Day 9 - Vienna

We docked outside Vienna about noon and took a tour bus into the city at 1:30. The most unexpected place we saw was a municipal apartment complex designed by an artist who named himself Hundertwasser (hundred waters)  who felt straight lines in housing were designed for the convenience of architects and were not natural. He thought our house was our "third skin" (our physical skin being first,  clothing being the 2nd, society being the 4th) and that we should be comfortable in all our skins. The city of Vienna actually owns a little over 20% of the apartments in Vienna, most dating back to a socialist period of government in the 20's and 30's and very bland gray blocks of buildings. As you will see, Hundertwasser did something totally different with trees growing on the roof, out of balconies, etc. No two windows in the building are alike.

We saw so many beautiful buildings that it was impossible to capture without being overwhelmed, but here are some pictures of the rathaus,

the Hapsburg winter palace which has 2,600 rooms,

and the Lipizaner stalls.

We got off the bus to walk to St. Stephen's cathedral, which started with a Romanesque entrance and evolved to gothic style.

The interior was elaborate as have been all the churches we've seen.

We abandoned the tour and walked to an open air market with lots of small restaurants and amazing displays of meats, fruits/vegetables, cheeses, etc. We had a fairly ordinary meal there and wandered back through town to find a konditorei and share a piece of Sacher torte. Then we watched part of Wagner's "Flying Dutchman" on the big screen outside the Staats Oper house - they do a different opera every night and they actually project the performances on a screen that passers by can stop and watch. They have at least two major symphony orchestras, several theatres of course, innumerable galleries and museums--truly a place of culture that we did not have time to really experience.

In case you are not familiar with Albrecht Durer's work, the pink rabbit is a reference to one of his famouse drawings. Interesting fact: During the "Ball Season" between Dec. 31st and Lent, they hold 300 balls around the city!