Day 91, Sunday, November 24, 2019
Today is our last day of holidays! After packing our suitcases this morning we go out to visit Vienna’s Christmas Markets and see some of the Christmas lights. The first market we visit is near the Parliament Building. 
There are 150 booths here but I was a bit disappointed as the majority of them sold Christmas decorations and there were very few other handcrafted items. I was hoping to find something special as a souvenir for us.
We were pleasantly surprised though to find that food here was reasonable. I bought a cone of yummy hot roasted potato slices for just 3 euros. There were lots of other affordable food options as well as hot chocolate and hot alcoholic drinks and mulled wines for 3 to 5 euros. There are so many people here that sometimes it is difficult to get to the front of a booth to see what is for sale.
We enjoy wandering around and as it starts to get dark the Christmas lights come on.
Near the booths is an area with beautifully decorated trees and ….
a skating rink! There is a 3,000 m² artificial ice rink with skating paths throughout the park. We watch the kids learning to skate, everyone is having a good time.
This all takes place under a canopy of the most beautiful trees, all lit up with thousands and thousands of white lights.
Just take look at the size of this tree! It is enormous! 
A special attraction is the tree of hearts, and we see couples taking selfies here.
I love all the lights and there is Christmas music playing, children laughing and everyone is enjoying the evening. I am beginning to feel Christmassy!
As we leave the market, I take one last photo looking back towards the Parliament Building…
then we walk down a tree lit path to the next market a few blocks away.
This is a smaller market, only 70 stalls, and the only decorated trees are the man-made ones. 
We see a booth with goods from Bomo Art, the little handmade book store we visited in Budapest.
There are also some pretty crazy animal candles, cute stuffed gnomes, blue and white pottery and wooden boxes and cabinet with drawers. The tall one with six drawers is ‘only’ 350 euros! That is about $500.00 Canadian. Still nothing I really love to take home with us though.
These little pink snowmen were kind of cute…
and a tree decorated with bird ornaments is different. Only at 10 to 15 euros a bird this would be a very expensive little tree! There are at least 150 birds on this tree, so it would cost between 1,500 and 2,250 euros, which is $2000.00 to $3,200.00 Canadian! No bird trees for me!
The booths are centred around this big fountain…
and there are lights projected on a nearby building, adding to the festive feeling.
It isn’t very warm, the high today was only 9° and it is colder now that the sun has gone down. We want to walk and see some of the streets lit up for Christmas …
but we are both getting chilled so we head home to finish getting ready for our trip home tomorrow.
Success, we got our tickets! Here is the inside of the Opera House. 
A view of the stage, orchestra pit and some of the seating.
This is where we will be standing, at the very back right up under the ceiling!
The ballet is Peter Gynt. This is 
It was a long time to stand but there was a railing to lean on and the ballet was interesting so the time went by fairly quickly. When I draw I tend to lose track of the time anyway. 
At the first intermission a lot of people standing in the two rows in front of us left. We were able to move to the front of the standing section and had a clear view of the stage, instead of looking between the shoulders of the people in front of us.
Bob’s assessment at the end of the evening was “Well, it only took 2 1/2 hours for them (the two lead characters) to die!” When we went to an opera in Barcelona he commented “It took 3 hours for her (the heroine) to die!
By the time we get down to the main lobby there is just time for a quick photo of the grand entrance staircase…
and one of us, reflected in a mirror. Everyone is chased out of the building fairly quickly after the performance. 
There are lots of lights on the street outside the Opera House where we catch the metro home.
It clears up for a bit but then we drive back into the band of smog that stretches across the countryside. We have never seen anything quite like this before.
One of the many small villages in Croatia. Most of these villages only have one row of houses along the highway, no side streets at all. Notice the pretty yellow and purple chrysanthemums growing along the fence. We saw lots of these flowers along the way.
One fairly long stretch of the road has a shrine every 300 to 500 metres, and each one had fresh flowers placed in front of it.
Another little village. We don’t see many people about and think that they probably have a hard time keeping people from moving to bigger urban centres.
The highway mainly passes through farmland, and I quite like all the trees along the side of the road.
We finally get a bit of sunshine. There are winter crops planted which are just beginning to grow that are many different shades of green.
