This is the steeple for St Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna. It is a landmark and the largest cathedral in the city. Like most of the city is was damaged by Allied (largely American) bombing during the World War II.
It, like many city buildings that were damaged, was reconstructed and is quite stunning. And Big. This is toward the chancel area. Nice stained glass and paintings of St Stephen.
And looking back towards the back. Yes, large as previously noted. Notice the organ pipes surrounding the window in the back. Also large.
Our hotel is just a few blocks away from St Stephens which puts us in the old part of the city and near the things we wanted to see.
The first morning here we went to see the practice sessions for the Spanische Hofreitschule (Spanish Riding School for our non - German reading public) - where the "famous" Lipizzaner stallions perform.
Starting at 9:00AM, each 30 minutes five or six horses are exercised/trained, then five or six more are brought in, progressively bringing in the better trained and older horses.
We went at 11:15 and saw the last half of one group and then all of the oldest and best trained horses being exercised/trained. I think the riders were also being exercised and trained. There was a coach, head trainer like guy standing in the middle quietly giving instructions to individuals and occasionally going over and meeting with horse and rider.
The horses are stunningly beautiful and more colorful than I had originally thought.
Coach guy for the moment addressing and looking at horses at the far end of the arena. We started in the upper deck and then as opportunity presented moved to a better viewing position for the rest of our time there.
I can also see why visiting dignitaries would think the White House was not such a big deal. But then we don't have Kings or Emperors, or at least not yet.
That is Frederick the First, he was, as were several of the Hapsburgs, quite accomplished as generals and military leaders of a disparate set of nationalities in the Austrian-Hungarian Empire. The kings saw themselves as defenders of the faith against Islam (and did fight the Ottoman Empire several times - Vienna was besieged more than once by the Turks).
The Hapsburgs also were allies with or fought against almost every other power in Europe. Their sons and daughters married other royal families as a matter of political expediency most of the time, but there were notable exceptions.
We are thinking of a new chandler and perhaps front entrance.
And adding to our art collection. The Hapsburgs liked art. We like art. I especially like the big battle scenes or "car chase art" as Linda called them when I pointed them out to her in Rome.
And this is the Picasso dove that became the Peace symbol on stamps and posters and became extremely popular during and after the first World Congress for Peace held in 1949. The Hapsburg's collected some art.
And guess who went to Le Nozze di Figaro (Italian for The Marriage of Figaro). And at the National Opera House too. We both went to a concert introducing Viennese composers/music the previous evening. The music was by composers such as Mozart, Strauss, Hayden and Vivaldi and included some opera singing and ballet dancing. I was excited about seeing and hearing some more Viennese music.
The Opera house is, well, a bit like the Graham theater. The lobby is nice. The stairway to the upper level is a bit more than Grahams's but other than that….
They had no popcorn.
My seat, not the front row, Patt did not come, not as enthused and it did make for a very late evening. There were a lot of barrel chested guys singing what seemed like the same song and a lot of long haired women singing similar songs, a few of which were very pretty, some not so much. It did not end with a fat lady singing. There were no fat ladies, they seemed to be pretty, at least from my view, which was quite distant. It was actually more like North Hills Theater than Graham now that I think about ti.
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