THREE DAYS IN VIENNA, AUSTRIA...

What do Mark Twain, Adolf Hitler, and Mozart have in common?  Vienna, Austria!  Vienna is an amazing city with some great history.  When I knew we were going to get to visit, I quickly found some reading material to give me a little background on it.  What I found out was around the turn of the century - 1900 - there were many influential people all there at the same time.  As I read about Gustav Klimt and his famous painting, "The Lady in Gold,"  I found out about the Jewish population in Vienna, their education and wealth, and how it was taken from them abruptly in the war.  I found out that Adolf Hitler went to Vienna to pursue art and was rejected and became the sad person that he turned out to be.  Mark Twain lived in Vienna after the death of his daughter.  He had writer's block and had the need to get away.  He was nicknamed "Vienna's famous guest." I learned about Emperor Franz Joseph, the workaholic, and his beautiful wife Sisi, who had a heart for the people.  Mozart lived there some of his life, about 100 years earlier.  This city's history is truly amazing!

What impressed me about the physical city was the amount of old, large, box-like buildings.  Today they sit alongside modern art and graffiti.  It's an interesting mix of old and new.  There are lots of interesting buildings and palaces and museums.  I knew that The Hubs and I like variety, and didn't want to spend all our time inside a museum.  So here's a glimpse of our three days:

 First glimpse - lots of graffiti on the walls of the canal.

The Hubs enjoyed window shopping all the watches!  Rolex is his favorite!

 Belvedere Palace and Art Museum

 One of many Klimt portraits we saw at Belvedere.

 Even though the gardens aren't in bloom, it's still lovely!

 Off the beaten path - walking the trail on Kahlenberg Mountain with St. Joseph's church behind us.

Stephansdom all lit up in the heart of Vienna!

 We went up in the bell tower of Stephansdom and got to see a close up of the amazing tile roof!

 Me at Schonbrunn Palace - the royal palace of Franz Joseph and Sisi.

Making fun of our friend's Wienerschnitzel at Landtmann's.  

 Museums Quartier lights for the Christmas Market.  It was killing me that all these decorations were going up for the Christmas Market but we would be leaving before they would actually open!

Church on Sunday

This was never on my radar as a place to go, but we loved it!  Loved learning more about Jewish history here, the Austro-Hungarian Empire, seeing some amazing things and getting more connected with the missionaries from our church!

Resources we found to learn about Vienna:  The Lady in Gold, by Anne Marie O'Connor, the movie, "Woman in Gold,"  Other older movies with ties to Vienna:  "The Third Man" and "Sissi."