To Belvedere and Beyond!

After doing some web surfing in the lobby last night, grabbing some late night food, and watching SuperBad on dvd, Romy and I finally crashed out for some much needed sleep. We slept in and felt so much more rested this morning. We ventured out to do some exploring before heading to the conference. We walked for, what seemed like forever. Did you know it's like 87 degrees here with a TON of humidity? And here I thought I was leaving the heat in Texas! The route we took is here. It seemed like we walked more than 2.67 miles, but the blister on my foot says otherwise :)

I'm the map navigator here, and overshot our turn by a few blocks, which took us first to Stadtpark, where we saw some beautiful gazebos, with columns covered in grapes and lots of flowers. We then walked uphill for what felt like forever to Belvedere
To quote the website: "The Belvedere’s two magnificent palaces, the Upper and Lower Belvedere, were built in the 18th century as the summer residence for the important general Prince Eugene of Savoy (1663-1736). He chose one of the most outstanding Baroque architects Johann Lukas von Hildebrandt (1668-1745). The palaces with their extensive gardens are considered to be one of the world’s finest Baroque landmarks. Momentous events have taken place in the Upper Belvedere’s Marble Hall and from here there is a spectacular view of Vienna."

In this palace, we got to see Klimt's famous painting "The Kiss" which was absolutely incredible. The photographs I have seen in books, etc don't come anywhere close to giving the painting justice. We saw a lot of other baroque, mannerist, surrealist, impressionist, and some rococo paintings/sculptures. I was so impressed with the work.

A funny scene we saw at Belvedere was a man painting the outside (they were doing some restoration work. Typically you wouldn't even notice someone like this, but when he stood up, apparently he dropped something. I realized at this point, he didn't have pants on, but instead he had a speedo. Did I mention he was bent over from the waist? Yeah of course I photographed him. It was too funny not too. Who paints AT WORK, AT a historical place, outside, in a speedo? This guy. I bet he gets all the ladies.

We then walked to Karlplatz and saw Karlskirche which was also beautiful. We took many photos, of course.

After all of this, we went to the conference and heard a few presentations. We took a pizza break, then went back to view the poster sessions. There was some interesting presentations/posters. Tomorrow should be a full day of presentations. I'm actually looking forward to it. (So are my feet desparately wanting some rest).

It is so beautiful here. It's interesting how you can communicate well with people, despite not knowing the langauge. People have been kind, though pretty much ignore us. Thankfully we are not sticking out too much. My Euro-wear is working out pretty nicely. :) The city has a nice mix of modern and old. It's pretty easy to navigate, the pubic transportation is great, and it doesn't seem too overly expensive. I could live here, but I would HAVE to learn German to survive....and I'm far from really wanting to learn German, so I think I'll just come back to visit! :)