Trip: Part One, Vienna

(Above: Schloss Belvedere. Click on any image in this post to enlarge.)

I love Vienna.

For months I'd been planning a fabulous trip to Austria. There were many very good reasons to go: a workshop on using the embellisher under the incredibly gifted Sara Lechner, time with Swedish friends like Annica and Pian, and a weekend in Vienna before the fiber class.

(Above: Eager embroiderers snapping photos at the Hundretwasser Museum.)

The weather couldn't have been better. Flowers bloomed everywhere. Art, music, and architecture pulse through the city providing inspiration and photo-ops with every step. We went to the Hundretwasserhaus.....

(Above and below: The Hundretwasserhaus. This is the source of inspiration for my "In Box Series". I've always LOVED this place!)

....and also to the Hundretwasser museum. I'd never been inside the museum before....and it was a magically experience. Friedenreich Hundretwasser's unique vision for "green" living and individual creativity, his productivity, and especially his ability to express social concerns through a variety of artistic media has always inspired me.

We went to Schloss Belvedere to visit the Klimts....and the other art....and gardens (above). (Such beauty!)

(Above: Detail of the marble staircase at Schloss Belvedere.)

We went to the opera and saw Madame Butterfly at the Wienerstaatsoper. (So moving....and the interior is fantastic....another place I'd never visited and found totally inspirational! I'd also never seen this opera but rented both the DVD and CD from the library in preparation for the performance....which made the experience truly wonderful.)

(Above and below: Interior of the Wienerstaatsoper.)



(Above: The curtain at the Wienerstaatsoper....unusually graphic but quite artistic!)

We also went to the market and drooled over the exotic fruits....

....and gourmet deli items...

...and "rock candy"...

...and local wines! (No, I didn't buy a bottle even though my name was on it!)

Because it was Saturday, the flea market was also in full swing. Like any flea market, there were very expensive antiques and stalls of total junk, side-by-side. I bought some old keys and resisted the collection of marionette puppets.

(Above: Marionette puppets available at the Vienna flea market.)

The flea market is directly across the street from the two wonderful Art Nouveau buildings including the Majolikahaus...(the one on the left)...

...and down the street from the Secession Hall (below)....where we visited Klimt's Beethoven Frieze.

I love sight-seeing...but some of my time really was spent "working"....collecting epitaphs at Stephansdom....

...and images of angels....

...and checking out how Hundretwasser recycled old gravestones as courtyard mosaic tiles!