Hofburg Imperial Palace

While the Schonbrunn Palace was the summer residence, replete with 1500 servants, the Hofburg Imperial Palace was the winter residence -- just down the street.  The Hofburg has been expanded over the centuries to include: various residences, the chapel, museums, the Imperial Library, the treasury, the national theatre, the riding school; and the horse stables ("Lipizzaner" horses -- dancing horses).

Closer look at the dome.

These are scultpures on the front of the building -- too beautiful -- some of them more modest than others!

We went to the Treasure Chamber of the Hofburg Palace and saw the jewels of the House of Hapsburg and others.  Below is an aquamarine - 4 to 5 inches in length.

 

Largest emerald in the world (or so they say.)  This is 5 to 6 inches in size.

A crown, sceptre, and orb of some king or other.

Below is a closeup of the sceptre and crown.  Those jewels are real.  Can you see those huge diamonds? pearls? sapphires? a ruby or two? an emerald?

Below is a "unicorn", or so they say.  There is a person in our family who has an affinity for unicorns, or so I hear.  In truth, it is a narwal tusk.  What is a narwal, you say?  It's a big whale-type fish.

Below is one of the beautiful Vienna buildings.

Here is an outside store window -- note the brass and wood (real wood - not plastic).

We stopped for a $10 hot chocolate (me - delicious!) and a $10 warm apple strudel with hazel nut ice cream on it (Stuart) when our feet were truly killing us at this famous bakery.  Check how long it has been in operation. 

Oh, by the way, Stuart was so in love with the apple strudel-sort of pastry that he had 5 of them in one day.  There were unbelievably delicious.  It would almost be worth spending money for another airline ticket to Vienna to eat a few more -- followed by a strict bread and water diet for at least a week after arriving home.

Stuart was pretty taken with a gold Cinderella . . .

while I had my moment with this pewter guy.

We went to a concert at the Kursalom Palace where Johann Strauss originally conducted his orchestras.  They packed the people in for a crowd-pleasing concert of excellent music -- Strauss waltzes, familiar Mozart pieces, accompanied by two excellent ballet dancers (man and woman), a fine soprano and terrific tenor.  It was very good, if a little over-commercialized in my view.

All in all, we fell in love with Vienna.

Karlskirche, Vienna

One of the most beautiful churches I've ever seen is Karlskirche, St. Charle's Church, in Vienna.  Here is a view from the outside.

An example of baroque architecture, it was begun in 1716 and finished in 1737.  Look closely at the two cupolas at the very top of the Church.  You'll see why in a minute.  Below you can see a close-up of the two pillars with circular carvings of biblical events.

Because they are in the process of cleaning the interior frescoes, they had installed an elevator which took us up 95 feet into the dome area.  The view below is from the ground looking up.  Being in Austria, we had perfect confidence in the construction of the elevator. . .

We then had the opportunity to climb another 60-70 feet to the very top of the dome on the stairway below.  If it weren't Austria, we may not have made the climb.  The stairs shook as everyone climbed.  It was a little frightening.

You may be able to get the idea that the stairs went to the very top of the two smaller domes on top of the large one.  (See first picture to see that we ended up at the very top of this church -- on shaky stairs.)  We saw the frescoes very upclose! 

The fresco below is right at the very tip top of the tiny little dome.  I have always heard that the artists who painted frescos on ceilings altered the perspective so that although the human forms may have looked peculiar up close, from down below, taking into account the curvature of the domes, they appeared correct.  You'll note that the head and arms of this cherubim are to big in proportion to the legs.  It'll take another visit when the scaffolding is no longer there to check out this theory -- but since this little guy is 160 ft. above the floor, we may not even be able to see him from below!

You'll note that the perspective of this Mary is not accurate either.  Next visit I'll check out these figures from the floor.

From the floor we looked to the front of the Church to see a most beautiful altar.  There is a window behind the gold rays that allow the sun to shine through and illuminate the golden rays.  It was spectacular.

The fellow in the striped shirt bottom right (a relative by marriage) gives an idea of the size of the interior of the church.

The benches are carved.

The organ is spectacular, of course.  Sorry for the blurry picture.

On the cupola at the very top, the artists had splashed three or four colors on the trim around the paintings.  I thought it was an interesting effect.  But when we walked around on the bottom floor, I realized they were imitating the real marble used in much of the church.  Look at all those beautiful, different colors!  I have never seen marble like this before -- it is real, not fake.

 

Even the confessional was gorgeous!

Beautiful place.  More blogs to come.

Vienna, The Beautiful

There's a very peculiar advantage to living in a Second World Country -- when you visit a 1+ World Country, it blows your mind!

Our first sightseeing experience in Vienna was St. Stephans' Cathedral, Austria's most eminent Gothic edifice. The first part of it was finished in the 1100s and it has been added to every since. It is spectacular.

Exterior pictures of this Gothic cathedral are below. Gothic architecture is incredibly complex and detailed and very beautiful, particularly in light of the fact that no one can afford to build like this anymore.

This is the interior left knave.

I love those arches which, it is said, are built to give one a feeling of reaching up to heaven. 
Below is a modern building just across the way from the Cathedral.