We get to Bratislava about 3:00 pm, return our rental car and catch the Flixbus one last time back to our apartment in Vienna. We are surprised how quickly it gets dark now. This is photo taken on the bus just after 4:30pm.
We catch an Uber from the Main Bus Depot. Twenty euros well spent. We are dropped off at our apartment door, which is the same apartment we had a couple weeks ago in Vienna. It almost feels like coming home. In three more sleeps we will really be home.
When we get to the airport we are worried because the Budget Car Rental booth is closed! Turns out the attendants are out in the parking lot so after a short wait we pick up our car and head back to Vienna. I noticed this big mural last trip and managed to get a photo this time. It is dark by the time we get back to Vienna and we spend the rest of the evening cleaning our apartment and packing for our drive to Budapest tomorrow.
‘Mother and Child’ is a well known painting. I do love how expressive Schiele’s hands are.
Schiele’s 1912 ‘Self Portrait with Chinese Lanterns’ was painted as a companion piece for the ‘Portrait of Wally Neuzil’ who was his muse and partner from 1911 to 1915. Both these paintings have a gentleness and sensitivity not found in all his work. I like these very much.
Quite different from this self portrait completed the same year. Schiele was born in 1890 and died in 1918. He was only 28 years old when he died, yet he created over 3,000 works on paper and around 300 paintings! I wonder what he would have accomplished if he had lived longer. He died during the Spanish Flu Epidemic, just three days after his six month pregnant wife Edith.
‘Reclining Woman’ was bigger than I expected. Originally the woman’s genitals were exposed but Schiele added the white cloth covering in order to be able to show the work at an exhibition in Vienna in 1918.
There are several landscapes, and most of them are quite large.
‘The Small Town IV’…
and ‘House With Shingled Roof’ were two that I particularly liked. Although Schiele only painted for such a short time, his work laid the foundations for the Viennese Expressionist movement as well as inspiring other future movements, such as Abstract Impressionism.
‘The Blind Man’ was first exhibited in 1898.
‘Death and Life’ won the Gold Medal at the 1911 International Art Exhibition in Rome. This painting and ‘The Kiss’, that I saw at the Belvedere, are two of Klimt’s most well known paintings. I feel very fortunate to have seen both of them in person, as well as all the other amazing works of art I have seen on this trip.
As we are leaving the Leopold I notice this painting, which makes both of us laugh! It is by Albert Birkle and is titled ‘Man with Fur Cap’, or ‘My Brother the Animal’!
Near the metro station Bob notices this crane which has just been erected. Neither of us have seen one with so many arms before.
When I saw this building our first day in Vienna I thought it was the Hundertwasser House but it wasn’t. Turns out that it was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser! It is the Spittelau Incinerator which is used to handle Vienna’s garbage. The environmentally friendly plant produces enough energy to heat more than 60,000 households in Vienna in a year.
I have one more life drawing session tonight at Kaffeebar Quentin. I have attended many life drawing sessions in bars or pubs and the model is always at least partially clothed, so I was quite surprised when our model is completely nude. We are in the back of the bar, but the model is still in full view of all the other patrons as well as anyone who happens to look in the windows. Wish I had a scanner, as it would improve the quality of these photos, but I don’t think I can haul one around on holidays! These are all 5 minute poses.
Two ten minute and one twenty minute drawing…
and we finished the evening with a twenty-five minute pose. The people at this session were very friendly and I had met some of them at the other two sessions this week. I will miss Vienna, they have so many life drawing opportunities. There is a session almost every day of the week, and lots of them have interesting themes. 
and the beautiful Marble Hall.
I particularly wanted to see Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, but was pleased to find his Judith painting here as well.
The Kiss is one of Klimt’s most well known paintings. It is a large painting, 183 x183 cm.
It is nice to be able to see the painting details up close.
I am also surprised by how many Egon Schiele paintings are on display. It is quite special to be able to see the original paintings of some of my favourite works by these two painters. I didn’t realize that these paintings were so large. Looking at reproductions in books can be deceiving. The Embrace and…. 
the Family are both much bigger than I imagined…
as are these paintings.
Schiele’s Self Portrait is the smallest painting, about 41 x 33 cm.
