To Our Favorite Gardeners, Gary and Joe

Today we went to the Schoenbrunn Palace where Maria Theresa opened the gardens to the public in 1779 while the monarchy was still in full swing.  The below view is the back of the Palace. The gardens are immense and lovely.

Becky looking at the side of the palace in the rose garden.

There are some great long vistas...

Some interesting tree pruning here.

This is the front of the tree below which forms a wall.

Becky points to the back side of the tree below.

A outdoor tea room.

Gorgeous splash of controlled color

Now, off to a concert in the Orangerie at the Schoenbrunn Palace.

For Our Favorite Pianist, Michael

I know. I wasn't supposed to take pictures but here they are just for you Michael. A little blurry but you get the idea. The Mirrored Room in the Schoenbrunn Palace - the location Mozart gave a performance when he was 6 years old.  Not sure where the instrument is and they've cleared a path for thousands of visitors to tromp through so we don't get the real set up but, again, you get the general idea.

For Our Favorite Dental Hygenist, Louise

Did you know there were sculptures done in your honor...noting your heroic efforts with difficult patients?
At the Schoenbrunn Palace.

Melk & the Beautiful Blue? Danube

Today we traveled in a circle from Vienna to Melk by train, to Krems by boat, and back to Vienna by train.
The Benedictine Abbey at Melk is a World Heritage Site and deservedly so--it is lovely.  We were fortunate to be just in time for a short prayer service in the fabulous Baroque church where we were treated to a couple of pieces on their fabulous organ and two songs by young men who were described as scholars and may or may not have been candidates for the monastery--some of them had digital devices and were sporting awfully long ponytails for monks in training. 

Part of the ceiling in the Marble Hall--this is where the Hapsburgs dined and entertained when they visited the abbey.

View of Melk from the Abbey.

Spiral staircase leading from the library to the church.

Images from the church.

These two are relics of "saints" donated to the abbey.  Unfortunately, they didn't know who they were so they named them Rueban and Frederick (I think those were the names).  Seriously...I wouldn't kid you about a thing like that.

MF waiting for lunch.

Service at the restaurant was on the slow side--how slow?  We decided that we couldn't make the 1:50 boat and opted for the 4:15.

Since we had lots of time we took a walk in the woods.

Lace cap hydrangas?

View of the abbey from the woods.

The boat ride on the Danube lasted around two hours.  We weren't surprised to see vineyards and farms along the river, or many charming villages with old and beautiful churches, but we didn't expect to see so much wild country. 

Poster for "Gold" (left side), the exhibit at the Belvedere where MF has her pieces, in the train station in Krems.

A Good Day in Vienna

It always helps when the weather is perfect, and it was. 
Turns out that the Naschmarkt (snack market) and the FlohMarkt (flea market) are in our neighborhood--how great is that!  We spent the morning poking around hundreds of tables of stuff for sale.  I'd like to say that we were able to resist purchasing anything, but I wouldn't want to be accused of prevaricating. 

We also shopped the food part of the market and bought vegetables, falafel, coriander spread (something like hummus but flavored with cilantro), and a mix of olives.  Yum!

After a short nap (shopping can be exhausting), we ventured without much success at first into the inner ring of Vienna to try to locate a gallery (still closed), a bookstore recommended by Rick Steves (moved), an information center (jammed with people), and the national library (where is it?).

With help we found the national library which lived up to its reputation as a storybook venue.  If you've seen on the Librarian movies you will have some idea what we found.  Especially nice was that very few other people seem to have found it--hardly anyone was there.

Some of Emperor Leopold's many celestial and terrestiral globes.

Eventually, we found an English bookstore, Shakespeare and Co., since we were just about out of reading material.  We later found another English bookstore/coffee shop in the same neighborhood--we'll probably return there later.

Another dinner of Spargelcremesuppe, this time with proseco and a cinnamon torte, at a nice restaurant at the corner of Judengasse (Jewish Street), and Salzgasse (Salt Street), right across from St. Rupert's Kirche.

We're getting to like Vienna more and more.

Bratislava, here we come!

A warm and sunny day in Bratislava, Slovakia.



Becky and the local grafitti enjoying the sunshine.

These lovely painted shutters gave such character to the shop windows in the historic downtown.

And what historic downtown would not be complete without historic buildings?

Becky looks great out in front of her 'White House'.  We think she should bring it home with her.

But the best thing about Bratislava for MF was the hot chocolate. You know it has got to be good when it's so thick the spoon stands straight up all by itself in the cup!

Becky looks great in this other palace what hosted an art exhibit by Barbizon artists.

Nice chandelier.

That's it for Bratislava.