Vienna {part 3}

Friday was a busy day - it was rainy and we did quite a lot of walking!
First we went to the Kaisergruft, the Imperial Crypt.

Next we went to the Albertina Museum, where we saw a phenomenal Matisse exhibit and a Helnwein exhibit (he's a little dark, so don't look at his art unless you're prepared, but he is an amazing painter).

Then we went to the Schonbrunn palace.
Wood tiles, softer on the horse's hooves than ceramic tile.

Mirrors and candles.

  Original flooring.

Finally, we went to the Belvedere, mainly to see "The Kiss" by Gustav Klimt. The view from the upper floor windows was amazing.

"The Bride" by Klimt.

"The Kiss"

Awesome busts with fantastic expressions!

Saturday we went to St. Stephen's Cathedral.

After lunch we went to the Imperial Treasury. Noah liked the audio tour.

Benjamin's favorite part of the trip - riding the UBahn and memorizing the routes. He was the expert by the time we left on Saturday evening!

Vienna {part 2}

Thursday October 10 we headed to the Stift Klosterneuburg, a 12th century monastery which is still used today.

Our group.

There was a small playground outside, which the boys (and the big kids) loved.

Inside the church. I love this cross - the shovel at the bottom symbolizes Mary Magdalene (the first who saw Christ after His resurrection) thinking He was a gardener.

That afternoon we went to the Naturhistoriches Museum. First we saw the Venus Von Willendorf figure:

And then the kids were happy to see dinosaur bones, animals, and all sorts of other fun things.

A rock from the moon, collected in 1971.

That night we got to attend a Strauss and Mozart concert, which even the kids enjoyed!

Vienna {part 1}

Once each semester, Pepperdine sponsors an educational field trip for the students which we also get to attend. This did take some special permission for Benjamin to miss school, but thankfully it was easily granted (and we made Benjamin write a paragraph in German about what he saw). This semester the trip was to Vienna, Austria, where we visited many museums, took in a Strauss and Mozart concert and walked a lot!

We arrived on Tuesday October 8, had time to walk around some in the afternoon and then visited Mozart's house.

On Wednesday, we visited the Kunsthistoriches Museum. I loved this fountain outside:

Noah had a great time while we were waiting for our tickets:

This was my favorite painting - Jesus with the woman who had committed adultery and was being brought to him to be condemned, but he forgave her instead. I love this.

 

Then we ate lunch and walked to the Leopold Museum, which had several Klimt paintings.

The boys had fun playing with some seeds we found on the ground outside the museum:

Finally, we went to a small amusement park where we went on some rides and walked around.