^.^ happy tree friends ^.^

Wednesday, March 14, 2007

We love Vienna!=D

The Schonbrunn (winter residence of the Hapsburg monarchy)

Belvedere Palace

Front Entrance

The Giant Ferris Wheel (and the surrounding amusement park)

A close up of the Ferris Wheel...I think the long cabin seats are nice=)

At the amusement park; us with the ice cream

The Parliament House

Vienna Castle...also a park open to the public

The Kiss; by Gustav Klimt

Day 2 in Vienna:
We went to see the Schonbrunn, the winter residence of the Hapsburg monarchy, and also to the Belvedere Palace, once belonging to a Prince Eugene but now a converted shrine to Art. It houses the biggest collection of Gustav Klimt works anywhere, amongst which is his most famous work, The Kiss. We got to see that, and it was absolutely gorgeous! It's a portrait of him and his wife, and I think its romantic that the picture was so intimate (the couple looks very much in love=)). I admit I didn't know much about the artist and his background, and I learnt the above fact by eavesdropping on this group of Chinese tourists (the tour was conducted in Chinese too). Fortunately it isn't peak season for tourism in Vienna or anywhere in Europe yet, so we did not have to deal with huge crowds (it is unpleasant and distracting to have to dodge people when you are trying to appreciate art, the Van Gogh exhibition was quite crowded). Anyhow, none of us were Art majors, so whilst we read off tags and learnt about new artists we tried to spot and point out names of the really famous artists, and there were quite a collection; Van Gogh, Degas, Manet, Monet, and a Picasso. I was thrilled to find 3 paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, because he is one of my favourites! I know you can sort of see these artworks off the internet or something, but honestly, you can't beat the real thing. Like The Kiss, it was this HUGE painting spanning floor to ceiling, and it was incredible how intricate it was, the texture and layers that reflected gold and silver. You can't see that on a postcard... (I will miss all this when I am back in Singapore=/)

We also went to Heroes' Square, which is again, a castle, and because the weather was pretty that day (very sunny, and not too cold) there were plenty of people sitting on the grass outside the castle grounds having a picnic and relaxing with friends and family, or walking their dogs. It was nice and I wished we had time to do that.

The last place we went to was the Giant Ferris Wheel, because I saw an ad that says that you can't claim to have seen Vienna without seeing its Giant Ferris Wheel, and being the sucker for ads that I am (kinda like Dolores Haze in Lolita I supposed), I made us go all the way there so we could take pictures. I have never been on a Ferris wheel before, but it seemed a tad childish to tell my friends I wanted to ride it (its something like wanting to go to the zoo), so I didn't get to in the end. Maybe next time. Then we headed back to the town center for lunch and Viennese pastries and ice cream before going back to the bus station (and passing the Parliament on the way) to catch our ride back to Budapest.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007