This is our last full day in Vienna. We had another delicious breakfast in the lovely dining room of our hotel, then ventured forth into the city. We walked again toward the Hofburg Palace complex, this time to visit the Kunsthistorisches Museum, or Museum of Fine Arts. It was opened in 1891 by Emperor Franz Josef. As we had mentioned in a previous blog Franz Jospeh was a fan of all the arts and wanted to leave the people of Austria and Vienna with great art in both collections and buildings. We wanted to check out their collection of Brueghel's, both the elder and younger, as well as other Flemish artists. They also had a special showing of Mark Rothko works and we spent most of the morning there admiring the paintings and the magnificent building that housed them.
The work that struck us was Brueghel’s painting “The Tower of Babel” which depicts the construction of the Tower described in Genesis. The tower was supposed to reach heaven; according to the story God was not pleased with this act of human presumption arrogance and thus caused mankind to speak in many tongues, which in turn prevented them from communicating and caused the project to go uncompleted. Peiter Brueghel’s painting shows a giant construction site towering over the houses below in great detail using the Coliseum in Rome as a model. However when you look closely you realize from an engineering perspective it is crooked and will fall down. One can see the King commanding his subjects to continue building the tower, blind to the fact the project is doomed since it is driven by his arrogance and megalomania.
We saw a metaphor to someone who likes to chant “build the wall”. The Brueghel family was one of the first to paint scenes of everyday peasants going about their daily lives, and to do so from an elevated viewpoint. The amount of information contained in their paintings about the typical life in the villages is impressive and draws the viewer into the scene. The Rothko exhibit was also well done, and the contrast from the classical painting to Modern art was striking. Colors ranging from bright to muted, simple shapes, large canvases, variations on a theme of shapes made for interesting viewing.
We returned to the restaurant by the Butterfly house for a great veal burger lunch, enjoying once more the outdoor dining overlooking the park. Then we walked to another beautiful park to see the statue of Johann Strauss. The bronze statue of him playing his violin is gilded with gold. It is framed by a marble relief, making the statue stand out. Parks in Vienna have many trees, lawn areas, flowerbeds full of colorful blooms, and many play areas for children. It’s lovely to stroll among locals with the sounds of children having fun, even in the midst of a big city.
We return to hotel via a different route even though the scenes are similars. Small stores, coffee houses, chocolate shops and bakeries. Or maybe they stood out as we admired their contents. While the Turks were never able to complete their sieges of Vienna, they did leave the lasting heritage in a love of coffee.
Seeking to enjoy a nice dinner to celebrate our last night, we found a great restaurant nearby, named Paul. Run by a young couple wearing traditional Austrian dress, the food was typical Austrian with some new tastes and techniques. The restaurant itself had a new modern decor. Located on the corner of a side street they used glass to open the feeling and provide a view to the corner. The owners Christina and Rennie were very helpful and charming. Both stopped by the table at different times and we enjoyed a pleasant chat. Everything was fresh, delicious and beautifully presented. A grand sendoff!
Walking back to our hotel, we stopped at the Opera House where a large television screen is setup so the public could see this evening’s performance of Aida. The courtyard was filled with people watching the performance and listening to the music. It was amazing, the sound and video were both clear and you could tell people were camped out to watch the entire performance!
Tomorrow we depart so we head back to the hotel to finish our packing with a sense of sadness that our trip is coming to an end but also with a sense of excitement about returning home to our family and friends!
Ken
2019-06-24
Welcome home. Wonderful travel log.