Wien Bleibt Wien

We started our second day in Vienna with a visit to the Wiener Stadtpark, where we saw the statues of some of Vienna’s greats: Johann Strauss, Franz Schubert, Franz Lehár, and a group of penguins (I am not sure of the history behind this monument). We continued to Karlskirche, after which we ditched my sisters at a café and visited the Secession Building. To our disappointment, the only Klimt there was one single permanent installation and the remaining art was mostly contemporary.

In the evening, we made an excursion to Saint Stephen’s Cathedral. I could not help recalling a paper I had written back at Yale about Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, who visited Vienna in 1873 for the World’s Fair and wrote in his diary about being shown the Stephansdom by Emperor Franz Joseph. Unlike the Shah, we had the chance to ascend one of the Cathedral’s towers and take in a birds-eye of Vienna under a winter sunset. We will have to wait for another visit to be given a personal tour by the Austrian emperor, though. 

 Saint George Church
 Franz Schubert Monument
 Hans Makart Monument
 Penguin statue
 Johann Strauss II
 Johann Strauss II
 Franz Lehár
 A fancy facade
 Karlskirche
 Karlskirche with a Christmas petting zoo in the front
 Detail of the Secession Building
 Saint Stephen's Cathedral
 Saint Stephen's Cathedral at sunset
 The view from Saint Stephen's Cathedral at sunset
 Saint Peter's Church as seen from Saint Stephen's Cathedral
 Another view of the roof of Saint Stephen's Cathedral
  Another view of the roof of Saint Stephen's Cathedral
 The nave of Saint Stephen's Cathedral
 Stephansplatz
 Another view of Saint Stephen's Cathedral
 Karlskirche
 Christmas market in front of the Karlskirche
A Viennese street

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