Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Schloss Hof

We went to Schloss Hof,
another one of Prince Eugene's castles by the Slovak border. 
There are wonderful gardens.
This is one of two orangeries
where the exotic plants would go
during the winter.
The walls inside the orangerie are white
that the plants received optimal light during the winter. 
We linked up with the Andies
who branched out on their own today,
and had an ice cream at Tichy's.

Carnuntum

We went to see a church from the 
1120s on our way to Carnuntum.
Before entering the Roman excavations we 
stopped at the Heidentor - 
a triumphal arch built by the Romans.
Carnuntum was a big garrison town on the borders of the Roman Empire.
One of the villas was rebuilt.
This is a nice hall.
 Here we are in a bed room.
We went to a bath.
Here is the resting area.
And a hot water basin.
On the street side are stores.
We were hungry and drove to
Bratislava for some Slovak sausages.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Rax

We decided to go up the Rax today. 
Instead of a 6-hour ascent we took the cable car. 
On the plateau the hiking is straight and easy. 
We were on our way to the Otto Haus (left).
A short stop in the Otto Haus.
We did a lot of walking;
up the Billy Goat Trail;
and down again;
and back to the cable car station. 
We ate some kebabs.

Museum of Music and Dr. Freud

Andy arrived safely and we went to the Museum of Music.
This is the Sound Wall. 
Andy conducted the Vienna Philharmonic, 
but got fired right away...
We walked around,
and had a sausage.
Then we went to the Sigmund Freud Museum at
Berggasse 19.
This is his waiting room.
The famous couch is in his London exile.
This is what his consulting room used to look like.
The boys started to get tired.

  A message from Dr. Freud from his travels.

We went to our favorite Turkish restaurant.

Art History Museum

We went to the Kunsthistorisches Museum
(Art History Museum) to see the Habsburg Collections.
The Museum is one of a pair. 
The other one houses the Natural History Collection
of the Habsburg family.
The buildings are identical. 
We started with the Kunstkammer of
Rudolf II.
Vermeer's "Art of Painting"!
Sometimes the paintings were stacked on top of each other. 
Giorgione's "Three Philosophers".
We had some refreshments at the Cafe.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Melk Monastery

High above the Danube River in the Wachau 
rises the Benedictine Abbey of Melk.
We went inside.
This is the marble hall. 
We looked out the big terrace over the Danube. 
They have a nice library,
and a very ornate church. 
 We walked through the nice gardens,
and had refreshments in the pavilion. 
We stopped at a Heurigen on the way home.