Angel told me to pick a place for our next trip and I chose Vienna. It sounds romantic...Tales of the Vienna Woods, waltzes, Strauss, that kind of thing. So we flew there, staying in the center of the city opposite St. Stephen's Cathedral (Stephansdom) at the Haus Haus Building in the Do & Co Hotel http://www.doco.com/hotel/. Stephansdom, built between 1147 and 1511, sits across a plaza from modern buildings; this juxtaposition somehow works, and each enhances the other. All over Vienna, there is the ancient next to the very modern.
Vienna was the home of the Secessionist Movement of 1897-1939. The most well-known artist to me is Gustav Klimt, and we were fortunate enough to see many of his works while in Vienna.
The history of the Hapsburg Empire dominates Vienna. Somehow I must have speed-read this part of my education in European history. I saw the state apartments of the Empress Sisi, who was the victim of an Italian anarchist assassin in 1898. She was a target of opportunity, just being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The museum devoted to her is fascinating. The representational fragments of her poetry suggest a modern woman ahead of her time.
The most fun thing we did, every morning, was take our hotel breakfast voucher to Cafe Demel and have whatever we wanted. Its not a far stretch from a brioche to a dessert for breakfast. We ate outside every morning, it was great. The photo above is of the Demel kitchen, making sachertorte.
The most interesting thing to me was the Hundertwasser-Karina House. An organic apartment building, a grand experiment, begun in1979 as a municipal housing project. http://www.hundertwasserhaus.info/ Check this out, it's amazing.
I'm glad we went to Vienna.
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