Vienna 2nd Visit, December 2018: Part 2, The City

We left from Toronto on Sunday, Dec. 2nd and returned Sunday, Dec. 9th.  It involved a 4 hr. drive from Amherstburg, and then back again.  Our fingers were crossed for good driving weather, and we had no problems.  We left Pearson Airport in Toronto for Frankfurt 30 minutes late, enough to make us miss our flight connection to Vienna.  Two weeks before leaving, Austrian Airlines cancelled our direct flight, and we had to scramble to get them to switch us to Lufthansa.  I strongly dislike connecting flights in overcrowded and under serviced European airports.  Frankfurt was as bad or worse than Warsaw.  We were put on the next plane to Vienna, however, and arrived at our hotel shortly after noon.  Our room was ready!

We flew both ways on a Lufthansa 747-400.  With 371 seats, it was jammed coming and going.

 

 Hauptbanhoff was our main transport connection, just steps away from our hotel.  U-Bahn (subway), overground trains, trams, buses, and the airport train all come here.  It is also a vast 2-storey shopping complex.

Vienna is a wonderful city to explore, and it is very easy to lose the crowds and be almost alone.

On our arrival day we took a ride from the start of Tram D, close to our hotel, to the finish, ending in the small village (now a part of Vienna) called Nussdorf.  Sunset in Vienna was at 4 pm, so we wandered around the quiet streets of the village before taking the ride back towards our hotel.   Vienna was decked out fully for Christmas, with lights, skaters, and small portable shops in many of the larger plazas.  We had arrived at the very end of a bad cold spell, and there was still snow on the ground.  However, it warmed up for our visit, and other than one night of cold rain, we had no weather issues at all.

On Tuesday we spent the morning with our ViennaWalks book, undertaking Walk #1.  Last October we did #2 and #3, so we still have one walk remaining for a future visit.  If we return we will combine the Vienna trip with a visit to Budapest, only 2 hours away by train.  We continued the walk tour on Wednesday, part of Thursday, and finally completed it on Friday.  This was combined with stops at pubs, wine bars, shops, cafes, and other points of interest.  Saturday was reserved for a long walk into the Vienna Woods.  Though similar to the walk last year, this one included a more direct approach to Kahlenberg, as well as a very steep descent on the other side of the mountain.

 While many areas of old Vienna are crammed with tourists, it is an easy matter to step away and find yourself in a very quiet spot.

 Maria am Gestade, also visited last year.  The churches were usually dark and very chilly inside.

 Haydn and Maria Theresa, in the 12 and 11 o'clock position respectively.  Every noon hour this massive outdoor clock (which took six years to build) runs through all twelve historical figures, beginning with Marcus Aurelius and Charlemagne, and ending with Haydn.  Each figure is accompanied by its own music.  The cycle takes 15 minutes to complete, and only happens at noon.  By pure luck we arrived at the clock at 11:59 pm! 

    

One must always look up in Vienna, above the shop windows.  Otherwise you will miss something special!

 Our double selfie, at Delirium Pub on Judenplatz.  They only serve Belgian beer!!

 Buskers in Vienna underground stations are of a whole other category of quality.  This is Trio Grotesque, and we bought their CD.  Spellbinding performers, and they drew huge crowds.

 The village of Grinzing, amidst the grape growing hills of the Vienna Woods.  Tram #38 ends its journey from central Vienna in Grinzing.  It is a charming little place.

 Heading uphill towards Kahlenberg.

 We came across a small cemetery in the Vienna Woods.

 It was a beautiful day for a December walk in the woods!

 Kahlenberg is the highest point in Vienna, and the end of the Austrian Alps, which stop at the Danube river.  Up top there is a church, small university, hotel, and cafe with scenic views overlooking the city.  Bus #38A also makes the trip, so one doesn't have to walk here.

 Interior of St. Joseph Church, Kahlenberg.

 View of the Danube and Vienna from the cafe.  The air was clearer than our visit last year.

 This year we came down the steep eastern side of the mountain, into the village of Kahlenberg-dorf, along the Danube.  From the village we were able to catch a bus to a nearby train station.

 Vienna at night.

 Vienna at night.

 St Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna.

 Charles Cathedral, Karlsplatz.

 On our departure from Frankfurt for Toronto, we watched the ground crew load a Lamborghini onto our plane! 

Despite the huge hassle of getting to Vienna and back again, the trip was definitely worth it.  The journey capped off a major travel year for us that included a week in London, visits to Cincinnati and Columbus, two weeks in New Mexico, and family to Sudbury for me, and Lindsay for Deb.  2019 should be a much quieter year for us, but if not, you will read about it here!

Thanks for stopping by.

Mapman Mike

Vienna 2nd Visit, December 2018: Part 1 Kunsthistoriches and Bruegel

For the 2nd time in just over a year, we were drawn to Vienna to see art by Pieter Bruegel the Elder.  Considered one of the finest painters who ever lived, his incomparable landscape paintings, as well as his peasant works, draw people from all over the world to Vienna and the many other museums where his work is displayed, including Detroit.  The art museum in Vienna houses 14 of his paintings, and the Albertina, virtually across the street, houses many of his prints and drawings.  On our first visit in October of 2017, we went to see the Vienna Bruegel paintings.  11 of them were on display, which was plenty.  However, the Albertina was also home to a vast temporary exhibit of his prints and drawings, collected from museums worldwide.  So we had a double dose of the master!

