Four Days of Quality Immersed in Culture of Quality
Going away at times is as difficult as staying within four walls at home. Getting older and finding it harder to get out of my daily routine and life patterns. The trip to Vienna was on the cards since last winter but it was not meant to be last year. It was abandoned and at a good price too but who cares about money, if you have it that is!! No, wrong impression you got or I gave you. It was a present from a good, kind-hearted, person; my son, who I always thank for his expensive gifts and surprises!
Getting up early in the morning is a struggle these days. Impossible but having to be at Heathrow at 9.00am forced me up. Dragged sort of, dizzy and swaying from lack of sleep, I made it to the airport with just a small bag, a few euros and hope to have a good time with my partner and this time, with our best two friends. First time together on a holiday after some twenty-five years. That was a new event for all of us but greatly welcome! It proved to be a new experience, a new welcome holiday, which hopefully we will do again soon heading for another city or holiday resort!
It’s been some time since I stepped on a plane to travel to central Europe and I was plaesantly surprised how quick it was and how smooth everything went. Landing in Vienna was perfect and arriving in the city as smooth as expected in a comfortable TAXI, which was arranged from London.
The San Susi hotel is one of those boutique sort of hotels of very high standards in the middle of the city and next to the Leopold Museum, which I am going to talk about in a little while. Reception great and greater the original art that decorates the small area of the reception. Never thought the pieces were for sale but indeed they were at only about 100,000 euros. Never paid attention to the buying side of the three small sculptures plus a couple of other items. Rooms luxurious but not anything spectacular for a Five Star Hotel. Clean, tidy and roomy with all the amenities and luxuries one expects from a hotel that has five stars.
Apologies for being so late in uploading the images of Vienna and art in the city. No worries though as they will appear today and tomorrow in my second and third entries in the Blog. Please be patient and I am coming back here soon!!
11th May 2015
When on a short trip anywhere, time is of the essence. Thus once we got to our rooms and freshened up we were quickly downstairs and on our way to the first planned visit. The Leopold Museum, which is just opposite the San Susi Hotel. Yes, it is just opposite and that was the beauty of staying in the centre of Vienna. Everything within walking distance literally.
We were all hungry to see the Schiele collection, the master of Vienna of the early 20th century and how he came to be one of the most recognised artists on the planet. What made him the artist he was, the artist he is today! Not just well known, not just respected but chased for his art at millions of pounds in any auction his art appears. It was indeed a search for something I knew but I also felt I knew nothing about!
The Leopold Museum is big and takes a blog with four five flours. Nothing prepares you for what is to follow in these museums. Tracey Emin exhibiting at the museum next to Schiele, whom I assume she followed and imitated in some way and especially in her superb drawings.
Room after room on the ground floor artists I have barely heard about but of some artistic merit. All of them of the first twenty years of the 20th century which is what the Museum is all about, I gathered. Schiele flourished at about 1910-1918, thus making his work even more interesting, exciting and monumental for these years as Vienna and Austria were at their best and most important part of their history at the beginning of the last century.
Cannot wait to go to the first floor where the Scieles are shown. A concert of art from landscapes to human nudes and emotional enigma. Impossible to move quickly from one painting to the other. Impossible to extricate myself from these miracles of human mind and creativity. Indeed one can spend days marvelling at the art of humans who had so much emotion and so much imagination in their art.
I will be back tomorrow with more on Schiele and then on Klimpt!!
