Austria Day 2: Tour and Sleepy Rehearsal

Day 2 – our first full day in Austria – began with a bus tour of the city. We learned about the ring structure of the city and visited the outer areas. We crossed the Danube a couple of times, and I was amused to see Vienna’s UN building, after having just visited the New York one.

We stopped at one point on the tour to get out and see this:

This is the Hundertwasserhaus. Hundertwasser wanted to make a building that you couldn’t tell existed if you looked down upon it. So, it’s covered with greenery, has uneven walls and floors, and even trees growing through some apartmens. It’s quite fascinating. Still apartments and private space inside though, so we can only glance at the exterior of this unique building. I love it.

We also stopped at the Belvedere Palace:

It’s currently a museum – it has a large collection of paintings by Klimt including “The Kiss.” We didn’t get a chance to go in as a group, but we could explore the grounds a little, including the garden and the view down to the Lower Belvedere. The garden was quite flat – apparently the Viennese were fond of this type of garden – from the Upper Belvedere it would appear as a large, colorful carpet, certainly not high enough to obstruct the view of the Lower Belvedere.

After our tour, we ate lunch at the Rathauskellar – the cellar of the town hall. I was excited about this, since Madison had it’s own version in the union – the Rathskellar. Good times. We had our first Wiener Schnitzel here, as well as the famous chocolate cake – the Sacher Torte. Delicious.

After lunch we had our first rehearsal for the Requiem. It was good to finally practice with men and the rest of the chorus, and to get to know the conductor. On the other hand, we’d had a busy morning, and most of us were still pretty jet-lagged. The conductor could tell, and let us go a little bit earlier than planned; the scheduled 3 hour rehearsal would’ve been a bit much. After the rehearsal, our tour guide showed us a little more of the city, including a stop to see the famous Lippizaner horses of the Spanish Riding School grazing and playing:

These colts will grow up to be white, and will be part of the famous dancing horse team.

Our days were packed in Austria. After such a busy day, we were treated to one of the festival concerts at the Musikverein, home of the Vienna Philharmonic.

There was a lot of music on the program, but the one group that really blew me away was the Atlanta Boy Choir. I can’t find my program at the moment, but there were some absolutely gorgeous pieces, and it was a beautiful setting, too.

Shortly thereafter, we all headed to bed to prepare for the next day.