Wien II

Day two! Here's the only group photo I have of the three of us ... for more group photos see Karen's excellent selection of photos on her blog (listed below ...). We awoke fairly early (on Easter!) to an absolutely beautiful day. We immideately headed for the Opera, since Renee's 'one thing' hadn't panned out the night before.

The opera building was originally built in (if I remember correctly) 1869 for guess who?? The Habsburgs. Unfortunately, a stray bomb fell in the backstage area in 1945 and the gigantic 'iron curtain' designed to prevent the spread of fire crashed into the auditorium. The only part of the building that survived was the very front. The rest was reconsturcted in the 1950s on a shoestring budget- so the front of the building is very ornate and the rest is very ... 50s.
But it's still gorgeous. The Opera runs 7 nights a week from September to May. Each night is a different production to the point where a particular performance will only run 3-5 times a month. Saturday night had been a Vivaldi ballet, Sunday night was going to be a Wagner opera (they only do ballets and operas here- drama is at a different theatre). So it's a BIG deal. The opera employs 300 stagehands to change the set between the different performances, which takes all day. We were there as they were moving off the set of the night before.

They also had Mahler's baby piano that he took with him wherever he went (you know, to tinker on his lastest symphony). Mahler did a significant amount for the Vienna Opera and is still considered to be the best conductor the institution ever had. Despite the fact that the Opera is sold out every night, it struggles to keep afloat- 50% of its budget is subsidized by the state.

Next was Karen's 'one thing'- the art history museum. It kicked ass. Again, it was built (we speculate as one of the many palaces of the Habsburgs and its interior is absolutely gorgeous.

They had everybody from Carvaggio to Bosch. I definitely got my fill of 'Madonna and Child'- which was evidently THE thing to paint for hundreds and hundreds of years. Then came these enormous still-lifes depicting lots and lots of seafood, with all these bizarre fish and crustaceans- each of these paintings also contained a hapless baby seal. Poor baby seal. When we'd finally glutted ourselves on all of the art we could take, we headed out in search of lunch.

This lady is Maria Theresa- a 'Habsburg who mattered' according to travel guide writer Rick Steve (oh, Rick Steve). Unlike the more worthless Habsburgs (like Empress Elizabeth- I forgot to mention that Franz Josef's nickname for her was 'Sissy'), Maria Theresa did a significant amount to reform her empire and strengthen it by (again Rick Steve's words, not mine) 'making love, not war'. That is she married off her children to other important houses of Europe. Most memorable was her poor daughter, Marie Antoinette, who arrived to marry Louis XVI at probably the worst possible time in French history. Oops.

We headed to a little square that was having a traditional Easter fair, with the obligatory millions of intricately painted egg shells (Prague had a ton of them, too). We bought brautwurst and sauerkraut from a stand and then headed off to the much anticipated St. Stephen's.

Finally. (We'd actually found it the night before, but none of those pictures turned out well). We went inside and admired the beautiful sculptures and the thousands of other tourists crammed in there with us.

On our way back to the train station, we stopped by another palace-turned-art-museum, the Belvedere. Again, lots of over manicured gardens; but this one was really striking.

After touring the Belvedere's gardens, we climbed on our train and were whisked back to Prague (we realized that we'd been in Vienna for exactly 48 hours as the train left). Here's the sunset from our compartment. It's good to be back in Prague- it's not as flashy, wealthy, or well-planned as Vienna, but its starting to feel like home. AND, last night, I had a .5 litre beer, a bowl of garlic soup, two pork cutlets and bramboracky (potato dumplings) for only 153 Czech crowns (Kc) which is only about 7.50 USD. It's good to be back.