The Little Things In Life: Project WWWT Day 41 & 42 of 72

27th ~ 28th June 2017

We took the morning train ride from Prague to Vienna and it all went uneventful. The ride is smooth and reached on time. I had the pleasure of meeting with Simeen and her husband whom are both from New Delhi, India. We shared plenty of stories and information through out the train journey which makes the long journey bearable. The train station in Vienna was one of the best that we have seen although St. Pacras International Station has been good too, especially the provision of luggage trolley which no other train station in my entire trip has. Vienna main train station is wonderful due to the passenger friendly design and also the vailability of a food court in the station (fancy that!). We had some Thai food as they have fried noodles for the kids. The food although cooked by Thai was quite bad. The first day was spent looking for accommodation as our intended accomodation was not what we have expected. If you have been following Project WWWT, you may have read about it in my separate posting under the title Project WWWT - Misadventure Journal, otherwise, you can read it up here under the heading of Austria - Vienna.

What is the symbolic location for anyone visiting Vienna? That would be the Belvedere Palace or Schloss Belvedere. Within the palace ground was the Belvedere Gallery where the famous Der Kuss or The Kiss painting by Gustav Klimt was housed. Apart from The Kiss, there are other paintings by the famous painter in a gallery dedicated wholly to his works which includes Judith I, Avenue in Schloss Kammer Park and Cottage Garden with Sunflowers amongst many others.

Before 2007, another famous painting by Gustav Klimt was housed in this gallery as well - The Woman in Gold. As history goes, The Woman in Gold was the painting of a Jewish banker's wife named Adele Bloch Bauer. The painting was stolen from the family's property when they were forced to vacate their house during the Nazi occupation. The heir of the Bloch Bauer - Maria Altmann escaped to the USA. In short, a series of long litigation took place (7 years) which eventually see to the return of The Woman in Gold to Maria Altmann, who sold it to businessman and art collector Ronald Lauder. The painting is now housed in the Neue Galerie. For more information, you may want to read it up from Wikipedia here or why not watch it instead from the movie The Woman In Gold acted by Ryan Reynolds and Helen Mirren. My wife and I find it a very good movie and good acting by Ryan Reynolds although we have to disclaim that we both love Ryan Reynolds.

The Belvedere Gallery is not all about Gustav Klimt although it is perhaps 90% about his paintings. There are other notable works by master artists as well such as Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Anton Romako, Egon Schiele and Ferdinand Georg Waldmuller.

The Belvedere Gallery has only 3 storeys so it is easy to cover this within a day with some time to spare. We spent half a day here plus some to see the Belvedere garden. It would be a lovely place to jog in the morning as well as for photography. I came here again in the next morning to get the photo of the Belvedere Gallery with its reflection upon the fountain (There are lesser winds in the morning which means that the water in the fountains are calm. This translate to perfect reflection on the water). It was not my day as my battery ran out... I have nothing much to show.