Secession building, Karlsplatz, Hofburg and more
So far, so good... This city is beautiful. And the hotel is just fine - the bed is ok… the room is spacious… clean… and very very quiet. I slept really well - didn’t hear a single noise the entire night.
Again, I woke up early, and after laying there for a while in the dark, got up, opened the curtains, took a shower and headed downstairs for breakfast.
We were up early and intended to head straight for Hofburg but when we reached Karlsplatz I noticed the Kunsthalle and wanted to take a look. From there I saw the 
About the Secession: The Secession (aka the Union of Austrian Artists) was formed in 1897 by a group of artists who had resigned from the association of Austrian artists due to the prevailing conservatism of the organization at that time. The building here was designed by one of those artists, Joseph Maria Olbrich.
The building makes use of a lot of symbolism. Laurel leaves, gorgons... Of those symbols, the laurel leaf is the dominant one.
The entrance area is decorated by the masks of the three Gorgons, which symbolize architecture, sculpture and painting. The side elevations also feature owls that were formed by Olbrich himself. The Gorgons and the owl are attributes of Pallas Athene, the goddess of wisdom, victory and the crafts. Joseph Maria Olbrich integrated a symbolic language in the building, which is given a fresh and not so academic or pedantic interpretation here. I wanted to see some examples of this Jugendstil architecture so this was aperfect opportunity!
The Secession building, which is now recognised as one the high points of any visit to 
I also want to see some of Klimt’s work so we went in and saw his Beethoven frieze which is located in the building and is of his most famous works. It was designed and finished in 1902, covers three walls and is 
Our next stop was the beautiful Karlskirche. Aside from being very beautiful, it has an interesting story: In 1713, the Black Plague swept 
The emperor's prayer was answered, and construction on the church began in 1715. The Karlskirche was built on what was then the bank of the River Wien and is now the southeast corner of a park complex.
A Baroque master named Johann Bernard Fischer von Erlach did the original work from 1716 to 1722. After his death in 1723, his son took over and saw the project through to completion in 1737. An artist called J. M. Rottmayr painted many of the frescoes inside the church from 1725 to 1730.
The ambitious, creative design of the Karlskirche combines architectural elements from ancient 
The design of the church is not a typical Baroque design, was never imitated and according to what I have read was always regarded as something of an architectural curiosity. But this gives it great interest among the more conventional Baroque churches of
To me, the most incredible and awesome feature of the church are the two great columns of the facade, designed in direct imitation of Trajan's Column in 
The interior of the church is much more conventional than the exterior, with High Baroque decoration. The vault frescoes depict St. Charles Borromeo begging the Holy Trinity to end the plague in
After Karlskirche we took the U-bahn to Kerrengasse.
The top of its bell tower was damaged during the first Austro-Turkish war, rebuilt, then again destroyed again during the second Austro-Turkish war; the top was then replaced by a flat roof.
Inside, there is a life-sized copy of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper on the church's northern wall. It is a mosaic made by the Roman mosaic artist Giacomo Raffaelli which was ordered by Napoleon I in 1809, but it was not finished before Napoleon's abdication. Francis II of
Before continuing on to Hofburg we stopped at a beautiful café called Café Central. It is located in a building called Palais Ferstel which is really beautiful. This café is exactly what I expected a grand and stately 
The Café Central was closed at the end of WW2 and was not reopened again until the building was restored in 1975. I think that the original may have been in another part of the building.
We walked over to the Hofburg Palace and wandered around the whole perimeter of the complex, saw the gardens and greenhouse before reaching the entrance... The walk around the whole complex, in the snow, was a good way to work off some of the pastry from the Café Central. It was snowing pretty hard; large snowflakes were piling up everywhere.
Our first stop inside Hofburg was the Habsburg Silver Collection where you can see the enormous state collections of cookware, table linen, dishes, cutlery, silverware, copperware, bathroom accessories (“sanitary porcelain”) like chamber pots (there were no bathrooms in the palaces until the very late nineteenth century so they needed plenty of special accessories for bathing, toilet, and such), etc. I didn’t realize that the “household” numbered up to 5000 people. Obviously, catering to such a large number of people in a very formal manner required a lot of effort, organization and personnel. Some of this was truly interesting to see although it wasn’t the most exciting visit. I was a little surprised to see how they set the table. All of the silverware on the right side of the plate and all of the forks are placed with the tines pointing down. It is logical that what you’d use first was closest to the plate but I don’t know what Mom would think about this! she’s pretty strict about forks on the left, knives and spoons on the right.
An interesting thing that I learned about is something called the “footwashing” ceremony. This was a centuries old tradition (I actually saw it before on the Camino de Santiago where some of us pilgrims had our feet washed before a mass somewhere along the way). The Habsburgs had this tradition for centuries in the Viennese court. The emperor and empress washed the feet of 12 men and 12 women each year on Holy Thursday (the last Thursday before Lent starts). It was performed on elderly paupers who were instructed to wash thoroughly (!) before presenting themselves!! The paupers were given a meal and gifts including an earthenware jug of white wine, a silver beaker marked with the double eagle and the year, dishes of food and a pouch containing 30 silver coins.
