Day 73, Wednesday, November 6, 2019
This morning we went to see the Lipizzaner stallions, but not a performance. We went to the morning training session instead. We got to sit in the 96 euro seats for two hours and watch the horses train and it only cost us 9.5 euros each! It was great and we both enjoyed it. We found out that to get those 96 euro seats we should have reserved months in advance! We sat about half way down the side of the arena.
No photos are allowed and I was very good and didn’t try to sneak any! It would have been so nice to have a few photos though. These two photos were taken from posters advertising the performances. The stallions are gorgeous! 
I did a bit of sketching during the training and that was OK but it was hard to draw and watch what was going on a the same time. After a bit I decided to just enjoy watching the training session and forget about drawing.
It is unusual to see any of the jumps that are performed in the performances during a training session. We were very lucky, we saw two different horses perform the capriole! The first stallion was experienced and he did three caprioles. This is where the horse jumps straight up into the air, kicks out with the hind legs, and lands more or less on all four legs at the same time. It is a very difficult jump. The second stallion was young and still in training. He managed to get his forelegs up in the jump but the hind legs didn’t quite make it, but he tried three times as well. We also saw the piaffe, the dance like trotting on the spot and several other of the special dressage movements.
The training session was two hours long. Four half hour sessions with different horses for each session. It went by very quickly and Bob said he enjoyed it too, even though he doesn’t love horses near as much as I do!
Next stop is the State Hall of the National Library. It is so amazing! It is hard to describe such a magnificent place. The pictures probably do a better job, so here they are. This is our view when we enter the library. We both just stop and stare! This library is nearly 60 metres long and 20 metres high and contains over 200,000 books!
One of the first things we see are these ‘secret’ doors the open into rooms with even more books.
The cases Bob is standing by held illuminated manuscripts. I would have loved to be able to climb one of these ladders and pull a book or two off the shelves.
These are from 1400 and 1260!
The globes have been in this spot since the mid 1700’s.
This statue is in the central oval of the library beneath a painted domed ceiling.
Here is a view looking up at the ceiling…
and a wide angled view of the central area.
We sit for a while just absorbing the atmosphere.
Looking towards the entrance from where I was sitting…
and towards the back of the library.
The second level is just as ornately decorated as the first. I wish we could have gone there as well, but it was not to be.
One last photo before we leave. Here is a short video I made of the inside of the library.
When we leave the library we pass the Lipizzaner stables.
I zoom in on these two beauties.
We stop at the Minoritenkirche because Bob says it has a mosaic life size replica of The Last Supper.
It appears to be painted on tiled panels rather than being a mosaic made with many small tiles.
We didn’t get to see The Last Supper when we were in Italy. We didn’t know we had to get tickets far in advance, so I guess this is the next best thing.
We walk towards the metro through a bit of a park…
where there are lots of people sitting enjoying the sunshine.
I was surprised there were so many yellow roses in bloom so late in the year. Do you notice all the little white signs in the background? This is a memorial garden and each rose is planted in memory of a person who has passed away.
It is a beautiful sunny afternoon. Warm for November, but we still need our coats.
We stop at the Naschmarkt for something to eat. This roast pig is for sale by the piece, starting at the back end. Interesting but we decide on something a bit less exotic.
I love this huge art nouveau pot supported by four turtles. Wish I had one like this at home!
We have a bit of time at home before I go to for another life drawing session at a pub called The Roo Bar. Here are a 5 minute, two 10 minute and a 20 minute drawing.
A ten and twenty minute pose.
I think I liked these two 5 minute drawings the best. It was a good night. 
Before we see the Dürer exhibit we visit the other parts of the museum. There are 20 decorated and restored Habsburg State Rooms with precious wall coverings, chandeliers, fireplaces and stoves, inlaid floors, 
The chandeliers in this room were very beautiful.
The most interesting thing in these rooms was the art exhibit on the walls. We have a print of this Hieronymus Bosch drawing at home. Unfortunately the drawings and prints are facsimiles. Very good ones, but facsimiles non-the-less. This is necessary as works on paper are fragile and can not be displayed for long periods of time. 
