Up at 3.30am, in Manchester by 5am, flew Easyjet at 7am to Vienna, transfer to
the Leonardo Hotel...
where
NOTHING CAN BE
UNLESS IT IS FI...
...didn't unpack, just headed straight to the Metrotube (a week's ticket was cheaper than a 3 day ticket) and made our way to the Parliament Building,
whose front entrance was built as an exact replica of the Acropolis in Athens. The statue of the Goddess of Wisdom holding Nike for Victory in one hand and a spear in the other, guards the entrance.
The Marble Hall has 24 columns but it didn't have a PLANK.
How good would THAT have looked on that shiny floor?
It had me doing this instead.
This is the Assembly Hall with marble statues.
Its Bohemian glass ceiling survived WW2, IT SURVIVED WW2! and is very impressive.
With 180 seats it is the most important room in Parliament although not necessarily the most beautiful. This is where laws are discussed, updated, changed or renewed.
Fittingly then, the doors' handles are snakes, signifying "renewal" like snakeskin.
It is very grand and there is more
here
If you stay at the front of the parliament the view of the visitor is dominated by a 5,5 m high statue of Pallas Athene which stands in the middle of a large fountain. The sculptor Carl Kundmann created the statue according to the plans from architect Hansen. He was not able to see the finished statue as Hansen was already dead when it was revealed in the year 1902.
The goddess of wisdom Pallas Athene holds in her right hand a small figure of Nike the goddess of victory and in her left hand a spear. She is surrounded by personification of the legislation (right side) and the execution (left side) of the laws. Directly at the fountain bowl, which consists of granite, the both main rivers of Austria, Donau and Inn, are represented by a female and male figure.
We'd booked the Opera for that evening and didn't have a lot of time to get lost so we spent half an hour getting our bearings for later, then it was back to the hotel for a quick change and straight back out again and OMG OMG OMG Andrew Meakin got on our train!!!! What are the CHANCES?!!! SAME carriage. SAME hand post. One of my spinners ON OUR TRAIN! I still haven't got over that. He could have got on the train two minutes later or in the carriage next door and we wouldn't have met.
The Opera was fab and all the better for my new woolly black tights from Caledonia.
(Honestly that woman was on every available billboard in Vienna.)
It was a dinky theatre.
La Traviata Remixed was VERY modern. I had googled the story and oh how remixed it was. So remixed and so modern there were Selfies and Twitter and Facebook and pouting and hashtags and she most certainly wasn't a KEPT woman AT ALL, Violetta was a little minx, she was a drunk, and she took far too long to die-how did she actually sing so powerfully lying down?
The death lasted ages but the applause lasted longer- it was FABULOUS!!
What a treat. An Opera in Vienna. WONDERFUL.
It could have been the most perfect end to a totally brilliant day with an eggy pizza slice but it was garlicked to high heaven. Oh dear. But hey.
Great day.
