We started the day by going to the Albertina Museum and state rooms. Duke Albert had started the art collection that is housed there between 1770 and 1822. The collection now has over a million drawings, prints, photographs and a collection of paintings. The photographs and many drawings are brought out only for special exhibits. There's drawings by Michaelangelo and Rubens in the state rooms, a room of Durer prints, and a large modern collection of the various art movements of the last 130 years. These include paintings by Munch, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Chagall, Kadinsky, Klee etc. along with many Austrian artists from each school of art.
The state rooms you can visit were the residences of the Habsburg arch dukes and duchesses for 100 years. Each room has distictive wall coverings are different colors , intricate flooring designs, and exquisite furniture. The hall of muses contains statues of Apollo and 9 muses and could seat 130 people for dinner or over 200 for a party.
After visiting the museum, we decided to see what else was in the complex. In a large area in one of the plazas, we ran into soldiers with guns and tanks and other military gear on display. Tomorrow is National Day so most stores will be closed and there will be a military parade. There were loads of people watching the soldiers performing. We think it might have been a rehearsal for tomorrow. Soldiers were playing music that the rifle platoon was performing to. The guy playing the violin was especially good. The performers were miked and the music played through gigantic speakers.
We decided to have a small lunch and dessert at the Sacher Cafe. There was a line that probably took 20 minutes of waiting but there's probably always a line so we waited. I had spicy goulash soup and the sacher torte. Lola had the hot pot soup and apple strudel. The food was great. The servers looked exhausted. The restaurant makes about 360,000 tortes a year. Most people were there just for coffee and desserts. There are numerous concoctions of each, including lots of ice cream dishes.
In the afternoon, we washed some laundry and then I tried to dry it in under 3 hours. I set the drier part for about 40 minutes and then we went to see the Boys Choir. When we got back, the clothes were soaking wet so I set it for 90 minutes and we left to go to dinner. When we got back, everything was dry. So 2 hours seems to be the minimum drying time.
Today was the last Friday afternoon performance of the Vienna Boys Choir. They perform these concerts in a theater at their residence which is in a residential area of the city. I expected the boys to be around the same sizes but the ages are 10-14 so there were 4 foot tall boys next to young men over 6 foot tall. There are 4 choirs of 25 boys each. Only one of the choirs performed. Each choir has its own director and this one probably wins the prize for most flamboyant. The choir consisted of boys from several different countries. This year, 31 different nationalities are represented in the choirs. When the director did the welcome speech, one of the students translated it into English. His accent was American.
The choir performed a variety of music in several languages, including "Somewhere" from West Side Story and O Sole Mio. During the second half of the program, they sang with an orchestra. The program lasted around 90 minutes. It was very entertaining.
We had Indian food for dinner and then in an attempt to walk it off, we ran into a open ice cream and pastry shop so we bought strudel for breakfast tomorrow. Close to that was a chocolate shop that happened to be open late. According to the internet, most stores will be closed tomorrow so it's important we have provisions.
And here's a random statue.
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