Now on to the main event!
I took so many photos but have chosen just a few of my favourite ones for today’s post. Here is ‘Three Studies of Dürer’s Left Hand’ 1493/94. I like drawing hands and feet and there is much to learn from Dürer.
This page of studies was so interesting. 
Here is another drawing I have seen so often in books.
‘The Woman’s Bath’ is a pen and ink drawing…
and this ‘Illustration for the Apocalypse’ is a woodcut. Dürer was a master of all mediums.
Dürer’s watercolours are exquisite. This painting is simply titled ‘Iris’.
A watercolour study of a ‘Blue Rolle’r from 1500.
We enter another room and there on the far wall are three famous works. Dürer’s ‘Young Hare’ is only exhibited once every five years for a period of no more than three months. It is just luck that it is on exhibit while we are here. This is another print that we have at home. Bob wishes it was the original!!
‘The Great Piece of Turf’ was painted on the largest piece of paper available at the time to portray the plants life sized.
‘The Wing of a Blue Roller’ is quite amazing. This work is watercolour and body colour on parchment with fine gold lines on the breast plumage to enhance the iridescence of the feathers. There is no one telling visitors to keep a certain distance from the works, so my nose gets up very close!
I liked the study of a bull’s nose too…
and this ‘Columbine”…
and this page of studies. 
OK. I love pretty much everything I see here! This head of an angel and head of twelve year old Jesus are studies for a larger painting …
as is this hand study. It is fascinating to see the studies and then the finished painting.
‘The Praying Hands’ is a well known Dürer image.
I really didn’t know much about Dürer’s oil paintings. I particularly loved this one. The Madonna’s face is so beautiful.
Dürer drawing and woodcut of a rhino were made without his ever having seen a rhinoceros! He drew from a written description of the animal and his imagination.
I have always loved this ‘Portrait of a 93 Year Old Man’. I didn’t know it was done with a brush! 
As we are leaving the museum I see this Modigliani painting ‘Prostitute’. I have always liked Modigliani’s work but haven’t really see very many in person. 
One last photo at the Albertina. Seems I want to sprout wings this trip!
We spent four hours here today and I could easily have spent much more time here but this will have to do. I bought the catalogue for the exhibit. It is huge, and weighs 6.6 pounds! Good thing we are near the end of our trip!
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.
I liked this one of the young man with the bandaged nose.
Our drive to Vienna was long and uneventful. We stayed on the freeway and it still took us about 5 1/2 hours. We had to wait about an hour for our Airbnb host to meet us, but we found a parking space just outside the apartment and our car was warm, so it wasn’t too bad. It took forever to figure out how to pay for street parking but we finally sorted it out. We take our rental car back tomorrow so we just need parking for one night.
This central four-storey building was the beginning of the palace and was built in 1644. Over the years numerous additions were built until it reached its present configuration in 1776.
The Nymphenburg Palace was originally a summer residence for the Bavarian rulers. This is the Great Hall. Musicians would entertain guests from the gallery.
One of the many rooms with original furnishings.
Many of the rooms are not that big and seem to serve as connecting passages to other larger rooms.
The south apartment bedroom of the Electress, who was the consort of the king.
Our reflection in the bedroom mirror.
Every palace has to have a Chinese inspired room.
The audience room of Queen Caroline…
and her bedroom have their original furnishings. This room is where King Ludwig II was born in 1845. The bed is hidden by a cover on a high frame which was spread over the bed during the daytime.
The official Hall of Beauties is under restoration but the paintings are on display in a corridor. From 1826 to 1850 King Ludwig I had a series of 36 portraits painted of what he considered to be the most beautiful women. Beauty was considered to be an outward sign of moral perfection!
We finish our tour of the palace rooms, and go explore the grounds. Unfortunately we realize that the park pavilions closed for the season a week ago. I do manage a peek inside the Magdalene Hermitage, which was a pavilion used for contemplation.
Much of the grounds are in the style of an English park, with paths…
and little bridges over water features.
