Hello Everyone!
We had an early morning today (and by early I mean vacation early, aka 8 a.m.) and believe it or not it was really hard to find a cafe that was open to eat breakfast in! Nothing opened until 9:30 or 10 am. So we went back to Cafe Central and had another delicious breakfast. Today I tried a new drink called an einspanner, which is espresso and whipped cream, and it felt decadent to have first thing in the morning.
We then went to a Lipizzaner horse morning warm ups. Unfortunately no photos were allowed when the horses were in the arena, so you'll just have to settle for my smile. I learned so much about this school and these horses, and am so inspired that I think I'll go home and take dressage lessons. Here's a few of my favorite facts, the Spanish riding school is super exclusive and it takes 10 to 12 years to work your way up the ranks in apprenticeship to become a performer. The horses are only stallions and when they're first born they are actually grey. As they get older they get more and more white, and some of them even have a silvery sheen while they transition coat colors. The totally white horses are considered the best in terms of coat coloring...if only this were true about my own white hairs. Going forward I'm just going to consider myself a Lipizzaner horse and add value each time I get another grey hair lol. The morning routine was nice to watch but I wish their performances had started again for the season, apparently even the horses get a summer break too. Guess I'll just have to come back!
Mom and I then made our way to the Belvedere which are two Baroque Palaces the belonged to Prince Eugene of Savoy; he used them as his summer residence. Now it's an art museum that has lots of interesting artwork, including the famous Kiss by Gustav Klimt. Klimt isn't my favorite artist, but his work is quite striking in person. I never realized how much gold he actually used to make it sparkle. He laid gold on the base of the canvas and then gilded his at least work twice more!
It wasn't just the paintings that were stunning, the rooms themselves were so ornate! Prince Eugene definitely had a complex though because he often compared himself to various Greek gods in his paintings or statues. He also often presented himself as a great military leader, even though he actually wasn't one in real life.
Making our way from the Upper Belvedere to the Lower Belvedere, we walked through a mile of gardens! The entire pathway was lined with sphinxes as well. There were five fountains and even a man-made waterfall. All in all, the main gardens were quite pleasant to stroll through.
The Lower Belvedere had a few uncommon rooms, like the two below. One was entirely golden and had the most interesting paintings on the walls, like the the continent of Africa being represented as a woman riding a crocodile in the right corner of the photo below. Another room was decorated entirely in red marble and plaster.
But my all time favorite part of the Belvedere was the privy gardens. The landscapers spent months planning and organizing to make the gardens look like Klimt's sunflower painting. I thought they did a phenomenal job and mom and I actually sat on a bench enjoying the breeze and flowers for a bit before we made our way back to the main part of town for dinner.
Today I had a hankering for tapas so we found an authentic Spanish restaurant. We had two of my favorite dishes, patatas bravas and ensalada mallorquina. I even chatted with my waitress from Andalucía about my time living in Spain. It was nice to walk down memory lane and I was thrilled with the meal. Vienna has managed to really impress me with their food. We have yet to have a bad meal here (well there was one fluke when we were stuck inside the Schonbrunn gardens but we'll count that as an outlier). Seriously these have been some of the best meals I ever had, it'll be hard to top it tomorrow.
Until tomorrow's adventure!
Lots of love,
Carolyn
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