Today was a holiday in Munich, so what do you do in Munich on holiday? You go to the Englischer Garten with all the other Munichers. It turned out to be a lovely day to enjoy the park. We saw many people out walking, strollering, riding, playing, and just relaxing. The stream or river that flows through is quite fast. At one point, there's a natural wave, so surf boarders can play. I have a video. It was a sight to see, alongside my fellow Munchen holiday-ites!
We were awed by the amazing churches in the heart of Munich. The three we saw today Were all white inside. Each had its own character and art, but all seemed warm, if not friendly. They had hymnals as if people worship there regularly. That gives me comfort that these aren't museums but places where the living God is present! I have more photos than I can share. The outsides of the churches weren't as impressive, or photos were difficult to take.
Notice the sweater and the hot coffee - it wasn't exactly balmy this morning, but we certainly enjoyed the view. (The town hall, with its fancy Glockenspiel)
The reference is to Saturday Night Live when Mike Meyers' (female) character would say "I'm all ver klempt," meaning emotional.
Klimt is an artist with a few famous works. We saw "The Kiss" but I didn't take a pic. The images below are at the top of a ceiling in the National Art Museum. Stood on a specially constructed scaffold to view them. Just stunning. The rest of the museum was great as well. Too much art, not enough time!
What's a trip to Vienna without some music and cake with mousse? Atypical. So, we followed the typical traveler's advice and attended a lovely chamber concert of professional musicians, which included a couple of opera singers and a couple of ballet dancers. We met two young women from Malta at the concert and learned that 400,000 people live there. Who knew?
A friend of Bill's suggested "Cafe Central" as a food destination, so we went after the concert for dessert - a delicious mousse cake. A great end to a fun day.
What do you think of when you think Vienna? Refined music and hot dogs, lovely architecture and beer. We found all of these and more in this beautiful city. It has many more buildings spread out from one another, so it takes longer to get places, whether walking or takings trams. It's also fun (and a bit nerve - wracking) finding the right tram or U-bahn.
English is spoken by most people, whether locals or tourists, so that makes it easy to get what we need or where to go.
The train took about four hours to get to Vienna. What a great ride. Country was mostly rural in Czech Republic and north of V. Arrived in the rain but we walked to our hotel anyway. As soon as we got settled, the rain stopped. On to a restaurant adventure!
This monument to God is magnificent inside and out. It contains many of the same features as Notre Dame in Paris, including an impressive rose window at the end opposite from the alter. The ribbed ceiling looks amazing in person, add does the stained glass in other parts of the cathedral. Worth the time and energy.
The city has plenty of church steeples. I think our guide said "The city of a hundred steeples" and we saw quite a few from the castle hill.
Lots of buildings of many differing architects. Our tour guide talked about Prague having a mix of peoples and cultures because the city was central in Europe. It was the capital of the Holy Roman Empire under Charles, so diplomats from the region would come with their families. They also brought staff and tradespeople, so the city soon had many influences and thus differing styles.
We enjoyed the tram ride down to the bridge area is the evening, and walked back across just after dark. The city was still lively at that time.
Like other European cities, Prague had buildings one next to the other. Our hotel is close to the old city so it's easy to walk to lots of historic places, including . . .
St. Charles Bridge was packed with Sunday visitors and craft vendors, so to escape the madding crowd, we stopped at a tiny garden cafe.
The Hauptbahnhof (Main train station) has old style architecture. The hotel is very nice and easily accessed via tram. Chad told us that because Frankfurt is on the river Main (pronounced mine), and it's the financial center of Germany, it's referred to as Main-hatten to echo the US financial center. Haha aren't the Germans clever. The sculpture represents the EU. On to Prague! Tschuss!
La Sonnambula was fantastic! Brenda Rae has amazing range, nuance, color, and emotion. The other performers were also terrific. Our seats were row 6 so we couldn't have purchased better ones. Thanks Brenda! Great night.
At CID waiting to board for Chicago. It's very noisy in the restaurant area. Glad people are having fun while waiting. Beautiful day to fly!