After the silver collection we headed to the Sisi Museum and Imperial Apartments (Kaiserappartements). This turned out to be another interesting visit. I was surprised to see that the Sisi museum is so dark ��" mostly painted a dark deep blue. Again, her reality has little to do with the cinema version and the melancholy, depressing feeling that the exhibit conveys is appropriate. I guess it’s fitting for such a depressed, unhappy woman who had an unhappy life and a tragic death. The fragments of her poetry, letters and such paint a picture of a self-absorbed, bitter person. Not at all like how she is portrayed in the movies. There were a number of interesting exhibits, but such a dark and sad place. I enjoyed seeing a reproduction of her private train car that she used to travel to “escape” from 
After the 
Graben and Kohlmarket
This is a nice area for a stroll. This is a pedestrian area with upscale shops like Tiffany’s, Gucci and such. Being Sunday, just about everything was closed but there were plenty of people in the street and aside from shop windows and people watching there are some beautiful buildings to look at. Nearby is the Peterskirche whose current structure is from the 1700s. We loooked in there and saw that aside from the historical details, homage is paid to a twentieth century man canonized by the Catholic Church.
We had a late lunch again at Mnozil’s Gastwirtschaft zum Kellergewölb.
Mnozil’s Gastwirtschaft zum Kellergewölb
Seilerstätte 13
A-1010 Wien
A great thing that I am noticing about 
The museum occupies four floors and starts with recreating what a fetus hears while in the womb. Aside from learning about the composers and getting a chance to hear many samples of their music, you get a lot of information about the science behind sound with many interactive exhibits in which you can experiment with your own voice.
The route after our Haus der Musik experience was to head down Seilerstatte to Krugerstrasse to Maysedergasse to Albertinaplatz right by the Opera House. Again we were lucky to walk right by another famous Viennese café called Café Mozart.
I had “Lendtmann’s Orangenpunsch” (4,40 €) (hot spiced orange juice with rum ��" perfect for a cold afternoon) and Apfelstrudel mit Vanillesosse (5,40 €) If I convert these prices to Zlotys I’d be horrified, so we’ll just leave it at Euros. Anyhow, I would (and will) do it again if I get the chance. Everything was delicious, my first experience with scalding hot orange juice was satisfactory and the place is really beautiful. We sat there for quite a while ��" I’m spending most of this down time trying to soak up the atmosphere of this amazing city and writing about it.
When we’d had enough of that, we headed across the street to check out the Albertina which by that time was already closed.
Finally, after a lot more walking around, we headed back to the hotel. Again we’d walked for miles and I had no problem falling asleep.
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This café is exactly how I expected a grand and stately Vienna café to be. The coffee and pastry were terrific and the service was perfect... Attentive, tuxedoes waiters, friendly enough. A very leisurely pace to everything - you feel as though you could stay there all day and noone would rush you off...
We also tried a raspberry parfait which was delicious. It's not cheap, actually it was pretty expensive - but the atmosphere was worth it. Coffee and a snack for two set us back about 16 Euros.
The café was opened in 1860, and in the late nineteenth century it became a key meeting place of the Viennese intellectual scene. Key regulars included Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky. Until 1938 the café was called the "Chess school" (Die Schachhochschule) because of the presence of many chess players. Café Central was closed at the end of WW2 and was not reopened again until the building was restored in 1975. Originally the café occupied the building's glass-covered inner courtyard - the present location was originally the location of bank facilities.
The Café Central is open Monday-Saturday from 8 am to10 pm. There is piano music every evening from 4-7 pm. The address is Herrengasse 14. Phone 533-3763
Among other works, he composed “The Marriage of Figaro” while living here.
When you enter the museum you are given an audio guide which has tons of information about everything that you are seeing. Each exhibit has a number, and if you press the number on the audio guide you get extensive information about the exhibits. There’s no extra cost for this and it’s extremely helpful and informative.
Aside from the rooms that the Mozart family occupied, the museum also gives a lot of insight int Mozart’s life and times. We started the tour on the third floor of the building where there is an exhibit “Vienna in the Era of Mozart” which is about how he lived, where he performed, who his friends were, Viennese society, his gambling and his involvement with the Freemasons. After that floor, we went down a level to an exhibit called “Mozart’s Magical World” about his operas, and finally to the ground floor and the Mozart Apartments, in addition to showing you the home this exhibit area also gives information about Mozart, his wife Constanze, their son Carl Thomas and how they lived.
Admission to Mozarthaus Vienna costs 9 Euros, children up to 14 years pay 3 Euros and there are also special rates for groups, families, etc.
