Our Family: Vienne (Wein), Austria

Vienne, Austria

A-mazing!!

Here is the view from the back of the Belvedere Museum

(the official website is HERE)

There are a lot of ticket options but the most worth while ticket was just for the Upper Belvedere which ended up being 11 Euro's per adult. If you have the Vienne card it's discounted to 9 Euro. I highly recommend getting the Vienna Card (found HERE)

We came here with only 45 minutes to browse but I had to see Klimt. I have always loved Klimts 'The Kiss' and while there I fell in love with 'Farm Garden with Sunflowers'. Such a neat experience to see it in person! I know, I know, some of Klimt's paintings might be a little graphic but I really love these!

Here is the Belvedere Museum from the front

We then grabbed dinner and walked around the city soaking up the atmosphere and culture! I loved it!

Check out those cute little baby ducks. This mom with her 5 little ducklings made me miss my little ducklings, who follow me around everywhere too.

Throughout the months of July and August the city center tries to incorporate culture into the lives of those who live there. They set up this HUGE movie screen, tons of chairs, and run opera's, culturally enriching movies, and famous concerts for the city folk. It is so neat. On either side leading up to the City Hall and the huge screen are different ethnically diverse foods - Indian, Japanese, South African, Belgium Waffels, Frech Crepes, Italian (ironically not American, ya know hotdogs and greasy pizza). It smelled delicious, and the next night when we ate there it was!

Next stop: Schönbrunn Palace where the Habsburgs lived and ruled. An audio guide is included in the admission price and it gave TONS of great information. We were quite impressed with this Palace and the surrounding gardens. It is amazing to me that people actually lived like this.

(We got the Grand tour (13.50 Euro per adult and it got you into everything. Go HERE for more information about tickets and such)

One can't go to Vienna without touring the Opera house ... I mean, seriously, it's world famous for their opera's and for Wagner and Mozart performing there.

(HERE is a wikipedia article about it)

This room was designed and built for the Habsburg family and one can rent it out during intermission for only 500 Euro's - can you believe that? 500 Euro's for intermission!

This was my favorite part of the tour - the backstage of the opera house. It was HUGE!

Here is where the audience is during the opera. This picture is taken from the view of those on stage performing for the audience. It was pretty neat to go inside.

Stephansdom (or Stephen's Cathedral)

(Click HERE for more information)

More Klimt! Lastly, we toured more museum's since we didn't have our children. The area reminded me a Washington D.C's mall only because the area had tons of museums situated together. We toured the Kunsthistorisches Museum with Klimt, Bruegel, Caravaggio. HERE is the official website with more information - just click on the little British flag to switch the language from German to English. I'm pretty sure the admission was 10 Euro per adult but I can't remember.

Here are just some of the highlights from the Museum that I remember learning about in my AP Art History class in High School. I love being able to recognize art work when we tour!