VIENNA

It was time to leave Munich and head to Vienna by way of Salzburg. I thought the drive would be scenic, but it wasn't. We arrived before lunch and found the Mozart House quickly. One of our paintings is housed there. It really is a lovely little museum. Had a quick lunch and off we go to Vienna. 

Dec 03, 2012 Salzburg

As with Munich we stayed outside the city center for parking reasons, and also for this part of the trip one of our paintings was in Klosterneuburg. Found a really nice small B and B there that fit the bill. After we got settled we took off for the monastery. The inn owner told us it was open until 8PM and it was early evening. Walked a while, got lost and finally found our way. When we arrived we were told that the place was closed and we would only be able to see the painting the next day during a tour at 1:30PM. Boy did that put a crimp in our plans. We couldn't afford to stay out in the boonies until that time. We would lose too much museum time in Vienna if we did that, so we decided to go back and forth to accomplish our goal. Anyway, after that disappointment, we took the bus and train into Vienna. It was about a 30 minute ride. Easy connection from our hotel. Our first glimpse of Vienna was awesome. It is a beautiful city...very classic and classy. Like Munich there are Christmas Markets everywhere and wonderful shopping in the city center stores. We had gotten recommendations for places to eat in Vienna from our friend Jim here in Amsterdam, but we hadn't yet looked carefully at them. The first night we just wandered around and found a very tradtional place with beer, pork, dumplings, the whole works. Pictures available here below. It was hilarious to find out that the place we had chosen was one of Jim's recommendations. There must be hundreds of restaurants and cafes in Vienna and we picked one of the 4 he recommended, not knowing that. It was chilly in Vienna. No snow, but it definitely is winter. The next day we got up early to hit the major museum which housed 8 of our paintings. Remember we had to trek back to Klosterneuburg by 1:30 to see that one other painting. We had fairly good luck with our efforts and had help from 2 really wonderful museum employees. We have the paintings downloaded on my Kindle Fire, so we can show them to whoever will help us if we run into trouble. We occasionally run into trouble. Anyway, these two folks were exceptionally wonderful. They took us all over the museum when we couldn't find 2 of the paintings. It so happened that one of the paintings was not at the museum and the other wasn't being displayed. That happens all the time.  

Dec 04, 2012 Kunsthisorisches

 Back on the train and to the monastery. We were the only ones there for the tour. The lady was really very nice. We pretty much told her we were on a hunt for a specific painting, so we sort of rushed through the tour. She was a bit intrigued by our hobby and we gave her info on the book. 

Dec 04-12, 2012 Kosterneuburg 

Okay, that accomplished, it's back to Vienna and some food please. We headed for Demel's, which is one of those must do things tourists do while in Vienna. It is primarily a coffee and cake cafe, but also serves food. Most patrons go for the cake and coffee. We were starving; it was food for us and then cake and coffee. Well....Ray had the BEST goulash of all time. The meat was so tender and the flavor out of this world. He also had tiny dumplings with it. I had the goulash soup and it also was wonderful I added some of the dumplings to my soup. Now time for cake. That was a little disappointing here. Ray had a chocolate mousse thing and I had the black forest. They were just okay. I also had a cafe melange. Can't just have coffee in Vienna.  

Dec 04, 2012 Wien

Next day we thought we needed a break from art and headed out to one of the largest cemeteries in the world. 3.3 million people interred here. The appeal is the number of famous composers who are buried here. Vienna is probably noted most famously for their music. Brahms, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss, Mozart...all here. Luckily for us they are all together in one area. 

Dec 05, 2012 Wien 

Back into the city. Now, we have not ever met anyone else on the trail of the 1001 paintings until today. While we were in the room with The Lady in the Yellow Dress another couple came in and they too were looking and commenting on the painting. I whispered to Ray (I thought) I wonder if they are doing the 1001 too? The lady responded, "yes we are." And that my friends is how a new friendship began. Nancy and Royden are from Canada and have been traveling for 5 weeks. And guess where they are headed from here....yup, Amsterdam!!! Karma. Long story short when we got back we got together at their place and ours. We will keep in touch. They are also on the Vermeer Trail and we are taking this on as well.  

Dec 13, 2012 Royden & Nancy

Back to Vienna...After this feel good meeting it was time to move onto the next museum, the Albertina. Another really lovely old building. Only one painting, but by one of our favorites, Albert Durer. There was also a special exhibition at the Albertina on Maximillian and Ray read EVERY word. I napped in a dark quiet room. Time for food and we went to another famous place Cafe Sacher, home of the original Sachertorte. Again, most of the patrons were eating cake, but we had to have real food first. More goulash soup (I was doing a soup comparison, and Demel won) and a smoked salmon baguette. We followed that up with a sachertorte and cafe melange. Now that was a yummy cake!! Off we go to the Belvedere because we knew they were open late and they had some very important paintings for us to see. NOT. Only one of the Belvedere museums was open late and of course the one we wanted to go into was closing in 30 minutes. Big change of plans here. Had to see these paintings, so decided to get up early next morning, get to the museum when it first opened and head back out, get our car, buy wine at the monastery and move on to Nurnberg to see 2 paintings.  

Dec 06, 2012 Wien

Well, that is exactly what we did and it worked out well for the most part. Got into Nurnberg about 30 minutes before that museum closed. Ray dropped me off so I could get tickets and he went off to find a place to park. He didn't come for awhile and I thought he or I got lost. The lady at the museum desk was so nice. First of all she said the museum was free, so who needs tickets. Ray finally showed up and we got out the handy Kindle Fire and showed her the paintings. This museum is huge. It has all sorts of things, furniture, tombstones, room after room of musical instruments, etc. A really outstanding place. Anyway, we got directions as to where the paintings were. The first was easy to find, but the second not so much. Needed more assistance and the use of a service elevator to get to our destination. Still, everyone was so nice about it, even the old guy who let us into the elevator. We decided to have dinner in Nurnberg and that was delightful too. A great potato soup and wonderful pasta dish that they let us share with a smile. Final destination was Frankfurt. Hotel was great. A lively lobby with tons of young folks drinking and having a good time. Modern, large rooms, and with breakfast that was right up my alley...salami, cheese, bread. Took the train into the city center for the final museum visit. Had one last painting to see, but this museum also houses a Vermeer, so a bonus. Of course wouldn't you know that when we walked into the lobby of the museum we immediately saw the painting on our list of 1001, which meant we could have taken a look without paying the 20 euro and been on our way. Gosh darn that Vermeer. Oh well.  

Dec 07, 2012 Frankfurt

Back on the train to retrieve the car and buy cookies and candy for the trip home. Made pretty good time getting back to Amsterdam. The weather was iffy, but that did not deter some of the drivers. They go like bats outta hell in that third lane. No speed limit means no speed limit, I guess. All in all a great trip. Back home now planning the next one.