This creek was so covered with fallen leaves that the water was barely visible.
This shows just how long the canal water feature is…looking towards and away from the palace on a bridge that crosses the canal. At one time gondolas sailedd these waters. Neat reflections too.
Walking back towards the palace along a tree lined path.
I liked the reflection of the palace in the water.
Looking out towards the garden from the Palace steps.
It is almost closing time, but we manage a quick peek inside the Carriage museum, which is one of the most important museums of court carriages, travel and equestrian culture in the world. The Coronation coach of Emperor Karl VII is here…
We can only begin to imagine how much these coaches cost!
Besides dozens of coaches there are numerous sleighs on display.
Parades and competitive games with these carousel sleighs were a popular winter amusement at court. Women would sit in front of a male driver and try to hit rings or paper maché figures with a lance or sword. Notice the rear view of the sleigh in the mirror.
Just a few of the many coaches on display in one of the halls.
One last selfie before we leave.
and one last look back towards the front of the Palace…
with a photo stop at the swans.
I have life drawing tonight, so we head toward the metro and after checking out my route, Bob heads for home and I head towards my drawing session. I have a bit of time so I sit at the Sheraton Hotel having a cup of tea and doing a bit of sketching.
These were a bit better.
Sketches from the Sheraton Hotel.
My first drawing at the Meetup session. Still having some issues with proportions and the head placement in relation to the body.
I started again after our break and did this portrait which was better. Bettina, our model, really liked it and said that it looked like her. 
The Ring is right next to the entrance to the Old Botanical Garden where we have our lunch. We see lots of interesting people on our travels. The man below was ‘communing’ with a tree…he walked circles around it, with his hands out, making gestures towards the tree. Some police driving through the park stopped to talk to him but they let him be, guess they figured he was harmless. Nearby I spotted this lady dressed all in white. She looks like she belongs to a different place and time.
There was a small gallery in the Botanical Gardens but they were changing exhibitions and not open. I liked both the door handle and the interesting poster, which reads, The Long Night of Munich Museums.
First stop on our tour, why don’t you come along with us? The
Citizen’s Hall Church was heavily damaged during WWII but it has been rebuilt and looks exactly like it did in the 1700’s. The basement contains the tomb of Rupert Mayer, a famous Jesuit priest who stood up to the Nazis occupation and died in a concentration camp..
Our walk continues down a broad pedestrian street with large trees.
St Michael’s Church. I liked the huge elaborate candle holders. The church contains The Royal Crypt which holds 40 tombs. The most famous of these is the tomb of “Mad” King Ludwig II. Ludwig was a big spender and built many lavish castles and palaces. We visited the Neuschwanstein Castle on our first trip to Europe almost 40 years ago. It is the castle that inspired Walt Disney’s Snow White castle.
No photos are allowed in the crypt so I did a quick sketch of King Ludwig’s tomb. No one ever seems to mind if I draw.
There are a few churches on this tour! Each of them has its own distinctive feature. Saint Anna’s Church has had a chapel on this site since 1440. I thought I saw people inside, behind the locked gates, but when I zoomed in with my camera, I realized it was a life size sculpture of the Last Supper.
We pass this tree sculpture on the corner of a building on our way to The Asamhof Passage.
Asamhof Passage is a little pedestrian street lined with restaurants, lots of flowers, and this poor fellow who needed my change more than I did!
Asamkirche was built by the Asam brothers as a showpiece for their church building skills. It is only 30 feet wide but it is so packed with over-the-top-Rococo decoration that we don’t know where to look! The entire focus of the interior leads the eye to a bright golden window meant to feel like the eye of God staring down at us.
This is the exterior of the church and the brother’s house next door, which had bedroom windows looking onto the high altar in the church.
There are lots of modern shops below the traditional apartments.
I think I look OK with wings!
The town gate, built in 1318 has two towers and is the oldest of the three city gates still standing in Munich.
A view down the street from the town gate.
Walking back towards Marienplatz we walk through the Victuals Market (Viktualiemarkt). This is a tough place to be when you can’t eat gluten, dairy or eggs!