I didn’t know Jacques-Louis David’s painting of Napoleon was here either. I am so glad I was able to visit this museum. This painting is enormous, 272 × 232 cm!
This painting shows the Vienna Naschmarkt in 1894. It has changed a bit over the years!
We meet up in the gardens outside the Belvedere and then walk towards St. Charles Church. 
There are so many interesting buildings along the way.
We had a huge surprise when we entered St. Charles Church. Two enormous floating mirrored balls that reflected the church…
and us. We are almost in the centre of the reflection but we are very tiny. “Aerocene” is a contemporary art installation by Tomas Saraceno, an Argentinian artist who lives and works in Berlin. The floating reflective balls are 10 and 7 metres in diameter.
Then we notice the scaffolding that goes high up into the dome, and that is where we are going to go! We thought the elevator ride we got a ticket for would be inside a bell tower. Nope! We ride to the top of this scaffolding and then climb a bit further, onto that platform you see leading into one of the round windows in the dome!
Looking down from the top of this ‘elevator’ we notice a workman adjusting lights high up in the dome, yet still far below us!
We have a great view of the dome paintings. It is interesting the way the gold highlights look up this close…
and we have a great view of the other dome paintings. We are crazy high up!
Bob walks back down to this viewing platform so I can get a photo. Notice how he is suspended…nothing below him!
This photo shows the platform that Bob was standing on in the last photo.
We spent quite a lot of time way up there in the dome, and it is getting dark when we get outside. If you look closely you can see some people standing in the round window on the dome. That is the window we were standing in! What an amazing experience. There was restoration work carried out in the dome and the elevator is being kept for a while. The fee to ride up into the dome is a way to make more money for further restorations.
Walking back towards the metro we pass the Opera House…
and take photos of these performers from Tibet. They have a performance later tonight and were taking publicity photos outside the Opera House.
While the men posed, some of the women were busy applying their makeup. 
This is a a huge paper art installation we pass in a walkway near the metro.
A close-up shows lots and lots of writing, musical notations and random marks.
We get home, have dinner, then I head off to a drop-in drawing session with a Meetup group at a pub called Monami.
I had coloured some of the pages in my sketchbook at home before the session. Interesting to draw on but they don’t photograph very well. 
We were pretty much rubbing elbows as we drew and my views weren’t always great but it was lots of fun.
I finished the session with a 20 minute leg study. I felt quite comfortable going out in the evening by myself. The metro is easy to navigate and there were lots of people about.
The Hundterwasser House attracts a lot of attention. More than 200 trees and shrubs on the balconies and roof terraces make the Hundertwasserhaus a green oasis in the heart of the city.
I wonder what the inside of this tower is?
The Hundertwasserhaus can only be viewed from outside but opposite the Hundertwasserhaus is the Hundertwasser Village, which is open to visitors. It was created out of a tire workshop in 1990-1991. The artist created his own shopping center here with a “village square”, a bar and numerous stores in the typical Hundertwasser style.
Every window in this building is different from every other window! Anyone who lives in the Hundertwasser House also has the right to decorate the façade around the windows entirely to their own taste. 
This fountain is nestled into the undulating ground around the building.
There are is many interesting buildings in Vienna. I don’t know what this building is but it has huge golden globes on the roof.
We walk along this canal and find a bench on its banks for our afternoon tea.
On our walk to the Prater we pass this interesting building mural.
The Prater Amusement Park has been in the same location since 1766! It is free to enter the grounds. 
This is the first ride we see and it looks crazy enough, but…
take a look at how high the swings go! We could not believe what we were seeing! It didn’t even look like this tower should stay upright, it was so tall and narrow. Absolutely insane!!
This roller coaster turned people upside down…
and this ride not only goes upside down, but spins around on the end at the same time! Yikes!!
Then there is this ride…do you see those legs dangling on each end of the long arm that spins around high above the ground?
If you like rollercoasters you might want to try this one,,,it flips you upside down as you ride…
and this swing also turns upside down periodically as it flies through the air. Do you detect a theme here?
The grounds are huge, with an area for children rides that we don’t even get to, and lots of fun houses and scary ghost houses.
I’m not sure who would buy tickets from this fellow!
There is a Ferris wheel, among some of the ‘tamer’ rides…
which I try out!
