Oh, Vienna

by Dan · Published June 16, 2025 · Updated June 16, 2025

Wednesday, June 11, was our busiest day yet:

morning – tour of Vienna
afternoon – tour of Schönbrunn Palace
evening – concert

The day started with a nice sunrise.

On our way into the city, we saw the Incinerator. Such devices have gradually eliminated landfills in northern Europe. This particular one is also an art project. It eliminates about a third of the waste in Vienna and provides energy for roughly 60,000 homes alongside cooling to nearby hospitals and universities. As you can see, Austrian artist-architect Freidensreich Hundertwasser also draws attention to the need to save the planet from climate change.

Vienna is so massive. Massive history, dating back to Roman times. Massive buildings, like the Vienna chamber of commerce you see below.

An apartment building.

The opera house.

The National Library.

The Hofburg Palace.

Another view of the Palace.

And a close-up of the central portico.

Shelley’s Ozymandias kept echoing through my mind as I was walking around. You know, the poem where this guy is walking around a desert and he finds a plaque that reads:

“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Anyway, enough of massive buildings for now. Let’s look at other sights for awhile. How about a park? Volksgarten People’s Park.

Or a horse? A statue of a horse and rider, Archduke Karl Ludwig.

Or a real horse? From the Spanish Riding School.

Or horses?

Or horses and riders…

From Wkipedia: The Spanish Riding School (German: Spanische Hofreitschule) is an Austrian institution based in Vienna, dedicated to the preservation of classical dressage and the training of Lipizzaner horses, whose performances in the Hofburg are also a tourist attraction.

Now some statues. Hercules attacking some dude (Antaeus). As much as it looks like Hercules is winning right now, he’s actually losing, because Antaeus is invincible as long as he stays in touch with his mother Gaia, the earth. Hercules actually defeats Antaeus by holding him in the air. (Just showing off my 4 years of high school Latin. It’s gotta be good for something.)

Die Macht zur See. Power at sea.

From the German wikipedia (translated): The Austrian naval power is represented by the 4-meter-tall, graceful female figure “Austria,” as Queen of the Sea with a crown on her head, while the god of the sea, Neptune, calmly looks down on the turmoil with a trident in his hand. A mighty Triton and a sea monster emerge from the surf to charge the ship.

Plague column, honoring the victims of the Black Plague.

Not exactly statues…

St Stephen’s Cathedral…

Public art in Vienna…

Ferris wheel built in 1897.

In the afternoon, we went to Schönbrunn Palace, the former summer residence of the Hapsburgs.

Fountain near the palace.

Maria Theresa, the greatest empress of the Austrian empire. She had 16 children, the most famous of whom was the ill-fated Marie Antoinette.

Marie Theresa’s son Joseph succeeded her. Here is a painting commemorating the arrival of his wife, Isabella of Parma.

A detail from the Millions room in the palace. The Millions room has sixty collages of Indo-Persian miniatures.

One of the many secret doors in the palace.

Us outside the palace.

The palace gardens.

The spires of Canisiuskirche, the church of St. Canisius.

For the evening, we had a classical music recital scheduled. I was expecting a crowded concert hall with stuffy clasical music. I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the venue:

This was my favorite performer. His face was very expressive. When not playing he just sat around looking bored, but always started playing at just the right note.

These two dancers were extremely athletic and very funny. For their first number, she played a wind up doll who wound down frequently, and her partner wound her up each time. At the end of the piece, he wound her up and she “accidentally” malfunctioned and slapped him.