The More Things Change…, Venice

This plaque appears on a wall of the Doge’s Palace in Venice. Though Google translate comes up with a decidedly odd translation of the Italian – or is it Latin? – inscription from several hundred years ago, it seems clear that the plaque marks the spot of an office dedicated to investigating and rooting out tax cheats. It is no doubt just coincidence if anything about the sign or the lovely bas-relief of the head of the man has a contemporary ring to it.

Schloss Schönbrunn, Vienna

Although the sun would break through a bit later, Schönbrunn Palace was set off by heavy, brooding clouds when I first arrived on a Sunday morning. As I walked from the nearby subway station to the Palace gate at 7:30 am, I saw virtually no one. Though he is a little hard to make out in the relatively low-res photo for web posting, there is a lone jogger just to the right of the staircase in the photo. In any case, my plan was to take an early morning walk around the Palace grounds and later buy a ticket to go into the Palace. The walk through the beautiful grounds was thoroughly enjoyable, and went just as planned. However, when I went to buy a ticket for the Palace, the earliest I could enter was after 1:30 pm. Typically, I had done zero research or advanced planning for my visit, and thus was not aware there is a limit to the number of visitors inside the facility at any given time, and one has to reserve a time when buying a ticket. I wanted to go inside, but with only three and a half days in Vienna, it just did not make sense to spend pretty much an entire day at the Schönbrunn, so I went in search of brunch and coffee instead.

Schloss Schönbrunn served as the principal summer residence of Austria’s Hapsburg rulers from around the year 1600 until early in the 20th century. Several kilometers from the Hofburg in the center of old Vienna, even today the Schönbrunn and its extensive landscaped grounds are removed from the bustle of contemporary Vienna. The imposing Baroque-style edifice that appears in this photograph was completed in the 1740s during the reign of Hapsburg empress Maria Theresa. Wikipedia informs us that the palace has 1,441 rooms. The Schönbrunn and the grounds are preserved, restored as needed, owned and managed by a limited-liability company, which is, in turn, wholly-owned by the Austrian state (Wikipedia). Although I did not get inside the palace itself, everything I saw outside was immaculate and in excellent condition. Very impressive.

The main gate to Schönbrunn Palace.

And yes, the Schönbrunn has more statues featuring scantily clad classical figures in what appears to be uncomfortable repose.

Belvedere Garden, Vienna

Belvedere Garden is based on the design of the French garden at Versailles. The Garden slopes down gently from the Upper to Lower Belvedere, which is the building with the red roof at the end of the promenade. The Garden has great water features featuring classical or mythical characters spouting fountains of water high into the air. The domed building on the right belongs to a Catholic church, which is not part of the Belvedere.

Vienna is full of statues of mythical, bare-breasted female figures. The statues are highly stylized and, I assume, not expected to be taken seriously as representations of women. What an arm! Looks like this girl could bench press a couple of hundred pounds without taking a deep breath. This statue and a partner out of the frame to the right sit in front of the main entrance to the Upper Belvedere pictured here.

A sign tells visitors this is one of several fountain statues called the Large Cascade. Apparently, when the Garden was built some 300 years ago, a complex system of pipes was installed to force water out of the mouths of the fountains, and keep it flowing downhill towards the Lower Belvedere. Today, I presume electric pumps are doing the heavy lifting.

The Upper Belvedere from the southern entrance to the Garden. I really could not have asked for a nicer day to visit this place.

The main entrance to the Lower Belvedere is shown here. Prince Eugene, the military leader who had the entire Belvedere complex built to serve as his residence in Vienna, used this building as his house; I wonder if he ever set foot in all of the rooms the place has during the years he lived here. I have no idea what he did with the Upper Belvedere. Maybe he had a big family. Today, both facilities serve as museums.

At play in front of the Lower Belvedere.

30 Jahngasse, Vienna

A Belle Époque arrangement frames the entrance to 30 Jahngasse in Vienna’s Margareten district. Vienna, an elegant but relaxed city of tremendous charm, steeped in history and visually lush with architectural monuments to its illustrious past everywhere one looks. Great coffee, tasty food, excellent beer; the pastries and cakes require no comment. I could not have chosen a better place to start my journey.

I am just home from three and a half wonderful weeks of travel through central Europe, with a brief diversion to the Adriatic Sea and Venice, which is in its own world, defying geographical categorization. The trip began in Vienna, where I landed at the end of September after a long flight from Saigon, via Doha in Qatar. I posted an image from my first dinner in Vienna on the evening I arrived and had planned to post more as I moved along my itinerary. But finally, I posted nothing, deciding I was better off focusing on the places I visited without giving any thought to social media posts. Be that as it may, I arrived back in Hoi An with lots of photos from the trip – lots – and I am going to share a few of them in the days to come, beginning with several from my first stop in Vienna. There will also, no doubt, be some commentary included with the pictures. Because I like to ramble.