There are lots of flower stalls. I particularly liked the little dog that seemed to belong to this one.
This is the tallest May Pole we have ever seen!
We can see the Glockenspiel Tower down a side street between two buildings.
The New Town Hall’s main attraction is the Glockenspiel. This chiming clock was added to the tower in 1907. At 11am, midday, and 5pm the Munich Glockenspiel recounts a royal wedding, a jousting tournament and a traditional dance with 32 life-sized animated figures in its 260 foot tower. 
The show lasts about ten minutes, followed by the ringing of church bells.
Bob remembered the Beck Department store from our first visit to Munich almost 40 years ago! He said it was right next to the Glockenspiel and sure enough it was!
Metro drawings from today. People kept getting off the metro before I was finished!
No idea what kind of tree has these huge seed pods. Maybe someone can tell me?
We go past a street of shops with rather expensive merchandise, but I really wonder about these colour combinations!
The Alte Museum admission is only 1euro on Sundays! What a bargain. This is one half of the double staircase that leads to the exhibition rooms. 
We walk through the first door and I see these beautiful pastel paintings by Maurice Quentin La Tour, Jean-Étienne, Joseph Vivien and Rosalba Carriera! I need to find some books about these artists and study their paintings. Unfortunately there were lots of reflections in the glass covering these works. You can even see me in two of them!
One of the 46 rooms we visited today had lots of paintings of Venice, completed in the early 1700’s. I marvelled that Venice looked just the same then as it did when we visited a couple years ago. The only difference was the number of small boats in the canals and the clothing of the people in the paintings! There were another 13 rooms that were closed due to the installation of new exhibits.
This room was full of paintings by Rembrandt and Franz Hals…
I lost count of the number of rooms filled with work by Peter Paul Rubens… 
which Included a room with the huge painting of The Great Last Judgement.
and another with The Fall of the Damned, which is also very large. Rubens was a very productive artist!
Here is a close up of some of the damned souls.
Looking through the doorway, you can see the many more rooms we have yet to explore. There are ten large galleries in a row along the length of the museum, with many smaller galleries off of these. 
I liked how I could stand in front of the study for this Rubens painting and then look into the adjoining gallery and see the finished painting. There was a gallery full of studies, which I particularly liked. It is possible to see the way Rubens thought about and worked out his compositions.
This is a painting done by Leonardo da Vinci when he was only 23. I don’t remember seeing it before (in books).
And then there is Hieronymus Bosch with his very strange creatures, in this fragment of the Last Judgement. His works always has lots of details to examine closely.
We saw paintings by so many other artists I am familiar with: Holbein, Raffael, Botticelli, Titian, Van Dyk, and Velázquez, as well as many new artists that I liked as well.
and works by Cézanne, Gauguin, and several more Van Gogh’s.
A large painting by Ferdinand Hodler, TheTired of Life, really drew my attention. I will have to research this artist.
There was a Klimt. I am looking forward to visiting the Klimt Museum when we return to Vienna.
Here are my metro drawing from today…
and yesterdays drawings in the gardens we visited, which I forgot to post.
Here is our model, Bettina, she is very pregnant. How wonderful! It has been ages since I have had the chance to draw a pregnant model so this was an unexpected bonus.
The drawing on the left is mine.
I did a couple sketches to warm up.
Then spent about two hours working on this drawing.
Bob came to pick me up after the session and on the metro ride home I did a bit more sketching.
This was interesting, the older man with the facial hair was sitting right across the aisle from me and he was only on the metro for one stop so I sketched quickly hoped he didn’t notice that I was sneaking peeks at him. The young man with glasses did notice I was drawing him and he smiled at me, I smiled back and he tried not to smile as I continued sketching. As he got up to leave I showed him the sketch and he said something in German, then he smiled and said ciao, so I think he liked it.
This
I draw while we listen to the service and choir. Of course we can’t understand any of it!
I was tempted to finish this drawing of the altar from a photo but in the end decided to leave it just as it was.
