Guten Tag from Vienna!

6-10 August 2007

(ps: remember to double click to see the pics in full size)

Flying to Vienna (from Zurich)

One of the t-shirts we saw and wanted to share :-)


The River Danube: Vienna shares this river with Budapest
A sight of Vienna from the Tower

Another sight from the Tower

..and another

The impressive Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens (1) - See the notes below for more info.

Schonbrunn Palace Interior : A partial view of one of the rooms.
The ballroom
as above...

...where the imperials dined!


A view from the Palace Garden


Palace Garden and its biggest fountain




A view of the palace and its gardens from the fountain.

Resting while admiring the view. (You can tell... we couldn't stop taking pictures of the place!)

The Gloriette(2) of the palace.

Resting our tired feet and having a beer at the palace's backyard!

OK we hear you... This is the last photo from the palace.... :-)
The next night, we went to a concert by the Vienna Mozart Orchestra, in the "Golden Hall" of this building, called the "Music Verein".

Technical University of Vienna at night.. (was closeby to the Concert hall)

Vienna, a street view from the new town..

Notes on Vienna

(1)Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens: This magnificent former summer residence of the imperial family had been completed mid-18th century. The architecture has got a strict symmetry. The extensive formal gardens has got an array of fountains and statues, trees and alleyways. The gardens also contain a huge tropical Palm House with an interesting collection of exotic pants, a small zoo, a butterfly house, an orangery, and the Gloriette(2) – a large Neoclassical arcade crowns the hill behind the palace.

* Austria is synonymous with music. Did you know that Mozart, Haydn, Schubert, Mahler, and Strauss were all Austrians?.

See you in Part 2 of Vienna...

Gruezi from Zurich!

5 Aug 2007

Grossmünster: an old Romanesque church, symbol of reformed Zurich.

Background: the St. Peter Church

Lucerne (Part 2)

Guten Tag from the Town of Lucerne

Admiring the view from the Culture and Convention Center of Lucerne

Here is one of the city's famous landmarks: The Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke), a wooden bridge from the 14th Century. The bridge is a 204 m long wooden bridge originally built in 1333. Much of the bridge had to be replaced after a 1993 fire.

Inside the Chapel Bridge (Kapellbrücke): a series of paintings from the 17th century depicting Lucerne’s history.

The town is on the Reuss River

One of the many beatiful fountains in Lucerne

The old town Lucerne still has several fine half-timber structures with painted fronts.

Another one..

Another Bridge of Lucerne: The Spreuerbrucke or Mill Bridge constructed in 1408, is the oldest covered bridge in Europe. Features a series of medieval style 17th century plague painting by Kaspar Meglinger, titled Danse of Death. See below for one of the paintings...
The paintings portray various conditions of men and women, priests and warriors, princes, the young bride the lawmaker, the hunter, even the artist himself are all depicted at the mercy of Death, with his mocking smile.

Happy swans and ducks of Lucerne. ;-)

The Chapel Bridge runs by the octagonal Water Tower (wasserturm).

The twin needle towers of the Cathedral of St Leodegar: Originally built in 735, the present structure was erected in 1633 in the late Renaissance style.

Happily sampling some Cheese Fondue...

Notes on the Town of Lucerne

- Is a small but remarkably preserved old town with population of 57,533.
located on the shore of Lake Lucerne within sight of Mount Pilatus and Mount Rigi.

- The Culture and Convention Center of Lucerne is built beside the lake in the center of the city. We learnt that the center has one of the world's leading concert halls, with acoustics by Russell Johnson.