STILL Vienna

July 9: It was Sunday, so we knew it would be a fairly quiet day. After breakfast, the three of us headed to Augustinerkirche for Mass.

Why Mass, those of you who know me might ask? Very simple: Every Sunday, you can hear a full mass with orchestra and chorus. Yet another opportunity to hear some incredible music in a church where choral history has been made: Composer Franz Schubert conducted his Mass in F major there, and Anton Bruckner's Mass in F minor was written for this church and was first performed there.

I didn't have an opportunity to take photos when we were there, but here are some images borrowed from the Wikipedia page for this church:

The Rieger Organ (one of two in this church):

And one of the most evocative cenotaphs (for Archduchess Maria Christina) I had the opportunity to see anywhere:

After mass was over, Cindy and I parted ways with Edie. Despite the heat, or perhaps because of it, we decided that it seemed like too much work to make our way to the Vienna Woods , so we opted instead for Schönbrunn Palace--the Summer Palace of the Habsburg. You would think that a summer palace would be far out of town, but noooo...this was just a few stops away on the subway. Of course, when it was built it was probably much further away as the horses travel than today when mechanical horsepower brings everything closer.

We boarded the subway at a station near our hotel, where we had an excellent view of two of Vienna's finest examples of its contributions to the Art Nouveau/Modernity movement (a variation here called jugendstil), designed by Otto Wagner:

I find it amazing how these designs make such a large building look so delicate. What is also amazing is how lovingly these designs have been maintained through the century. These are young buildings in comparison to much of European architecture, but they have still survived two brutally destructive wars plus the corrosive pollution that humankind has imposed on the environment in general. So to see how fresh they look today is encouraging.

The subway came, we boarded, and were very soon disembarking at Schönbrunn Palace, where Mozart often played and hung out.

It was hot, HOT, HOT, and this poor fellow pretending to be Mozart must have been sweltering. Impressively, he was stil there two hours later--I was certain that he would be lying there in a little puddle of gold skin paint.

We were hungry, but finding a spot in the cafe out of the sun was a challenge. We finally spotted someone leaving a table behind a pillar that provided just enough shade.

After lunch, we purchased tickets that provided access to as much of the palace as we thought we could take in, dropped our backpacks at the bag check and went forward unburdened. There was too much to see, even with our limited tickets. But I'll post a few pics with a minimum of narration here.

I must have been lying flat on the floor to take this...

I wasn't lying down to get this ceiling video, however.

Looking the other direction, I loved this wood flooring, clearly meant for heavy pedestrian use:

And another wood floor treatment, not meant for such high foot traffic (so beautiful!):

Back outside the palace, the front entrance stairway was being used for a bridal photo session:

And in the gardens behind the palace, people were lurking in the shade as much as possible, and the ice cream cart was doing land-office business. Even the flowers looked a bit too hot

We spent long enough out in the gardens to capture these few images...

The above is called a gloriette, apparently. I thought structures like this were called follies, but am now thinking the two terms might be interchangeable. Maybe a gloriette is the bigger, better version of a folly.

The people on top of the palace didn't seem bothered by the heat:

But we were...

...so we headed to the shade...

...ventured out to take a few more photos...

...and then put the camera away because IT WAS JUST TOO DARNED HOT TO TAKE PICTURES!!

We left, took the subway back to the hotel , and collapsed for a bit. Cindy and Edie had a long FaceTime conversation with their friend Michael Pinkerton (in lieu of dinner because of this darned Covid), and then we had dinner at an Italian restaurant at the Naschmarkt before returning to the hotel. Another quiet, HOT evening.