Day 41, Sunday, October 8, 2023
it is our last day in Sarlat and we are going for a canoe ride on the Dordogne River. It took bit of doing though. The first company we drove to was closed for the season but they didn’t bother to put that on their website. We see a sign on the road for another company, and it says that they are open. We go there and yes, they are open, just not at this location. We give up and decide to drive La Roque-Gageac and walk around the town. I notice another canoe company near the river and before we know it we are in a canoe on the Dordogne River.
It is a beautiful day, +28 C, and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. We pass houses built into the cliffs at Cénac-et-Saint-Julien.
The river is calm with just enough current to make paddling easy.
It is so peaceful and…
we see swans in several places along the river.
There is the prettiest green seaweed and I see fish, Lots of fish, little ones and then some really big fish with whiskers…catfish?
They particularly like hiding in the seaweed. I keep showing them to Bob but he doesn’t see them. I think he thought I was making up all these fish I was seeing until he took off his polarized sunglasses and then he can see the fish too. He even gets to see one of the really big ones. 
We are having such a great time!
We pass three bridges and three villages with castles on our two and a half hour trip. This is the bridge at Vézac.
When we stop for our picnic lunch just before Vézac, these three sweet kids come down to the river bank to play. I give them a plastic container to use as they are trying to build a dam on the side of the shore. The little girl in the blue dress comes over and speaks very quickly to me and when I tell her I didn’t understand as I only speak a bit of French, her big brother comes over and very slowly and clearly tells me that it was very kind of me to give them the container and she was saying thank you. When we got back onto the river they waved to us and called out au revoir!
We pass ‘pirate’ tourist boats…
Beynac-et-Cazenac is another town built into the rock hillside…
and now we have passed Castelnaud-la-Chapelle. We are nearing the end of our trip.
But first we pass two of these strange half built bridges. It doesn’t look like they plan on completing either of them although the bridge with a road bed is on both sides of the river and just has one section missing. We wonder why.
Here is the last of the three bridges that we pass on our trip. Our pickup point is a kilometre past this bridge. We pull in and a short time later two vans come to pickup us and the canoes. We spent the time waiting for our pick up visiting with some people from Australia and Switzerland. We are so glad we were finally able to find a canoe rental company that was open for business. Although I must say that both the employees we dealt with were rather rude and certainly not very pleasant. This is the first time we have encountered anyone on this trip who wasn’t pleasant and helpful. It didn’t matter though, we had a wonderful afternoon on the river.
When we arrived back in La Roque-Gageac Bob wants to explore the town but I am tired and sit in the shade at a little park while he goes exploring. I draw a few of the people sitting around me while I am waiting. 
I think it was a good thing I didn’t go with him as there was a lot of uphill walking.
Bob climbed up towards the troglodyte (cave dwelling) fort set in the cliffs 40 metres above La Roque-Gageac. It is the remains of the 12th century fort that is still standing. The strong defensive position of La Roque-Gageac and this fortress meant that it held an important strategic and defensive position in the area. Seems that there was an awful lot of fighting and defending one’s home way back then.
Another view from the streets on Bob’s walk, and of the ‘pirate’ tourist ships.
On the way home we detour to visit Domme, another of France’s prettiest towns. We hit detours and it took a bit to finally find it, but the view from this town was amazing. We watched several hot air balloons flying high above the valley. On was very very high, much higher than I we thought hot air balloons usually flew. It was probably twice as high as this one!
We bought some refreshing sorbet and just enjoyed the view before heading home to Sarlat to pack. Tomorrow we are on our way to Carcassonne.
I loved this carved lizard, which is the symbol of Montrésor.
I notice that the leaves are staring to turn colour…winter is coming!
Then just two blocks later we see three of its siblings! These are the perfect cars for parking in France’s cities.
There is so much to see in Rouen. I thought this was the Notre Dame cathedral but it is the much smaller 
Rouen’s Notre Dame Cathedral was the tallest building in the world (151 m) in 1876, and still keeps the record of being the tallest cathedral of France. Photo courtesy Wikipedia.
This is just one small section of Rouen’s Notre Dame cathedral. It is enormous!
As is their pipe organ, but there was no organ music today.
The Gros Horloge (the Great clock) is one of the oldest clocks in France, the movement was made in 1389. 
It has a different face on either side and it rings on the hour, the half hour and the quarter hour.
This fellow spends his time on the street busking for money…only he plays the same song over and over and over. No variety at all to his performance.
Here is a little video that gives a better of idea of what we saw. 
‘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. 
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.
trudymason.com 