Sept 6, 2019.. Day 6, Vienna

On this day we decided to walk to Karlsplatz from our Airbnb. Google maps said it was just 1.6 or 1.7 kms away. I made Millet Pongal for breakfast alongwith sweet potato vatha kozhambu. After breakfast, we went down to start our walk towards Karlsplatz. Just as we stepped out of the apartment, we saw stalls put up in front of Billa, the departmental store. We bought grapes and blue berries from the lady there, kept it in the apartment before going to the Karlsplatz.

It’s a fairly easy walk. We first reached the Charles Church, a very impressive structure. The St. Stephen’s church was visible as we walked down. On the way we also saw this other church called Paul or Paulaner Church. This was built between 1627 – 1651, really old.

Paulaner Church built between 1627 – 1651, on Wiedner HauptstraBe.

When we reached Karlsplatz “U” station, we went to the right and found a Technical institute and beyond that the Charles Church.

The bust of Siegfried Marcus in front of the Technical Institute

The massive Charles Church

One of the columns – there is amazing relief work done on the entire column.

The St. Charles Church is also the venue for several concerts.

As we walked around the circle in front of the church, we came across this beautiful street art on one of the walls. A beetle ?

Then we came upon the Vienna Museum with another stunning street art on its wall.

And as we came a full circle, we found one of the western classical greats – Brahms, carved in stone.

Vienna is the “Classical Music” city – Mozart, Beethoven, Strauss, Brahms and so many more lived and created their music here.

At the cross section of Karlsplatz we found these street signs on the road – very cute.

We crossed the road towards Naschmarkt. Found this golden orb on the opposite side … don’t know what this is.

We were bowled over by the Naschmarkt. Beautiful produce and a very cute market place. We ate the bun filled with ground black sesame and bought four more for us to eat later. They are the “find” of this trip. Then I found some Roiboos tea in the massive tea shop. Need to buy more before returning to India. We also bought some pita bread and hummus from a Turkish stall.

At the end of World War I the Naschmarkt received new stands and the uniform appearance of the shop front is still characteristic of it. Apparently in 1919 the original inner part of the market was given up, limiting it to today’s location along the Wienzeile.

The “find” of the trip – buns filled with sesame paste, apple, nuts paste etc. Really tasty !

Just at the end of the market as we turned into the parallel lane, I caught some more street art but shop keepers have stored things in front of those walls hiding the art.

We walked back to the Airbnb and on the way stopped at the Gourmet Spar. They had amazing stocking of vegetables and fruits besides other food stuff. We bought milk and some vegetables before returning to the room. I took a picture from just outside the Spar store and you can see St. Stephan’s church in the far end of the road.

For lunch I heated up the left over pongal and we polished off two of the buns filled with coconut and nuts. We took a short nap and in the evening went out to the Belvedere Palace. What a stunning palace it is and its free to walk around. We did just that and took several pics.

At the entrance of the Belvedere Palace – there is a large pond in front of the palace and you can see the reflection of the palace in the water.

This is at the back – massive gardens and another palace at the back. I think the palace at the back is the museum where Klimt’s works are displayed, including the famous “Kiss” painting.

We got down the steps and took a picture of the gardens – catch our shadows 🙂

The palace from the back !

The massive Belvedere Palace in the darkening twilight

There are fountains in the middle of the gardens – switched off at this time of the evening (8 pm)

The Belvedere Palace from the back and from the end of the gardens.

We walked back in time to see the Chandrayaan-2’s Pragyan lander landing. The live TV was on and it was great to see the PM sitting there and building up the morale of the team when they lost contact with the lander at the last few minutes. It was almost 11 pm when we went to sleep. We polished off the other two buns filled with apple and apricots and had Roiboos tea while watching the Pragyan landing.

Tomorrow we are off to Bratislava to celebrate our anniversary.