Jordan’s graduation at the Hofburg Palace

I met Richard at the Klimt Cafe and we walked to the palace.  Quite a spiffy place for a ceremony.

Of course there was a lovely champagne reception after the ceremony

Jordan not only gave the valedictorian address, but he also received another award.  At the reception, I met part of his ‘fan  club’. 

We got Jordan’s stuff together and left the palace

We stopped at a cafe adjoining a butterfly park to have a drink and so that I could give jordan the cards I had brought from home from quite a collection of friends   The envelope held the cards.  Before my flight for Vienna Marama, jane and I spent a couple hours in the Panera in Yorkville decorating the envelope for the cards.  We started out with only a couple markers, but the waitress soon brought us a box of crayons

We then went to a rooftop restaurant for a celebratory dinner

To finish out the day, we went back to the Hofburg Palace to a different spot for a concert by the Hofburg symphony 

The lighting was adequate

Austrian horses and hotdogs

This morning Jordan and I went to the Hofburg palace stables to watch the Lipizzaner horses exercise. To watch them exercise only costs $10. To watch a performance can cost over $200. Their arena is quite fancy and well cared for.  The exercise period is 2 hours long and consists of 4 periods. Each horse is only exercised for 30 minutes. Each group had 6-7 horses. The last group was the younger horses.  It was easy to see that they were still learning.  My photos stopped when the exercising began.  No photos allowed.  I was busted late in the exercise trying to take a short video.   We weren’t kicked out, just asked to put the phone away. Guessing it had to with flashes

We ate a street lunch in stephensplatz. I learned about hot dogs here.  A roll is pushed on the hot metal spear. After it is toasted inside, condiments are added and the. Your sausage of choice is stuffed down the hole.  A no mess method of eating a hot dog 

Walked a bit and checked out the public library.  You need to be registered to actually walk around inside 

Lots of carriages hauling tourists around

Every horse wears a poop collector.  Gotta keep the streets clean.

Tomorrow is Jordan’s graduation in the Hofburg Palace.  Curious.

Meeting the landlord and way contemporary art

My landlord invited me to meet her for coffee.  Travel without technology would be so different.  She gave me the address of her favorite coffee shop.  It took me one tram and two subways to get there. I kick myself that I didn’t get a picture of the landlord.  She is delightful.  She had just dropped her children off at school and was going to work, as an accountant, an hour late so we could have coffee together.

I walked from there to Stephensplatz as I hadn’t yet been there in this trip.  I went into St Stephens cathedral again becaus I hadn’t done it in this trip. It is a magnificent place.  The most interesting thing that happened there was watching workmen installing microphones hanging from the ceiling which is way high.  They moved their equipment carefully so as to not damage anything in the cathedral

Outside the cathedral there was a bit of a festival going on.

This is my delicious lunch.

And my lovely lunch mates.  Our friendship only lasted one sausage long

This is the honey lady.  She was really proud of her bees and what they could accomplish

And this is her honey schnapps. 

Of course there had to be a cheese man.  His truffle cheese was the best.  The blue wheel is lavender cheese.  Good, but not as good as the truffle

I wanted to buy a cheese board here.  The wood was olive from Italy.  Gorgeous patterning 

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the extremely contemporary Mumok art museum. Some of the work made me laugh.  Some I really liked and some I just didn’t get.

So this piece is called Portrait of my father sleeping.

This piece you have to look at close up

You don’t have to like it all.

Jordan came to my place for dinner.  We made dinner with limited resources.  

Two Days of Modern Art

I spent much of Tuesday at the Albertina Museum. The featured exhibit was American artist Keith Haring.  I loved most of his work and saw new quilts all over the place.  Also during that visit I met an Austrian woman and talked to her through her daughter. She said she felt a connection because of something I pointed to her out in a painting.  I love when that happens

Keith Haring died quite young from AIDS.

What I liked most about Haring’s work was what he got into his complicated pieces.  In The one below see how many figures you see in the picture

On other floors there was a plethora of other modern stuff

Renoir

Monet

Degas

Picasso 

Serbian Supper

After a day at the national art museum I met Jordan, Richard and Maya, Jordan’s Serbian friend from Bosnia.  She did all the ordering.  The dinner lasted three hours and there was lots of talk about cultural differences and similarities.  A very special evening. The dish that looks like a frosted pastry is a sausage filled with cheese fried and covered with a sauce which I couldn’t identify

The Serbian beer was really good

Jordan’s choice below

Best cabbage roll I’ve ever had

One plate had a kilo of a variety of meat. That’s over two pounds

Of course we shared a few desserts   A chocolate pudding like cake. Not sure what it was soaked in, not liqueur 

 Repeat filled with ice cream and a cherry sauce

Nutella crepes

Baklava