in and around vienna
Jan. 7th, 2026 08:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
twoelevenour walking tour of vienna was longer than the one in bratislava, about an hour long. it was also cleverly planned so that we'd end up back where we started, so we could find our ways back to the ship after being turned loose.
a consequence of that is that i sometimes took pictures of the same thing a couple of times. worse, the timestamps on my phone's camera, which picked up the time from the local phone network, disagreed with the timestamps on my real camera, which was off by a random amount from that. so, i've given up trying to put the pictures in any sensible order.
this is one of vienna's squares, warped by apple's distort-o-max technology:
a couple of random street scenes
we passed by the national library twice, and the second time, I took better pictures of the guy on the horse:
but until I worked up the photos, i hadn't read the what the national library's sign said:
oops! we would have looked at those had we realized what they were.
near the national library is this dramatic archway. anybody know what scene is depicted?
the vienna plague column. this view is from the left of wakipedia's main photo.
some nepobaby's claims to fame:
vienna has a lot of pleasing architecture. i'm especially partial to turrets and towers:
i'm not sure what this one is, but its motto is "time, your art/art, your freedom"
while we didn't go to the national library and its assorted museums, we did go to the museum of applied art. we like design museums, because they show the intersection of art and useful goods.
the first exhibit we saw was on orientalism at the 1873 vienna world's fair, showing the tendency of europeans to exoticize anything to the east of them, and its effects of them and actual asians.
so, for example, these pieces of porcelain:
are actually austrian, using famous japanese paintings for their imagery, and are made by a technique less expensive than the asians were using. the technique became popular in europe, and eventually was imported into japan.
some sketches of the arabian room from the world's fair and a replica of it:
and some examples of japanese screen patterns
and then on to the design part:
a cheap plastic chair
the artist was pointing out the tension between cheap, mass produced goods, which provide essentially everybody with necessities like furniture, and people's derision of "consumerism".
an inexpensive, lightweight mine detector:
and this very cool engraving showing how technology becomes part of the world around us:
after lunch, i went to schönbrun palace while dïe überblønde went off on a date with destiny involving a bicycle and a steep hill near vienna.
obligatory picture of the front of the palace:
the viennese government forbids pictures of the interior of the palace, lest it marginally reduce their tourist profits.¹ their only claim to the palace is that after WW1, the monarchy was kicked out and all their property seized. so, i tried to get a picture of the interior. silly camera tried to focus on my face rather than the fancy ceiling.
some pictures of the back of the palace and the gardens:
now with distort-o-max technology!
and partially straightened by hand (photoshop couldn't quite undo the damage):
1: i have a low opinion of antiquities departments that do this. many of their treasures are thousands of years old, and often have little connection to the current culture of the place. i view them as the common property of humanity, and cheerfully sneak pictures of them.
a consequence of that is that i sometimes took pictures of the same thing a couple of times. worse, the timestamps on my phone's camera, which picked up the time from the local phone network, disagreed with the timestamps on my real camera, which was off by a random amount from that. so, i've given up trying to put the pictures in any sensible order.
this is one of vienna's squares, warped by apple's distort-o-max technology:
a couple of random street scenes
we passed by the national library twice, and the second time, I took better pictures of the guy on the horse:
but until I worked up the photos, i hadn't read the what the national library's sign said:
austrian national library papyrus museum house of austrian history vienna ephesus musuem
oops! we would have looked at those had we realized what they were.
near the national library is this dramatic archway. anybody know what scene is depicted?
the vienna plague column. this view is from the left of wakipedia's main photo.
some nepobaby's claims to fame:
vienna has a lot of pleasing architecture. i'm especially partial to turrets and towers:
i'm not sure what this one is, but its motto is "time, your art/art, your freedom"
while we didn't go to the national library and its assorted museums, we did go to the museum of applied art. we like design museums, because they show the intersection of art and useful goods.
the first exhibit we saw was on orientalism at the 1873 vienna world's fair, showing the tendency of europeans to exoticize anything to the east of them, and its effects of them and actual asians.
so, for example, these pieces of porcelain:
are actually austrian, using famous japanese paintings for their imagery, and are made by a technique less expensive than the asians were using. the technique became popular in europe, and eventually was imported into japan.
some sketches of the arabian room from the world's fair and a replica of it:
and some examples of japanese screen patterns
and then on to the design part:
a cheap plastic chair
the artist was pointing out the tension between cheap, mass produced goods, which provide essentially everybody with necessities like furniture, and people's derision of "consumerism".
an inexpensive, lightweight mine detector:
and this very cool engraving showing how technology becomes part of the world around us:
after lunch, i went to schönbrun palace while dïe überblønde went off on a date with destiny involving a bicycle and a steep hill near vienna.
obligatory picture of the front of the palace:
the viennese government forbids pictures of the interior of the palace, lest it marginally reduce their tourist profits.¹ their only claim to the palace is that after WW1, the monarchy was kicked out and all their property seized. so, i tried to get a picture of the interior. silly camera tried to focus on my face rather than the fancy ceiling.
some pictures of the back of the palace and the gardens:
now with distort-o-max technology!
and partially straightened by hand (photoshop couldn't quite undo the damage):
1: i have a low opinion of antiquities departments that do this. many of their treasures are thousands of years old, and often have little connection to the current culture of the place. i view them as the common property of humanity, and cheerfully sneak pictures of them.