After another good night's sleep, we enjoyed a coffee each with two milks! We always try to leave a little tip for the room maids, and this had paid off with extra coffee and milk, another Ferrero Rocher chocolate and more toiletries! We showered, dressed and headed downstairs for breakfast, but we weren't able to get a table near the nibbling woman of yesterday, so I was deprived of people-watching!
We had another hearty breakfast, with two cups of coffee, and discussed our day. We were going to the two Belvedere palaces today, and hoping to get a good view of The Kiss by Gustav Klimt. In the afternoon, we wanted to visit the Hundertwasserhaus, a community housing project designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser.
I suggested taking the tram to the entrance of the Upper Belvedere, and it was a short walk to the tram stop. When it came along, we spotted a ticket machine on board, so we went to get on by another door, but it slammed shut and wouldn't open! It then departed! We had no choice but to wait for the next one, and we made sure we got on quickly! It was only two stops (we're bad, bad girls... we didn't pay!) and we alighted outside a welcoming Greek café.
The café was serving breakfast, but we only wanted a hot drink each. Sophie chose a hot chocolate while I went with a coffee. Both were delicious.
Although today had started sunny and dry, the weather outside had turned cloudy while we were enjoying our drinks. We emerged to find it grey and chilly, and we had left our coats at the hotel!
We had booked tickets for the Belvederes online with a timed entry at 11am. Nobody made sure we were going in at the correct time, and we popped into the shop first, where I bought a bar of soap to add to my collection and Sophie bought postcards.
There were crowds of students waiting to go in, and this seemed to set the tone for the morning again. We decided to go and see The Kiss first, and Sophie was worried it would be difficult to get a good view. The inside of the palace was gorgeous, and paintings adorned the walls. We saw a Monet - a view of his garden at Giverny, and an Edvard Munch painting of a naked man.
There were a lot of people about and it was warm inside the building. We managed to get a great view of The Kiss, but Sophie was annoyed by people posing in front of it.
Klimt loved the use of gold leaf in his paintings, and The Kiss was finished in 1908.
The two people are thought to be Klimt himself and his great love, Emilie Flöge. It's a stunning painting, and we were entranced by it.
We saw another couple of paintings by Klimt:
Including this much more conventional painting:
It was lovely to wander around and gaze at the artwork, but the crowds were a bit onerous, so we left Upper Belvedere and walked down to the Lower Belvedere. The gardens were set out very formally and are open to all. I should imagine it's beautiful in the summer.
The exhibition was Gustav Klimt - Pigment and Pixel and examined what lay beneath his works and how he applied pigments and gold leaf to his paintings. We also saw the Ceiling Paintings, commissioned for the Great Hall of the University of Vienna and destroyed by fire in 1945. Artificial Intelligence was used to recreate the paintings from black and white photographs, which can be seen in all their glory.
We rested in the café and ordered an Aperol Spritz each while sitting and chatting. It was great to relax for half an hour!
Not so colourful!
After our little break, we went to find a tram stop to get to the Hundertwasserhaus. Sophie used Google Maps and we managed to get on a tram near the Lower Belvedere. This time we bought two 24-hour tickets for about 16 euros. This tram took us a short distance and we had to change. After a little confusion, we found the right one and then had a short walk to the apartment block designed to be a little different from normal, conventional buildings. The apartment block was opened in 1986 and about two hundred people live in the fifty apartments, each one individually designed.
There were people taking photographs, but I had to admit I was a bit disappointed with the appearance of the apartment building. Perhaps March is not a good time to visit?
They just looked grubby to me! We went into a small arcade of shops and had a look around. We fancied something to eat by now as it was almost 2pm.
I treated myself to a book about Klimt in a hugely colourful shop selling lots of ornaments, posters and gifts.
Back outside, we spotted a terrace café so we went up to a perfect little eatery, which was warm and cosy. Sophie ordered a beef soup while I chose Viennese sausages served with mustard and bread. We ordered two large glasses of wine to accompany our lunch.
The food was delicious and perfect for what we wanted. My dish came with a small pile of what looked like grated cheese but was, in fact, horseradish. Sophie really didn't appreciate me giving her some to taste!
