Did you know that the entire city of Vienna
is closed on Sundays? We didn’t either. Our plan to find opera dresses was
foiled by supposed 'family time'. Even the mall of all places was not open. So we were
forced to dig through the minimal amount of clothing we could fit in our
rucksacks to find something opera appropriate. Needless to say, I ended up
wearing jeans; Jeans having a very dark wash, but jeans. Oh, and I had to
borrow a black shirt from Grace because I didn’t have anything better to wear
with my jeans to the opera. Luckily we fit right in with most of the people who also
opted for the cheap standing room tickets. We read up on our opera etiquette
before heading over to the opera house and learned that it is customary for
people in the standing room to bring scarves in order to save their place at
the bar to lean on. Unfortunately, when we arrived most people were already
standing at the bar and we had to stand in the stairway. It was rather crowded
and must have been a fire hazard.
On our tour in Prague our guide warned us
that Austrians could be rather rude. We found this to be true at the opera, Rigoletto.
Someone stupidly took a picture using flash and a synchronised gasp flooded the
auditorium. A man behind us started clapping a bit too soon and he got quite
the death glare from a man standing in front of us. And to top it all off we
got a very disapproving look and some undistinguishable but angry words from an
old woman who thought we were trying to take someone’s place at the bar when
really we just wanted something to lean on temporarily between acts. Finally
people left before the last act and we were able to stand at the bar and read
an English translation of the Latin. Despite the intense people surrounding us,
the show was phenomenal. We could not believe the lungs of the lead woman, Rigoletto’s
daughter. She had a phenomenal voice and none of the actors were miked. In the
final scene Rigoletto is cradling his daughter who is quite curled up lying on
the stage, and she kept singing in this position! We were amazed. That was my
first ever experience at the opera.
One thing that is open on Sundays is the Schönbrunn Palace. We got to
see around 50 rooms of it! They were beautifully decorated, like the rooms of a
palace should be. And admission came with an audio guide, which filled us in on
the history of the family for whom the palace was built. It was a bit confusing
because the guide did not go completely in order but skipped around the
timeline a bit. We could have paid a bit extra to see the gardens behind the
palace, but decided we did not have the attention span for that.
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| Just a section of the outside of the Palace |
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| Liz and me on the steps |
There were just palaces a plenty to visit!
On Monday we made our way to the Belvedere Palace, which is home to brilliant
works of art. Our pull to visit was the Gustav Klimt collection, more
specifically The Kiss. This painting
of Klimt’s was stunning in person. What the viewer misses when looking at
pictures of this painting is that the gold paint in the background actually glitters.
This and many other pieces we saw by Klimt were simply stunning. We were not allowed to take pictures inside, but here's one of the grounds.
We of course had to try Austrian coffee
while we were visiting and it tasted amazing! We also rode the Ferris wheel, one
of Vienna’s most famous landmarks (don’t worry I didn’t know about it either). The London Eye was modeled after the one in Vienna. The
sun was just sinking below the mountains as we got to the top and it painted
the clouds a beautiful gold. It was a marvellous end to our last night in
Vienna. Next we fled to the Alps!
Have a wonderfully marvellous evening,
cheers! ~Laura
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