Day 23: Belvedere, Naschmarkt, and Schönbrunn
While my roommates were up at 6:30 to go to the Naschmarkt, Vienna's biggest street market, I slept in. It was miserable weather to be out. In addition to the incessant rain, it was freezing, especially since I did not prepare the right clothes for such cold. My sneakers were soaked through from the previous day, so I was left in Birkenstocks. This was far from the ideal footwear. As for clothes, I layered two sweaters on top of each other, but the wind was still biting.
After breakfast and checking out of the hostel, my roommates returned and we headed to the second palace in two days: The Belvedere.
Built for Eugene of Savoy in the late 17th century, the Belvedere is composed of two palaces, the Upper and Lower, and now serves as a museum of Austrian art. Hurriedly rushing to get out of the freezing rain, we rushed first into the Upper Belvedere Palace, where the main art collection is displayed.
I absolutely loved this museum, even more than the Uffizi in Florence. Most of the paintings displayed there were entirely of Christian scenes, featuring Mary, Jesus, and Saints. The Upper Belvedere had much more variety, as many of the displays were more modern. We got a very good audio tour and split off to wander individually.
The main features of the first floor were the works of Gustav Klimt and Egon Schiele, which were fantastic. I spent almost a full hour in those rooms alone. We got to see Klimt's The Kiss, the most reproduced painting in history, which I think definitely lived up to its fame. The rest of the floor had some wonderful landscapes, including a couple by Vincent Van Gogh. I also found myself captivated by a statue of Cupid taking flight with Psyche in his arms. The story is perhaps my favourite Greek myth, and it really lends itself to breathtaking art.
The second floor had a lot of works by Adolf Loos, and also featured the impressionism and realism sections. These included a few paintings of Claude Monet and Edouard Manet, and featured all sorts of scenes from the countryside to the marketplace. The windows of the palace also offered a great view of the grounds and the city, which is what gave the building its name.
Two hours was definitely not enough time in there and I really wish I had more time to take all of it in, but we were running on a tight schedule. At the gift shop, I got myself a journal featuring Klimt's Fulfillment.
We took a quick tour around the Lower Belvedere and Orangery, crossing the beautiful gardens along the way. It was a 5-10 minute walk across the courtyard from one palace to another.
The Lower Belvedere had some nice rooms, but was underwhelming compared to the Upper.
After a look around, we headed to the bus stop and took it straight down to the Naschmarkt. After seeing the dried fruit, coconut, and scarves that Julie had purchased in the morning, I wanted to get some myself. Conveniently, we made it over just as the stalls were beginning to close. I got myself a Pashmina scarf, some nougat, and dried coconut --very satisfactory purchases. Most of the stalls there were selling wonderful varieties of dried fruit -- kiwi, pineapple, apple cinnamon, lemon, strawberry -- and they all tasted delicious. It wasn't the most amazing street market experience since the weather was still horrid, but I'm glad I was able to see a part of it, even when drenched in downpour.
After a quick rest and some food, we took off once more to palace number three: Schönbrunn, the Imperial Palace. The place was so big it took over 5 minutes to walk across half of it to the front gate.
A very nice audio guide was included in our ticket and we managed to do a full tour of the place in an hour. It was definitely worth the visit. After grabbing a final dessert in Vienna, we headed back to our group and bussed back to Brno.
Photos by Julie Zhang and Linh Nguyen.