Vienna. All about art and music.
Vienna for me, is all about art and music. Amongst other things we did, the highlight was visiting a few museums this time just to catch a glimpse of Gustav Klimt’s masterpieces, an Austrian artist and also one of my ALL- time favourites. One of the oldest of such museums is Belvedere. Built as a baroque palace in the 18th century, it was once a summer residence to the prince. However, it is now the Austrian gallery museum with the biggest collection of Gustav Klimt’s works. Don’t forget to esp notice the best one of his works and also a crowd puller here – The Kiss.
Klimt’s masterpiece and my fav- The Kiss
One word that’d define Klimt’s paintings would definitely be SEXY. ‘The Kiss’ painted by Klimt in 1907 is his most well known work and known to be of a period when Klimt was beginning to use a lot of gold, at times even gold leaf. The Kiss shows two lovers locked in an embrace. The ornamentation is done in gold and creates a beautiful aura around them. His distinctive style is also one of painting women of high society exuding luxury, richness and material wealth. There are portraits of real women drawn with big hair and decorated dresses and rich elements surrounding them.
Another one of his exotics is ‘Life and Death’ which is kept in the Leopold museum. It shows living beings curled up on one another not threatened by death which stands at a distance.
Watching an old couple walk past us, holding hands.. so sweet… I wondered how many times they must’ve walked the same street.. or if they’re tourists like us…
And whilst we speak about art, let’s not forget the overstated vibe of ‘love’ we love :).. Couldn’t resist clicking this pic on the left of an old couple walking past us, holding hands.. Somehow the man reminded me of Shinohara Ushio, from the movie “Cutie and the boxer”..
One evening we decided to unwind the old fashioned, classic way by immersing ourselves into the symphony of Beethoven… the ol’ sweet Beethoven. The stage transformed into dim red and blue and orange every few minutes and yes although I wouldn’t deny the fact that under the influence of the soothing opera, I kept drifting in and out of snoozes, overall it was pretty good. We did follow indeed the entire plot inspite of it being in Austrian, owing to the brilliant performances of actors on stage, which was welcomed with an uproar of applause at the end.
An evening at the Beethoven Fidelio Opera
A lazy day by the Vienna bay. Strandbar Herrmann.
For more Vienna pictures, here’s a link to my instagram page: http://instagram.com/manavisinghal
Bohemian by nature- Prague
I always try to find something different in the design and atmosphere of the hotel/ city I’m visiting to have a different experience than at home.. What I’d describe as the arrival art to our hotel was pretty sweet this time. The sense of familiarity was amazing. The walls of the hotel were decorated with puppets of Prague and old LPs in our room. There was a level of comfort in each element. A soft pillow, a large bathroom, coffee mugs. And to top it up, we were totally taken by surprise on finding a cake and champagne organised by our friends as our anniversary- special. -)
Strolling our own tunes away, the mad bunch of the four of us visited quite a few of the happy- spots. Prague is full of cobbled streets and small cosy squares and it’s very famous for film- making too. We managed to pass through quite a few of the little alleys where the Bond must’ve chased the bad guy in the 70’s :p In fact a famous romantic- bollywood musical, starring Ranbir Kapoor was also shot in the wonderful locations of Prague.
The May- scorcher brought the entire Prague to pubs to ‘freshen’ up, as beer- drinking is a way of life in Czech Republic. Has to be. At THOSE prices. (!!) Some good local breweries I’d recommend are U medvídků and Uflaku.
The Charles bridge in Prague is something you cannot miss out. Quite like the Howrah bridge in Calcutta and Tower Bridge in London, though this one is filled with a string of musicians and artists on either side. You can imagine then in this state of an immersing experience of beauty how it must be.
The sweetest highlight of my day however, was visiting the John Lennon (the famous Beatles artist) wall. It’s a long wall and in spite of the various scribbles and drawings of love and peace and nature, the handsome face of John Lennon can thankfully still be seen. The romantic picture it conjured, perfectly fit the image of Prague I had in my mind when I witnessed a wedding moment of a couple right below the Astronomical clock tower. We did think as well of visiting a beautiful high- ceiling church with baroque bells and popping the question to each other again…
The John Lennon Wall
A Prague Moment
For more Prague pictures, here’s a link to my instagram page: http://instagram.com/manavisinghal
Over, Above and Beyond 