It felt like heaven on earth. I can’t wait to do this again when we head over to Europe. 😉

Have a good weekend everyone!

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And so, to Paris we went! We stayed the night at the Radisson Blu Hotel at Charles de Gaulle Airport and woke up bright and early for shopping and sightseeing.

Chanel needs no introduction of course. I was determined to hold a tight rein on my purse strings and I am proud to announce that I escaped relatively unscathed with just 2 accessories! You can view them here.

Shopping aside, I couldn’t help but notice the stark contrast between Austria and France. The clean streets, beautiful scenery and good manners in Austria were replaced by dirty roads, dull buildings and individualism in Paris.

What Austria couldn’t provide in terms of shopping, Paris more than made up for it.

What Austria gave me, however, is something that Paris can never offer, much less substitute.

Back to the main purpose of this post. I absolutely adore going to museums, but I was rather disappointed with the collections showcased in the Museum of Fine Arts, a highly acclaimed museum that houses the art collections of the Habsburgs family.

The only noteworthy paintings here were the Raphael’s “Madonna in the Meadow” (top left pic of collage) and the Infanta paintings by Velazquez, namely “Las Meninas”. This painting and other paintings of Infanta Margarita (not the alcoholic drink haha!) were later reinterpreted by Picasso.

Fortunately, the Albertina museum was Vienna’s saving grace, to me at least. There were two interesting roving exhibitions going on at that time, namely “Michelangelo. The drawings of a genius” which featured early drawings of Michelangelo and “Picasso: Peace & Freedom” which showcased the artist’s politically charged paintings.

I have never seen Picasso’s actual works up close and personal, so this was an eye-opening experience for me. On display here was Picasso’s famous painting, Guernica, which was commonly thought to be a symbol of the artist’s protest against fascism. Contrary to popular belief, no one really knows its true symbolism and meaning.

I guess part of Picasso’s appeal lies in his enigmatic paintings which are always subject to interpretation. When asked to explain Guernica, Picasso replied “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them.”

I didn’t take a photo of Guernica, but I did capture a snapshot of Picasso’s second most important political painting, The Charnel House (top right pic in collage) is said to commemorate the Republicans of Spain who were sacrificed during the second world war. The other two paintings in the collage were reinterpretations of Valazquez’s Infanta Margarita (bottom left) and Bologna’s Rape of the Sabine women (bottom right).

The Picasso exhibition left me feeling fulfilled and satisfied. I wanted to catch this exhibition at the Lourve in Jan 2009 but the queue was so incredibly long it was really quite impossible for me to wait in line. This exhibition will be on till Jan 2011, so if you’re heading to Vienna any time soon, be sure to catch it!

Another key attraction of the castle lies in its beautiful park and the backdrop of lush greenery and mountains. Autumn is a fabulous time to visit as the green foliage gradate into soft browns, reds and gold. It is the perfect time to immortalize that picture perfect moment by capturing it on film.

We stumbled upon an innocuous, hole in the wall restaurant that served the tastiest Tyrolean potatoes (Tirol Grostl) and bratwurst sausages with sauerkraut ever!

JW was especially excited to see two animals. The first was the bison, because it is a symbol of power.

The second was the moose, because having read numerous Archie comic books during his childhood, JW’s idea of what a moose represents has been deeply influenced by Big Moose, the dumb guy in the comic. JW thinks that the moose is a hilarious animal because to him, it is a symbol of stupidity.

This is what Big Moose looks like (this was the dumbest pic I could find on the internet):

And this is what Wikipedia has to say about him (yes, I do credit my sources when I actually use them…):

“It is often said that he (Big Moose) consistently scores straight F’s (which, at one point, he thought meant Fantastic)”

To the kind-hearted souls, you would probably think he has a positive outlook in life (I mean who would think that an F grade stands for Fantastic?!). To the rest of us, he is the epitome of himbo-ness. All brawns and no brains, but very amusing nonetheless.

Oh..plus it’s my birthday today so just cut me some slack ok? 😀

Interestingly, the Austrians were totally oblivious to the existence and popularity of The Sound of Music as it was never screened in the country till recently. Hardly anyone in Austria (besides the tour guides) is familiar with the movie!

If you were to ask me for my honest opinion about the tour, I would say that save for the nuggets of historical information dished out by my humorous tour guide and the absolutely jaw dropping scenery, the tour was rather mundane because most of the attractions were out of bounds to visitors.

Much to my dismay, the famous gazebo where Liesl sang “Sixteen going on Seventeen” was locked and the majestic mansion where the Trapp family apparently lived could only be viewed from across a lake. I was even more disappointed to find out that the interior of the mansion in the movie was actually not authentic. The tour guide told us that Hollywood modelled it after the real mansion in Austria.

That moment of realization crushed me. I felt like a kid who just found out that Santa Claus never existed.

Nevertheless, the scenery was worth every bit of my time. Without this tour, I wouldn’t have ventured into the outskirts and stumbled upon the beautiful Mondsee Lake. Here are some of my favourite photos:

Gorgeous isn’t it? 🙂

Balm for the soul.

I was excited about visiting the Old Town because Mozart’s birthplace, otherwise known as Mozart’s Geburtshaus, lies right in the heart of the town. The yellow visage makes it almost impossible to miss.

Mozart’s musical talent was first discovered by his father, Leopold, who started grooming him when he was only 3 years of age, and this humble abode at Getreidegasse 9 was where Mozart spent most of his childhood with his family. The numerous artifacts displayed here also reflect the way of life in the 18th century. However, I much prefer Mozarthaus in Vienna as the information provided here relates more to the Mozart family rather than the composer himself.

Nevertheless,there is a rather obscure but quaint and well-decorated cafe on the second floor of Mozart’s Geburtshaus that I really like.

The food in Austria is generally tasty yet very affordable as compared to most European countries. My main course usually sets me back by about S$15 or at most S$20. I can’t remember what main course I had here, but it was probably pork with pasta. Doesn’t sound or look appetizing I know, but I swear it was good! The thing about meat dishes in Austria is that like the Chinese, the meat is always well-marinated, albeit with herbs and spices.

The meal at the cafe marked the end of my tour at Mozart Geburtshaus.

The Mozart family later shifted to a larger residence situated at Marketplatz in Salzburg and that has since been converted into a museum as well. But alas, I’ll be saving that for my next visit to Austria. 😉