Vienna (ad)Venture

I am sitting in our sixth floor room, with the window open to a late summer evening, overlooking the main street, listening to the strains of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' from below.

This is a music city. It seems a city that respects and celebrates music.  Outside the Opera House this morning were various people in costumes of Mozart's era. All were flogging concert tickets. We are tomorrow night to visit another very grand concert hall for another dose of classical music.

Many of the souvenirs are music themed. Mozart was piped into our tour bus today. So many famous composers have lived and worked here. Statues of composors are in the various parks.  I even devoured a slice of Mozart Torte this afternoon.

Our bus toured the city then drove to another palace. This one was modelled on Versailles and was once home to Emporess Marie Terese, mother of the unfortunate Marie Antoniette. Due to an unwritten rule that family members would not live I. Royal apartments once occupied by others, they kept adding wings until the complex had over one thousand rooms. We only toured a few that had been restored. I loved the three metre tall ornate ceramic ovens in the rooms, which heated their private rooms.. They were connected to the corridors, where fuel was added, so as not to disturb the Royal Personages. So thoughtful!

Views out windows showed the extensive, colourful, formal gardens. Outside later, we saw enormous marble statues everywhere. Groves and avenues of tress stretched into the distance. Paths curved through lawn areas. It was so magnificent. In the afternoon, we visited the Museum of Fine Arts. One criticism I have is not many public notices have English somewhere to guide poor, mono-linguistic tourists. I only observe this as in Germany and the Czech Republic this was not an issue. Anyway, Kunst Historisches Museum was what we wanted. We initially walked past thinking it was the a natural History Museum. The €3:50 for an audio guide was a good investment. Two huge wings, 38 rooms in all, displayed a staggering range of Dutch, Flemish, German, Italian, Spanish and French paintings. One room alone had eight by Rembrant. I lost count of those by Rubens. Caravzggio was there too. You just cant't possibly appreciate it all. The building itself is worth seeing. Commissioned especially as an art gallery, the architects were not hampered by money restraints and used costly materials to create an ornate, highly decorated and totally grand home for all these treasures. No photos today. I took plenty but I just could not manager the weird hotel keyboard. It took me ages to work out how to put in @ The @ was with the q. Z and Y were swapped around. All the words were in German. It just got too hard.