I am sorry for going on a lengthy hiatus from the blog. Midterms and a busy Spring break happened so I will take the next few days to do a few posts on what has happened since Berlin, which seems so long ago now.
Anyway, the weather is absolutely stunning in Prague right now. I am always amazed by the difference that daylight savings makes, which was this past weekend for us and thank god I was not traveling that day. Some flights would definitely have been missed.
My trip after Berlin was to Vienna, Austria. What an absolutely gorgeous city with an amazing history. We did our tourist obligation and visited the Hofburg Palace and saw the entire Habsburg silverware collection. And oi, in case you are wondering, there is such a thing as too much silverware.
Vienna is an amazing museum town and we saw the amazing Flemish painter collection at the National Gallery. I was especially excited to see some famous works by Hans Holbein, court painter of Henry VIII. The painting in particular was his portrait of Jane Seymour, third wife of Henry. And also some amazing Rembrandt's hung on the wall.
After viewing that collection, we were sitting and eating a quick lunch in the park and an Austrian man overheard our English. He asked us a few questions about the grammar of a few lines of a play he was currently in dress rehearsal for. As we were leaving we said "oh we'd love to see but unfortunately we leave tomorrow," thinking that it would be left at that. But he invited us to one of the dress rehearsals and we certainly could not refuse. Lets just say the play was Richard III meets Columbine, half in German and English. And set to movement. It was an interesting experience to say the least, but totally worthwhile.
That night we saw Beethoven's Violin Concerto performed by the Austrian Philharmonic and it was simply wonderful. It was the epitome of professionalism and music. That's all I can really say because I have a pretty untrained ear at classical music. But I certainly appreciated the amazing quality.
We also say the Secession Museum, which house Gustav Klimt's famous Beethoven's Frieze. It was a shame that we could take no pictures but it did create a certain temple like quality in the building. A definite must-see, because Klimt's work is so interpretive and precise that you can't help but be in awe.
Well, that's it for now. But I will write again soon to talk of further adventures.
Best,
N
