I turned in my final project and thesis on August 28th, and Brendan and I went on vacation! The first destination on our European trip was Vienna. Home for many famous composers... it was a place top on my list.

Day 1: Got the Vienna Pass. There was a bus stop right by our hotel so we could use the vienna pass as our transportation throughout the whole city as well as to bring us to the tourist sights.

We walked around the Votivkirche - a cathedral built in 1879. An ornate, gothic style building. Absolutely gorgeous!

We visited the Mozart House.We were not allowed to take pictures inside (which sadly became a theme for many places....) You can see more about the place at their website, and here is the info about the apartment: http://www.mozarthausvienna.at/mozartwohnung

MOZART’S APARTMENT

Mozart’s apartment is the centrepiece of Mozarthaus Vienna.

Mozart and his family lived there from 1784 to 1787, during which time he wrote the world-famous opera “The Marriage of Figaro” and three of the six Haydn Quartets. It is the largest, most elegant and expensive apartment ever occupied by Mozart and the only one that is still intact today.

It consists of four large rooms, two small ones and a kitchen. With the aid of pictures and documents, furniture and other objects from Mozart’s time visitors can follow in the footsteps of Mozart and his family. The apartment, which is curated by Wien Museum, contains a magnificent musical clock made around 1790, which plays a variation of the “Andante for a cylinder in a small organ” (KV 616) that Mozart is thought to have composed for this very clock.

We then walked through Stadtpark where you can pass by many statues and busts of famous composers, most renowned in Vienna, the waltz king, Johann Strauss.

The Kursalon, where we later attended a concert with music by Strauss and others, then had a lovely dinner. It backs up to this park...

We bought the city bus tour. It worked out very well for us because one of the stops was right by our hotel so we could just take this bus to all the tourist locations and catch it right outside where we were staying. I enjoy these city tour buses because you can put in headsets and learn more about the city. One thing I learned that I thought was interesting was that Vienna suffered a lot of damage during the world wars. In order to accommodate people, new apartments had to be built, and fast. SO, driving through the city you will see old, gorgeous, ornate apartments next to plain, simple concrete apartments.

Day 2: Schonbrünn Palace ans Zoo

Out of all the castles and palaces we visited, this was my favorite. Schonbrünn Palace was the summer home for the royal family. One of the kings loved animals and so created the first zoo in the palace gardens. We could not (once again) take pictures inside the palace. And yes, we did visit the zoo. Some more pictures inside can be seen on their website: http://www.schoenbrunn.at/en.html

Panda

Red Fox

Baby sealion

The zoo had a "tree top walkway" with bridges through the top of the trees with a gorgeous view of the city.

Views :)

More in the gardens at the palace....This was the royal greenhouse.(We did not go in)

Day 3 - House of Music (Haus der Musik)

They have a section with a video where you choose a song and conduct the vienna symphony orchestra. If you stink they boo at you (LOL) if you're good they give you and standing ovation.

Walking through Stadtpark again :)

Apple streusel

Next we visited Kunst Historisches Museum Wein - Masterpieces by Dürer, Raphael, Rembrandt, Rubens, Titiano and Vermeer... Also holds exhibits of historical instruments as well as arms and armor.... perfect for both Brendan and I :) http://www.khm.at/en/

Stephansdom --- which I evidently don't have great pictures of....

That evening we went to the Kursalon Wien for some chamber music --- most famously, The Blue Danube, by Strauss

Day 4:

Beethoven Pasqualatihaus

We then took a long trek to the outskirts of the city to find the birth place of Franz Schubert.

This ended up being my favorite exhibit of all the composers. Just a very well done museum. His father was a school headmaster and they lived in an apartment above the school. So this whole building was the Schubert family's. The top left above the arched doorway is their house, the bottom level was the school house.

Down the street:

Beethoven Wohnung (where he composed his 2nd symphony and others---- he lived in 17 (I think) different places throughout the city because he did not trust his house keepers... since he couldn't hear them. Sad.)

Beethoven's hair

Took the "long bus route" out to into the wine country. Evidently they are known for their white wines. This was an old monastery. We were too late to take a museum tour, but we got to walk around the imperial treasures (no pictures allowed) and then grabbed a glass of wine while we waited for the next bus.... SORRY, I can't remember the name of the place.