Vienna: Hundertwasserhaus

We got the young family to the airport after Schoenbrunn, where they embarked on their return to the US and the Bay area. Their travels were not without incident and mishap, but that's their story, and within a couple days they and their luggage were all back home. Vicki and I spent the rest of the day reorganizing, cleaning, and so on, and already missing Penelope; although the RV now seemed so much larger....

Next day we had planned on spending at the Kunsthistorischemuseum, but owing to some errands to do in town, we got a late start, and decided to do some other things. As I have often observed, we only make plans so we can change them. But most always, as this today, the changes are for the better.

Our travels that day took us first to an ice cream parlor on Schwedenplatz (yum),
then to a candy store on Stephenplatz, and one more time, into the great church

And then to a post office, and then a long but interesting walk
back to the Albertina and lunch at the Hotel Sacher; Sacherwurst
and apfelstrudel, and no torte

We thought we would see the Albertina after lunch

But we spent so much time and money at its excellent giftstore, we decided to
forego the museum; this turned out to be a good thing, since most of the Durers
we wanted to see were away, on loan to the German National Museum Durer
exhibit in Nuremburg; which we saw in July

So, to kill time before the showing of The Third Man we
took the #1 tram, which covers much of the Ringstrasse
before ending at the Prater; and, on the near east side,
looked up and saw the Hundertwasserhaus; we spent the
next couple hours there and at another nearby Hundertwasser
structure

The Hundertwasserhaus is an apartment building built by and in accordance with the
aesthetic/architectural principles of Friedensreich Hundertwasser; whose main
principle seems to be that "the straight line is godless and immoral"; sort of indebted
to Gaudi, a century earlier, but interesting nonetheless; there are scores of
Hundertwasser buildings in Europe and elsewhere

So we spent some time looking at all this and educating ourselves a bit

Ditto

And then walked over a few blocks away to see a similar
Hundertwasser structure

And some of its interior

And then trammed back to the Opera area to see The Third Man, a 1949 classic
set in Vienna I have always wanted to see in Vienna; I enjoyed it greatly; all in
all, it was a pretty good serendipitous sort of day