Vienna, you fancy!

Our short stop in Austria was mainly focused on Vienna, the grandest city I have ever seen. When imagining Austria in the past, I had always conjured up images of majestic landscapes and alpine fields (perhaps my ideas were just slightly coloured by the Sound of Music) however the parts of Austria I saw were rather different. We spent only two days in the city, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Every street corner we turned, another grandiose building greeted our eyes. That didn't of course mean I liked everything, this cathedrals roof for example, while different and perhaps innovative, was also rather hideous. 

We also spotted this rather splendid fountain, although the fish faced man at the bottom was somewhat disturbing. 

Buildings like this surrounded us as we wandered the city, showcasing it's elegance and in my opinion, extravagance. 

On our way back that night through the metro,we passed by a strange wall of numbers, each panel counting at different paces, some very slowly ticking over as if it were counting years, others going so fast they must have been counting miliseconds. As to what they were counting down to, that remained a mystery. 

The next day having not learned our lesson in Prague, we went to see the fancy astronomical clock that at midday was meant to put on a show, each figure passing by and showing off, while different instruments were played by clockwork. However as midday ticked past and the crowds shifted impatiently, the figures didn't move. They did play music, which began as rather cute, but after about seven songs I wanted to throw rocks at the stupid clock. I can only guess that each song was meant to play to each individual figure going by, but as the figures were broken, it proved to be a letdown. 

Our next stop was to the Neidhart frescoes, dating to 1407 they were stunning preserved as over the past six hundred years they had spent half the time safely protected by a layer of plaster and not discovered again until 1979. Although there are only bits and pieces left now, they would have once covered the entire ballroom. These frescoes stood out to me mainly because of their unusual subject matter, containing references to erotic songs and vulgar pranks - an unusual subject matter for the time. I am used to sober and religious historical scenes, so to see these faded paintings depicting fighting peasants and pranks involving poo, was rather amusing. 

We stopped for dinner at an Italian restaurant which proved delicious. Our waitress and potentially owner happily burbled away in Italian and brought forth Bruschetta to die for, and then the often sought but difficult to find, fabled marinara pizza (the proper, non fishy kind of course) It was a great night. 

One of my lasting memories of Vienna was its grandeur, and it was here in the city, surrounded by marble buildings and domed roofs that the last of the fading light caught behind this graceful statue, and created a lasting snapshot of Vienna's splendour.