Schonbrunn Palace  

This beautiful palace is a former imperial summer residence of the Austrian royal families (not a year-round palace by any means!).  Queen Maria Theresa loved the place, and when she would come to stay she would bring her staff of 1400!  They originally fenced the area and stocked the grounds with pheasants, deer, boar and duck to give the royal family a hunting experience.  The land on which the palace stands was purchased in 1596, to give you an idea of its age.   In one of the modifications, the builders contemplated building a more beautiful palace than France's Versaille.  However, so they say, reason prevailed and they built this smaller palace of only 1441 rooms!  Below is an internet picture of the structure.

We couldn't take photos inside, but just know that everything is rococo, which means goldleaf and curley-cues everywhere!  (It does get a little much.)  In each huge room were gigantic beautiful ceramic stoves, often with guilded with gold, probably about 15 feet high.  The following picture is from the internet.

 

The picture below is of one of the extensive "side yards".

The "backyard" of the palace is unbelievable.  It stretches from here . . .

To here.  We are standing in about the middle.

Here is the fountain you can see in the middle ground in the photo above.

You'll, of course, recognize that this is King Neptune rising out of the deep.

On the beautiful grounds is the world's oldest continuous zoo, established 1752, which we didn't visit.  But we did go inside the Fern House below.

To enjoy the following . . .

This is looking up at all the fern patterns against the ceiling of the glass house.

Recognize that fella resting his feet??

And to close this portion of Vienna is a photo of a branch of the beautiful Blue Danube (which isn't blue, by the way).

Next blog:  More of Vienna . . .

Cabin Fever

You know there's been a two-day holiday and you've both been cooped up in a 3-room apartment for hours upon hours when one of the two of you (who shall remain nameless) says to the other, "We've got to work on our Sponge Etiquette." 

It is apparently written somewhere (the source has yet to be vetted) that if the other one of us (also nameless) leaves any of our 3 mini sponges in the water for anymore than 1.5 seconds, it is an affront to the cosmos which can only be repaired by a deep sense of regret, abject humility, and prostration before the offended sponges, asking for forgiveness which apparently is rarely, if ever, granted.

The Offended One --

His Distraught Relatives --

His Rightful Place - -

On the other hand, the next 4 or 5 days while we are in Vienna, Slovakia, and Veliko Tarnovo may allow the Sponge Trio to dry out, calm down, and grant a graceful pardon to the Offending One.

And it is possible that the Great and Mighty One of Sponge Etiquette may yet receive a promotion allowing international oversight, in which case he may soon be coming to -- your kitchen.

You Know You're Not in America When . . .

. . . you read the following news item:

Bulgaria, which runs one of Europe’s tightest fiscal polices, has ended April 2010 with a preliminary budget surplus of BGN 213 M, the finance ministry said on Tuesday.  “We expected that April will mark a turning point and will be indicative for the state of the economy and we were right,” Finance Minister Simeon Djankov commented.

In U.S. dollars, how much money will Bugaria have left over at the end of their fiscal year?  $114,000,000!

Kudos to Bulgaria!  I doubt the U.S. budget has even a single budgetted item in that amount!

Not Exactly Like Home

We went to an mid-scale restaurant the other day.  Nice little place.  It's called 33 Chairs, because they have -- 33 seats.  You might be interested in a few of the menu items:

Rabbit meatballs with Parmesan and Tomato Sauce

And then there's . . .

Pork Knuckles with Sauteed Potatoes

If that doesn't get you salivating, how about. . .

Veal Tongue with Green Onions in Butter

Or, for the Piece de Resistance, how about . . .

Lamb Entrails with Onions and Smoked Cheese.  

. . . Hmmm good.  . .

SPECIAL POLICE OPERATIONS

We're again feeling safer here in Bulgaria after learning that the following Operations were conducted last week . . .

"Operation The Money Lenders," targeting an organized crime group dealing with schemes to illegally acquire farm lands with fake documents and then apply for EU financing.  The detainees are unemployed, yet they own a number of luxury cars and boast a rather high living standard.  Good news:  3 of the 4 arrested were kept in jail.

"Operation The Terrorists", targeting a mafia group involved in the sale of Kalashnikov guns and other weapons.

"Operation The Registrars", an organized crime group concentrating on the illegal registration of cars with the Traffic Police (KAT) to avoid emissions taxes.

And finally, "Operation Sweeties", targeting a group allegedly involved in the illegal trade of spare parts for specialist tractors that work in the area of the Maritsa Iztok mines.

The police are making a real effort.  Let's hope that 1. their evidence is legit; 2. the judges follow through by keeping the bad guys in jail, and 3. the guy in charge of Operation Code Names stays on the job -- his work makes great blog entries (and probably doesn't hurt newspaper sales).

PLOVDIV HOTEL

You may enjoy pictures of our most recent hotel . . .

Below is a two-person circulating water tub (that spewed black chunks of something when the water was turned on). 

And even though the place was jumping with Don't just sit there!  Get up and DO something! color, it was clean, new, and we had a very restful time. 

Some things just shouldn't be forgotten.