Our first outing of the weekend was to the 21er Haus, a contemporary art museum (all photos on this left side, only the bad photo is mine-the rest off line). The sculpture garden was closed for snow, and the main floor was closed in between exhibits, so we began in the exhibit about Fritz Wotruba- an Austrian sculptor. He is most famous here for a church that he designed (5th picture down) that does not look anything like most Austrian churches so far. I found out that it is here in Vienna, and am definitely going to check it out in person. There was a quote of his in the exhibit that essentially asked: Why is it that urban architects/planners/engineers are designing in ways that mimic empire when we (Austria) are trying to build a democracy? I just butchered the quote, but in its original form it captured a feeling-thought (I am totally loving the German compound nouns) I have been having here in Vienna. Perhaps I will go back soon and take a pen and paper :-)
The 21er as a space is entirely appealing. Maya and I oooed and ahhhhed over the bathroom fixtures (Adrienne?). You can see some of it below, great light, and great use of light. Look at the back wall in the first photo. The framing of the translucent windows protrudes about 6 inches and has cut out circles from top to bottom. So, when walking down the hall of windows, there is a cool effect. Man, I am really stumbling over explanation in this one. Sorry guys, half of this blog is for my memory so, bear with it.
Further down in the photos is Gabe's favorite, the pink-domestic-Bodhisattva. You can't quite see it but he is holding various kitchen utensils in his many hands.
The cool thing about these was that they could not be seen
well at all straight on, but in the mirrored-wall opposite they
were pronounced.
Above, more Wotruba sculptures. It was the coldest day so far and those extra few degrees really made a difference. So, off to the cat cafe (Cafe Neko) for something much more gemütlich (love this, German for "cozy"). Everyone (okay, the kids and Jarrod) loved having some cats around to pet. Even I love the idea- something about sleeping/lazy cats that sets the right mood for a coffee house. Today (Sunday) was a bit of a flop. I bought tickets to an opera "preview" at the Staatsoper that turned out to be a a panel discussion on the opera with the director, conductor, etc. Our German just isn't good enough, so we left as soon as was remotely polite. It was fun, however, just to sit in the opera and look around the building. The first three photos on the right are at the opera. We will go back for the real deal eventually. Then, we went to cafe Mozart which is famous but so expensive and smacked of tourist rip-off. We had coffee and cakes. I will write another time about Viennese coffee. (Spoil alert: not what it is cracked up to be).
Sure enough, the success of the day involved sausage. We stopped at a Wurstel stand on the way to the tram and had three kinds of sausage with bread and mustards. Cheap, hot, yummy. Now, home to do our German homework!
Maya says it is very cold there today. I bet you are freezing! I hate to mention it but maybe it will make you feel warm picturing it in your mind,73 degrees in Wfalls today. Love you :)
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