Again, the staff were friendly and everyone we've met on this break has been hospitable and welcoming. Sophie wanted to try Topfenstrudel, a cheesecake-like dessert wrapped in pastry with sultanas and served with custard, so we shared a portion. It didn't disappoint!
We lingered over our lunch as the café was so warm. Outside, it had started to rain, and Sophie researched how to get back to the hotel by using the tram. She figured out we could take one from outside the apartment block right to our hotel! Perfect!
We emerged into the misty, grey afternoon and walked to the tram stop. I spotted an antique shop across the road, so we decided to have a look. To Sophie's delight, she found the shop was selling rings and other jewellery as well as old ornaments, postcards, glasses and bric-a-brac. It was lovely to browse and Sophie found a ring! She was delighted!
Back outside, we took the next tram and enjoyed a journey seeing a lot of Vienna landmarks - we saw the Rathaus (Town Hall), the Parliament Building, the famous Burgtheater and went past the Opera House again. The tram was a great way to see the city without walking!
We alighted opposite our hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing, packing and freshening up. We had asked one of the receptionists to book a table at a nearby restaurant, but it was fully booked, so we decided to reserve a table at a brewery restaurant called Wieder Bräu, which had been recommended to us.
Thirty Norwegians!
Before dinner, we went to the bar for a drink but had to sit at a table next to the breakfast room. A woman who had been talking non-stop this morning at breakfast was holding court again, and her voice could be heard from where we were sitting. Suddenly, it stopped and we realised they'd gone, so we were able to sit on the sofas opposite the bar. The barman from last night took our drinks order - glasses of Austrian red wine this evening - and asked what our plans were. We said we were going for dinner but would return for a nightcap afterwards. He warned us that the bar would be busy as thirty Norwegians were staying and coming back to the bar later in the evening...
We enjoyed our glasses of red and set out to walk the short distance to the restaurant. It was almost 8pm and still busy on the streets with trams gliding past, clonking their bells. We arrived to find the restaurant pleasantly buzzing and took our seats at a table at the far end.
There was no English translation of the menu, so we had to use a QR code. We chose a bottle of Austrian red wine, with crispy cauliflower wings to share as a starter, followed by beef goulash for Sophie and "onion" beef for me. We noticed the loud woman from the hotel having dinner with three other people and talking non-stop again!
I was fascinated by a couple sitting at a table opposite. She was pretty with long, dark hair, and was clearly a little inebriated. She'd had a loud video conversation with somebody on her phone, and although they'd finished their meal, they each had another stein of the restaurant's cloudy beer. I could tell she was drunk as her eyes weren't focusing, and when she got up to go to the loo, her partner managed to surreptitiously drink half her beer, making sure he put it back exactly where it had been. She didn't appear to notice! When they got up to leave, she couldn't put her coat on properly, so he had to help her! Oh dear!
We enjoyed our meals, but the portions were huge! With mine, the staff had cunningly hidden another steak under the top one, and the potatoes would have fed an army. Sophie had a huge pile of small dumplings (gnocchi?) on her plate with copious amounts of beef. Needless to say, both meals defeated us!
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| My main course! |
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| Cauliflower starter |
More people arrived to sit near us and there was a lovely atmosphere in the restaurant. The two waiters asked where we were from and started chatting to Sophie about Newcastle United. Football is a great conversation starter!
We paid the bill (about 80 euros) and walked back to the hotel in the gently falling rain. There were still people about and we saw another couple of restaurants on the way.
The hotel bar was blissfully quiet, no Norwegians in sight. Both of us were a little worried about how we'd sleep after our big meal, so I asked the barman for a Fernet Branca, a digestif, for us. Again, he asked if we'd had one before and said it could be bitter. He suggested another called Averna, so we had one of both. Predictably, Sophie hated the Fernet Branca but managed to sip the Averna.
We were mostly left alone tonight as the barman was busy talking to another couple. I think he had met his match with them as the man went on and on about his job when he used to televise operas...
After the digestifs, we had a Cointreau, and it was way past 11pm when we finished and headed up to bed. There had been no Norwegians, so hopes of seeing Morten Harket lookalikes were well and truly dashed!
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