The cathedral was badly damaged during the Second World War.
But today is beautifully restored. The ceilings are particularly ornate, this is the ceiling of one of the small side chapels.
In the basement is a crypt with a small chapel, and its very own ghostly apparition that flies around the room! Tough to catch its likeness in a photo but there it is on the back wall.
After the service we find a Bio Fair (Organic Fair) right around the corner. There are people everywhere enjoying the sunshine, food and drinks. Great people watching today!
We have lunch here but are too full to have one of these giant donut-like pastries, which are served either with sauerkraut or sprinkled with sugar and filled with jam.
Nearby is St. Peter’s Cemetery. Cemeteries in Austria are very neat and beautifully kept.
We learned that plots are rented in Austria and if the rent is not paid the bones are dug up and the plot is rented out to someone else. The remains are either moved to a mass gravesite or dug up and buried deeper in the same plot and the headstone removed so that the plot can be reused! The headstones are on the wall of the church for exactly this reason. The rent on the plot was not paid so the grave was reused and the headstones were placed here. This explains the many headstones we have seen on cemetery walls and other churches.
Bob insisted we needed a photo of me hiding in the cemetery!
We almost miss seeing the catacombs dating from the 12th century. Can you see the windows high up in the cliff above the cemetery? Pay particular attention to the little door below the windows. This is where Saint Maximus and 50 of his followers were thrown to their death in 477AD, because of their faith.
This is one of the chapels carved out of the rock high in the cliff.
A view of the graveyard through one of the windows as we climbed down from the stone chapels.
Bob has a few more places for us to visit. The Church of Our Lady dates from 1221 AD. It was very dark everywhere except for right around the altar where there are soaring pillars and arched ceilings.
Next is the Horse Fountain. This fountain has a ramp (the white area on the right side of the photo) so that horses could walk right into the fountain to cool off.
This fountain is just a bit smaller!
Notice the dates on these buildings…1360 on the apricot coloured one and 1258 on the brown one. I am amazed that these houses are this old.
We see a very long line up… it is people lining up for ice cream! Soft ice cream in a cup with a choice of fresh fruit and other toppings.
I see this curious ‘wand’ and wonder where it is from.
This is a view of the side of the Salzburg Cathedral.
We walk back through the Bio-Fest on our way home and now I know where the wand comes from. These look like such fun to make.
Walking past this house we notice a sign saying that this is where the creator of the song “Silent Night’ was born.
One more church!.. with lots of paintings and a pretty green and white ceiling. The skull was on a plaque near the door, and the little bronze plaques were in the square outside. They mark the location where a person was arrested and taken to a concentration camp. We looked for these in other cities but couldn’t find any. It has the person’s name, date of birth, date of arrest, the name of the camp and their date of death. 
The horse fountain in the square near the Salzburg Cathedral glows in the late afternoon sun.
I thought tying them up was a clever way to deal with unruly tall grasses.
In a yard near our Airbnb I spot these little rock gardens. I might have to make one of these in our garden at home. I am always collecting stones!
The fall colours are brilliant in the late afternoon sun as we arrive home.
Not sure if I have a photo of the trams we used here in Prague so I snapped this one from the bus window. They run every few minutes and are a fantastic way to get around the city.
Soon we are in the countryside. It always surprises me how quickly cities transition into rural areas in Europe. You are in the city and then suddenly you are not.
The views here are quite similar to the countryside around home in Canada. There are those big round hay bales, and…
then something we do not see at home. We see several huge haystacks of loose hay piled high. They must have a machine that throws the hay up onto this haystack?
No idea what was 
This big double decker bus drives through small villages on narrow roads. I like being up high as I can see over fences into the yards of the houses we pass and sometimes into windows. I am always curious and love these little glimpses into people’s lives.
I also do some sketching today, standing outside waiting for our bus and then later on the bus.
I forgot to post this page from yesterday so here it is today. Most of the museums charge a fee to take photos. That is what the big yellow sticker is about.
We pass several fields of pumpkins, all lined up ready for harvest. Halloween is coming!
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