This time, the Kunsthistoriches was hosting a major exhibit of his paintings and his prints and drawings.  30+ paintings and about 60 works on paper were being brought together in the largest exhibit of its kind, and likely the only one, ever.  We saw 3 of the Vienna paintings that were not on display on our previous visit, along with these works:  Mad Meg, from Brussels, and Triumph of Death, from Madrid, both recently cleaned and restored to pristine condition (all the Vienna paintings were also in pristine condition, with several restored especially for this exhibit!); from Rome came Bay of Naples; from Berlin came Two Monkeys (possibly my favourite painting of all time); from Rotterdam came the 2nd, smaller version of Tower of Babel, sitting alongside the larger Vienna version; from London came his mannerist Adoration of the Kings; from Prague came the magnificent Haymaking, shown with the three other extent Seasons paintings from Vienna, for the very first time; from Brussels came Winter Landscape with a Birdtrap, alongside one of the copies by his son Pieter the Younger; From Winterthur came Adoration of the Kings in the Snow, possibly the finest winter painting ever created; from Darmstadt came Landscape with the Magpie on the Gallows, considered by many to be his finest landscape; from the Louvre came The Cripples; from Munich came Head of an Old Peasant Woman, from England's Upton House, Banbury, came Death of the Virgin, and also a copy by Jan Brueghel the Elder of Massacre of the Innocents, alongside Vienna's original by Pieter the Elder; from the Frick collection in NYC came Three Soldiers; there was a recently rediscovered miniature painting called The Drunk Cast Into the Pigsty.  I may have missed one or two.  Don't forget about the Vienna paintings, including Hunters In the Snow and 14 others!  So it was a total extravaganza, and worth all the expense and effort to get to Vienna.  We went twice to the exhibit, and we barely scratched the surface.  I am currently reading the purchased catalogue and essays.  More essays will be published next autumn, the ones from the symposium (which was running on our visit, but was fully booked).

I will take you through a little photo journey of just one the paintings, Hunters In the Snow, courtesy of the Kunsthistoriches website called Inside Bruegel.....  If the photos do not all load first time, reload the page.

 Hunters In the Snow, Vienna.  Painted in 1565.  45"x64"

 Detail 1

 Detail 2

 Detail 3

 Detail 4

 Detail 5

 Detail 6

 Detail 7

 Detail 8

 Detail 9

 Detail 10.  That wee person in the bottom right is timeless.  I saw him skating in Detroit the other day.

 Detail 11--note the man shooting birds!

 Detail 12--the famous chimney fire, with water being thrown!

 Detail 13 

And on and on and on....  I hope you get the idea.  And this is only one painting.  All of his large works are like this, paintings within paintings within paintings.  Try to imagine 14 of these permanently within one museum, and then 30 of them in a temporary exhibit.  Sheer insanity!!  His works on paper are just as detailed.  At the start of the exhibit, while waiting for your ticket time to enter, they had three giant screens constantly showing 3 of his paintings in detail, with the "camera" constantly moving very slowly to different areas.  You were completely drawn into the artist's world before even entering the exhibit!

 Waiting room for the exhibit, with 3 large screens moving in slow motion across three different paintings.  It was spell binding, and the pictures were very high quality.

 Mad Meg, restored for the exhibit.  From Brussels.

The terrifying Triumph of Death, from Madrid, restored.

The incomparable miniature "Two Monkeys," from Berlin.  An entire room was devoted to this tiny picture, showing how it was created by the artist in stages.  It probably took him a day.

We also got to visit the archaeological wing of the museum, our first visit.  The collections are rich in Egyptian art and Roman art.  Their collection of Roman gold is totally unbelievable! 

 Deb and her Near Eastern hero.

Some heads.

Way more heads!

After our 2nd visit to the Bruegel exhibit, we separated for an hour within the museum.  Deb returned to the Wes Anderson curated exhibit, while I walked through Italian and French paintings.  Anderson and his partner got to choose anything from the storage vaults and come up with an exhibit.  The highlight was the title piece, "Spitzmaus Mummy in a Coffin and other Treasures."  Here are some of Deb's photos from that exhibit.

Wow!  Definitely a rare find.  Egyptian, 4 Cent. B.C.

 Madeleine, daughter of the Hirsute man.  German, c. 1580.

I am left somewhat without words for many of these objects....

Stage design model.

There were 411 objects, and they were exhibited in a cabinet of curiosities fashion.  It was a pretty engaging exhibit, and a rare chance to see objects that will seldom, if ever, be shown again.

Here are some final shots of permanent art from the Kunsthistoriches....

 A small Bosch.

3 Saxony Princesses, Cranach.  Too charming!

Deb in one of the galleries devoted to Rubens.

Detail of a painting with critters.

A Venetian beauty, by Titian.

Gallery and ceiling, Kunsthistoriches, Vienna.

We spent half a day Tuesday and half a day Thursday at the Kunsthistoriches Museum.  The rest of the time was spent re-exploring Vienna, which was all decked out for Christmas.

Continued in Part 2....

Mapman Mike