Griffin and I explored some of the parks in the city on our own today while Curt was working. We went to the Burggarten, the former private garden of the emperor. Emperor Franz was an educated gardener and had input into the selection of some of the plants. The pond, which Griffin really enjoyed, was a later addition as the garden was adapted to look like an English Garden. The Mozart statue is the most popular statue in the park. I was only able to get a picture of the statue itself, but there is a nicely manicured area in front of the statue that has a treble clef made of red flowers. I’ll have to get a picture of that next time.

Mozart’s Monument

This is a view of the backside of the Hofburg Palace where it connects with the garden. This was the city palace for rulers of the Habsburg empire. Today there are some museums in the palace buildings and a portion of the palace serves as the residence of the President of Austria.

The Volksgarten (People’s Garden) was the first public park built in Vienna. It was built on the grounds of the Hofburg Palace  where the city fortifications were before they were destroyed by Napoleon in 1809. There is a replica of the Temple of Hephaestus in the middle of the garden that is called the Theseus Temple because it used to house the Theseus sculpture by Antonio Canova. The scultpure was moved to the Museum of Fine Arts in 1890. There are some of the biggest roses I have ever seen here! I could smell the roses from outside the gate and was blown away by their beauty. In the middle of the garden, there are fountains and several sections of roses. All along the walkways, there are numerous varieties of rose bushes planted that have little honorarium plaques. I did some research when I got back to the apartment and found that you can sponsor one of the bushes for 5 years for a fee of 350 Euro. Apparently there are 4,000 rose bushes in the park.

In addition to the majestic beauty of the roses, there are some monuments in the park. This one is for Franz Grillparzer, a great Austrian author who also happened to write the funeral remarks for Beethoven.

We found a small play area at the Volksgarten and have to admit that we had way too much fun on this little spinning seat. I was surprised by how fast it turns and that it actually made me a little sick to my stomach, which is rare. The ride that we were on at The Prater last night was a breeze to handle compared to this little toy!

We saw a lot of really pretty buildings on our journey today, but I was unable to get good pictures due to the lighting. I’ll make sure to post pictures of the Parliament building and the Museum Quartier when I get better shots of them. We wanted to see the Rathaus (City Hall) and Rathauspark, but a lot of it was closed off due to renovations and preparations for a film festival that will take place in July. We got to see some of the area and to appreciate a beautiful, big tree and a little playground.

Monument for Johann Strauss and Joseph Lanner

Rathaus (City Hall)

This water area at the park occupied Griffin (and me!) for a while.

The Burgtheater (National Theater) is a beautiful, imposing building. I snapped a photo of it from across the street, but couldn’t get far enough back to include the entire building.

Curt met up with us in the evening after an out of town trip and troubleshooting session with his students. We went to the Haus der Musik (House of Music) and enjoyed walking around the Stephansplatz area at night. There was a group that graced the crowd with an impromptu a cappella performance in front of the Stephansdom. After they completed their song, the audience asked for an encore. After they completed their Alma Mater, their chaperone announced that they are a high school group from Illinois. We saw another group of high school students from the United States at the House of Music when we were there. Vienna is definitely the city of music!

The Haus der Musik had many interactive exhibits to educate visitors about the properties of sound.

There were also exhibits dedicated to the great composers. Here Griffin is creating his own composition in the Mozart room.

Student group from Illinois

Stephansdom at night