A Night at the Ballet

At the Vienna State Opera House

Hello to everyone! Melissa and I have been really busy these past three days. Right now we are in Bled, Slovenia and are leaving tomorrow for Munich. Since we have so much to write about we are doing separate posts because we want to tell you about the rest of our time in Vienna and also our time in Bled. Check out Vienna below

Crypt of Maria Theresa 

Yesterday, Melissa woke up early to go and see the royal crypt. I wasn't too interested in that so she went by herself. From what she has told me, she thought it was just okay. She said some were quite elaborate and some were plain. Her favorite tomb there was of Maria Theresa. She said it was the biggest tomb there and it was shared with her husband.

Belvedere Palace

A little while later I went and met up with her at the Upper Belvedere Palace which was turned into an art Museum mainly celebrating Austria's finest artists. The museum's most well known artist is Gustav Klimt, and featured famous works such as "the Kiss" and "Judith I". The museum also contains a famous portrait of Napoleon on horse back. Melissa was really excited about seeing this one because she showed her students the painting in her class. Overall, we both really enjoyed the museum.

After the museum we explored the city a little bit more. We saw the Hoftburg Palace (winter time home to the Hapsburgs), the Spanish Riding School, Maria Theresa Platz (which contains a huge statue on a pedestal of the monarch), city hall, and parliament. Unfortunately we only saw these from the outside because we did not have enough time to see them from the inside. Why? Because we had to go stand in line at the opera house to get tickets to the ballet! After about 1 1/2 of waiting in line we finally got standing room tickets. They then allowed us to go inside and mark our spots with an article of clothing (many people use scarfs). Afterwards we were allowed to leave because the show did not start until another hour.

Sacher Torte

While we waited for the ballet, we entertained ourselves by going to the famous Cafe Sacher, which is known for their chocolate torte cakes. Melissa was in heaven, but she said it was just a little too sweet for her. I got an apple strudel as well. Both were delicious.

After our desert we went back to the Opera House to watch the ballet. We both really enjoyed it and it was our first time seeing a ballet. The only thing that was kind of bad was that we had to stand for two hours. Melissa was getting antsy. I thought the ballet was very beautiful and the dancers moved very gracefully. As we said in our last post the ballet was to the story of Don Quixote, and if anyone knows the story then you know it is really long. Most of the book was cut out from the ballet. The only major scene from the book that was incorporated into the ballet was when Don Quixote fights the windmills.

Don Quixote...the ballet

After the ballet we went to find some dinner. We really wanted Wiener Schnitzel (named for Vienna, which is called Wien in German) but many of the restaurants were closed so we had to settle for some Italian.

So that is the end of Vienna. Look for our post on Lake Bled sometime in the next couple of days, we do so much during the day that it is hard for us to write and we are exhausted by night time.

-Orry and Melissa