The diameter of the wheel is almost 61 meters, and the entire iron structure weighs 430 metric tons. 
Its cabins offer a wonderful view of the city and the Prater. 
Here is one of hte cabins going over the top of the wheel.
The wheel turns slowly and our ride consists of one revolution which takes almost fifteen minutes. 
as well as all sorts of candies, dried fruits and some rather exotic looking products in the fish market section.
Near the Naschmarkt we find this interesting tribute to the Orson Wells movie, The Third Man. It is possible to tour the sewers, right under our feet, where part of the movie was filmed, but we pass on that today.
There is a statue of Mozart, right beside a Hop On Hop Off bus station. We sit and have our picnic lunch and watch tourists jump off the bus, snap a photo from quite a distance, and then jump back on the bus to get to the next destination. This sure isn’t the way we do it! We sight-see very slowly and leisurely, stopping often to look at the sights, people watch and just enjoy where we are and what we are seeing. We are very slow tourists!
This equestrian statue of Emperor Joseph II, erected in 1795 is the oldest equestrian statue in Vienna.
We make our way to the Albertina Museum, which we will visit another day. There is a Durer Exhibit I am looking forward to seeing. This is a street view from a corner of the Albertina.
Of course there are several churches on our walk, and we visit all of them!
This broad pedestrian Kärntner Strasse is packed with people and lined with shops and places to eat. This road dates to 97AD when it was a Roman road that went from Vienna to the border of Italy and Slovenia, and eventually all the way to St. Petersberg, Russia!
I thought that the Zen-Doodle like designs on the clothing in this shop were interesting. 
The modern Haas House offers interesting reflections of St. Stephen’s church.
The St. Stephen’s Cathedral is huge, and ornately decorated, outside… 
and inside.
Just behind the cathedral we see a group of people taking part in a drinking game. The guy in the blue jeans drank his big can of beer twice as quickly as the guy dressed in brown!
The Stock im Eisen is part of a tree that has hundreds of iron nails pounded into it and dates from 1440. No one is sure why the nails were pounded in but it is thought that is was for good luck. It is located on the corner of a building and is protected behind plexiglass.
The Holy Trinity Column, located on a street in the inner city of Vienna, was erected after the Great Plague epidemic in 1679. It is one of the most well-known sculptural pieces of art in the city.
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I thought it interesting the way the paintings on the dome extended over the sculptural trim around the round windows.
The end of each pew is beautifully carved with different finials of three children’s heads. We sat for quite a while listening to the choir practicing. 
Back outside, there are interesting details everywhere I look, like these sculptures holding up balconies.
I loved this building. It looks like a castle. I wouldn’t mind living here! 
where the customers are served champagne as they shop! Sigh…an experience I am sure I will never have!
There are Roman ruins… 
and beautiful statues on the corners of buildings. 
This is the building that houses the Austrian National Library, the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, as well as the Spanish Riding School with the world famous Lipizzaner stallions. We will visit both of these on another day, 
It gets dark earlier now, at about 5;30. The buildings look pretty all lit up. This is the other side of the Neue Burg Wing of the Hofburg Palace. We saw the backside earlier in the day.
Time to head home. This subway station has colourful murals. Our apartment is very well located on the U6 subway line, so it takes less than a half hour to get home. Somehow even our ‘easy’ days end up being quite long. We left before noon and it will be after 7:00 by the time we get home.
As we get closer to Bratislava the fog lifts, but it is still a very grey day.
This is the border crossing into Slovakia. Because of the European Union there are no border checks or stops, but I do miss getting a stamp in our passports though.
We return the car, and catch a FlixBus back to Vienna. Just as the bus pulls up I realize I have lost a pair of sunglasses somewhere in the airport, but there is no time to go back and look for them. These buildings under construction near the Bratislava bus terminal have scaffolding all the way up to the top! I can’t imagine having to work on scaffolding that high off the ground.
There is lots of construction in Bratislava, which has a population of 425,000. 
We get settled into our apartment and then head out to a life drawing session at 6:30. When we find the Kaffeebar it is in, we find out that the session was cancelled because it is Halloween. Oh well, we got to figure out the way there and I will try again next Thursday. Halloween in Austria is a time when adults get dressed up and party but the children do not go door to door for treats like they do at home.
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