 museums in Vienna with exhibits featuring Gustaf Klimt because it is 150 years since he was born.  It was fairly cold, but I wore my fleece vest and my windbreaker with hood.  I wished for mittens and a scarf.

 

 

The exhibit was wonderful.  They had set up one half of the first (read second here) floor just for it.  The walls had been marked with quotations from his diaries and the words of others about him (in large letters like the ones you can buy at home to put on your walls).  It made it easier to understand the stages of his life.

In the beginning he and his brother had commissions to paint inside theaters and churches, rather regular art work.   You could see as you went on through the rooms how his work changed after Ernst died to become more and more Nouveau and excentric.  He and some contemporaries founded a movement called Secession.  I hope to go to that museum today or tomorrow.  The picture is a display we saw in a pastry shop window because I couldn't take pictures inside.

 

I should have gotten the audio to go through the rooms, but didn't.  When I got to the last room, there was a curator and a large crowd at The Kiss, and the man was explaining the painting.  Unfortunately for me, it was all in German.  The painting is magni-ficent with gold leaf or paint on much of the surface.  He also used gold on many others like Judith and Sophie.  Many of the paintings are very large.
 

I went through the other rooms quickly (spending some time at the Napolean on his horse by David), and looking out of the windows at Vienna spread out below.  I also went into the museum shop for some cards since I couldn't take pictures.  To get back to the hotel, I just took the same bus and got off at a place I recognized.

 

Garrett had already finished his ramblings, so we went back to the cafe where we had had coffee the night before.  He had a plate-sized schnitzel, and I had a fresh sausage dish called chevapcici (I know that is spelled wrong because it is Hungarian or Polish or Czec).  Both were delicious and too big.  We had intended to go back later for coffee and dessert, but it was too cold and we were not hungry.

Vienna, October 27, Monday

This morning there is a mix of rain and snow, and Accuweather says it is    -1^oC, about 30^oF.  It will only get to about 3^o today, but will warm up in the coming days, warmest on the day we go home, about 9^oC on Thursday.  I guess we should have come earlier in the month and gone to Rome afterwards.  I think we will buy mittens and a cap for Garrett and a scarf for me today.  It won't be that warm.