My FIRST Photo In Vienna...
by coceng
This was my very FIRST photo in Vienna !
I'm showing you guys some friends that I met in Vienna who made my stay (or rather the start of my big trip to Europe) such a pleasant one !
This photo was taken in the morning that I arrived in Vienna; Axel, on the left fetched me from the airport (he woke up early for that !).
Then, I called up Joe, who was also my host in Vienna.
Joe is on the right of the photo.
We were having breakfast at this fancy restaurant in 'The 1st District' & planning about my excursions around Vienna on that FIRST day I arrived !
St. Michael's Church, Michaelerplatz
by yooperprof
Like Vienna itself, St. Michael's is a hodgepodge of different styles and different eras: medieval inside, with a late Baroque exterior. The facade of the chuch was completed as "recently" as 1782. It occupies a comfortable corner near the center of the Hofburg, and on hot summer days the church offers a cool refuge from the heat and thronged tourists passing by outside. You can't miss the dramatic figures adorning the church's pediment: St. Michael himself preparing to slay Lucifer. The creator of the sculptural figures was the Italian Lorenzo Mattielli - who was also responsible for the Hercules figures on the Hofburg immediately opposite the church.
The back streets
by iandsmith
The next thing was that I got inspired by the possibility of little winding back alleys. I was thinking Italy, this was Wien. It's different, I thought, get used to it. Still, for just a moment I imagined dirty cobblestones twisting their way past buildings that should have been demolished but, in Wien, everything is ordered, everything is correct. All I came across was some stairs and a couple of dead ends.
The inside story
by iandsmith
Though some people rail against using postcards I have to say that on some occasions they are a necessity. Since you can't use your camera in many galleries, how on earth could we show you what to expect?
Pacassi's alterations at the behest of Marie Therese led to The Great Gallery, 40 metres long and 10 metres wide.
The tall windows and crystal mirrors combined with the whilte and gold stucco decoration and the ceiling frescoes combine to form a total work of art, representing one of the finest rococo interiors in Europe. This magnificent room was used as the entertaining salon, adorned lavishly in rococo style and looking every part the sort of place where royalty might indulge in a waltz or two.
The frescoed ceiling, the decorative candelabra, the polished wooden floor. Just add a band, some couples and away you go.
Then again, you might want a simple meeting of the minds, such as occurred in this very room in 1961 between President Kennedy and Nikita Krushchev.
Cafe Culture
by Jmill42
Vienna more than any other city outside of Italy and Paris has a booming cafe culture. In the past, the cafes would host some of the more notable literary figures of the day, and still have an air of prestige about them, that the tiny cafes of Paris and Rome do not.
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Franz Joseph's tomb
Palais Ferstel, Vienna, AT
Kirche am Hof, Vienna, AT
View from my hotel room
