A Casual Day

Our second day in Vienna was a more casual day. We saw some big sights the first day and discounted seeing some of the other big sights (like all the palace opulence – we’ve seen a lot of that already and there is only so much a person can take). So today was for things on our “to do if we have time” list. Sometimes those things turn out to be some of the best experiences.

Our first stop was at the tram station. They are all over town. Vienna has a very efficient tram system, in addition to a few underground rail lines. We were on our was to the KustHausWien – the museum of the works of visual artist, Friedensreich Hunderwasser. He was an eccentric artist/philosopher/environmentalist who created everything from postage stamp designs to large paintings, but whose most famous work was his whimsical buildings, one of which was just down the street (top photo).

Then we walked to the Stadtpark (just one of the many extensive parks in Vienna). On the way, we stumbled upon a nice grocery store, bought some ingredients for a spur-of-the-moment picnic in the park, and had a very pleasant and filling lunch, as well as some playground time for the children.

The Belvedere Palace Museum was next. This former palace of a military hero is now empty of furniture and used as an art gallery for mostly 19^th century work. It was mediocre, I thought. With art that didn’t particularly appeal to me and grounds that were very mediocre as palace grounds go. But it was worth a quick visit. Like yesterday, our early start left us time to take a mid-afternoon rest, because we knew we would be out late.

We wanted to take advantage of the festive atmosphere of the concerts “films” on the Rathausplatz. So we waited as long as we could for dinner and then headed off for the city hall. It’s a great, imposing building that looks like a set-piece for another Batman film (middle photo and bottom video clip). The plaza is set up with food vendors hawking food (on standard rectangular china plates!) from around the world. I had some supposedly Australian chicken and rice, and Annie had some Chinese noodles & veggies. The others had food from the “American” stand, complete with tiny stars & stripes flags.

By 9:40 it was dark enough to start the show – a filmed concert of the Los Angeles (!) Philharmonic performing Mahler, on his 150^th birthday. It was a lot of fun to soak in the Viennese version of movie night in the park, but we only stayed for about 30 minutes of the 90 minute concert. It was getting late and we had a bit of a walk through a dodgy neighborhood to get back to our hostel. On the way we took a photo of the fountain in front of the Parliament building. We certainly didn’t see all there was to see of Vienna, but we got a taste. It felt like enough.

Tomorrow we are on our way to Budapest….