Architecture/Vienna

Herewith a selection of Viennese buildings that caught my eye. I always imagine what it would be like living in each one.

This near the cathedral has a lovely tiled roof.

My house may well have to be painted yellow which is is a pretty popular color.

This one is rather grand and has gilding.

It might be nice to live in a square.

or a house with warmer tones.

More tiles set with little dormers.

Cobbles and yellow

Not such a tall house and the Austrian flag.

I could go 20th century...

or find an unrestored building in the center of the city. You can tell by the red pipe on the right that restoration on this one has just begun...

MAK/Museum fur angewandt Kunst/Vienna

The Museum for Applied Arts is vast. I only managed about half of it before giving up quite overwhelmed. The opening parts is a bizarre repository of artifacts  - more auction house preview than museum.

Lots of assorted Habsburgs looking variously bemused.

Poor Marie Wilt. Obviously posing for a bust not her favorite occupation.

There they all are (including Ludwig Von B) waiting and waiting.

Lots and lots of Sissy  - who had alarming amounts of hair.

Places to sit...

and lots of a favored shade of green.

The desk of a melancholy camper - and you can't even see the paperweight of the dead sparrow. 

Such pretty china for tea.

A seance of needlepointed chairs...

one of a pair of gilded vases. I could go on. I've decided that there is only so much I can take in at one time. A bit like eating chocolate cake. All too wonderful  - and then there simply isn't room for anything else.

Botantical Garden/Vienna

When I go somewhere new I don't feel much  compulsion to see 'the sights', I mostly prefer to hang about and let whatever happens creep up on me. However, on my latest jaunt to Vienna I was accompanied by a more organized friend.  The Botanical Garden was the perfect outing for a June Saturday afternoon.

For one thing, the gardens are huge and not the least manicured unlike some of the public parks which are splendid but a bit heavy on the begonias. Here a magical cottage.

Here a little stream

and an old pond reflecting the trees.

I think this wheelbarrow was once part of some sort of lesson for children - with mint and chives - but now tree seedlings are part of the mix.

Can't remember the names of the leaves. (Julia Fogg, where are you?)

Water and clover and silver birch

and well-seasoned logs

a meadow run wild

then the Alpine garden much smaller and more tended - with astilbe and peony

and berengia too.

20th Century Buildings/Vienna

So much to see, so many photos taken. Luckily this is a personal blog not an architectural history or a guide book or anything where things have to be organized. Herewith some 20th Century things.

In the lobby of the Post Building which is a splendid unity. (You can read about it here). 

Such glitter and metal and glass

and even the table and chairs are perfection.

I like different typefaces a lot - so evocative of  their periods.

Here a maiden calls from the rooftops

and roses and wisteria grow up the flowered building.

Ah jugendstil! (check spelling)

Even the street numbers have charm.

On the other side of the road from the Palais Ephrussi (which we had to inspect since The Hare with Amber Eyes is such a stunning book) was an unexpected treasure, Bank Austria, just as wonderful as the Post Building and equally splendid.

What attention to detail, to light fixtures and windows

and wood work.

Caryatids seem very popular here. There are thirteen on the side of the Palais Ephrussi that faces the bank.

Last, and oddly charming, a manhole cover in the road quite near the French Consulate. 

Vienna....for a Beginnner...

What did I come to Vienna for? Well, all sorts of reasons.

First to see the Linda McCartney photo exhibition at KunsthausWein that my daughter organized. A really super show and well worth seeing if you can. Linda's first museum retrospective with 178 pieces on show.

And next, of course, to discover all the glorious places that have been making my mouth water on Merisi's blog for so many years.....

Actually Kleines was a Claudia find...

Note the newspapers on their sticks so you don't mess up the pages or vanish with them. We had a glass of wine then headed on to...

the Cafe Central where we had asparagus soup. (Right in the middle of the asparagus season right now!)

Merisi introduced me to Trzesniewski's Buffet. Imagine an entire shop devoted to open-faced egg salad sandwiches! Either you would think you  had arrived in heaven (me)....

or not heaven if egg salad isn't your thing.

I was pretty impressed and ate one with liver in it.

A glass of white wine never comes amiss.

I'm very jet lagged and stupid, but wallowing in all the new sights and a language that is most unfamiliar. Here the little chimney sweeper catches the light.