Fun in Vienna

So it's official. I reeeaaallllyyyy live this city. It was set in stone after our visit to the kunsthistoriches museum today. It was an amazing collection! Probably the best next to the louvre. It is the collection of the Hapsburg family who ruled the Holy Roman Empire for centuries, with works spanning from the Netherlands clear over to Spain. We talked about so much so I will just talk about some of my favorites. The second group of paintings we saw were some portraits by Van Eyck and a triptych and a diptych by Rogier van der Weyden, both very prominent northern Renaissance artists. We discussed the incredible detailing that was characteristic of the north and that is seen in these works. My favorite of the bunch was a tiny diptych by van der Weyden. It couldn't have been larger than 10" x 6" probably. I'm talking tiny minuscule detailing. Look it up and you can maybe get an idea of what I'm talking about. It had Mary with the Christ child on one panel and St. Catherine on the other. Gorgeous detailing and textures. Rogier van der Weyden is one of my favorite artist. Look up his deposition. It's in the Prado in Madrid. Someday I will get there to see it, and I'll cry when I do. The next room we went to was the Bruegel room. He was a Flemish painter as well but was much later. He did mostly scenes of peasant life. My favorite of these was Hunter's return (it might have a different name, Bit that's the subject matter...ha). He also does a lot of moralizing works that also have amazing detail. He did a Tower of Babel scene and a Calvary scene I just love. The Calvary scene is so great because you can barely see Christ bearing his cross. It's kind of like a where's Waldo thing. And he placed him in a contemporary scene to basically condemn the worldly people and warn against an unrighteous lifestyle, kind of saying "hey, would you pay attention to Christ if he came walking by?" really great. There were also a lot of genre scenes I recognized from my classes by artists like Jan steen, Vermeer, and de hooch. I enjoy those quite a bit. Always love me some caravaggios. Did I tell you I cried when we went to the Caravaggio exhibition in Rome? Because I did. It was overwhelmingly amazing. Look up his Crowning with thorns. It killed me. Caravaggio, much like Michelangelo, created very devout images of Christ that are just spectacular. Also his Deposition is amazing. Anyway, back to today. That was pretty much all that really got me at that museum, but we spent at least five hours there. Only about three and a half of those was lectire time by Martha, who is incredible with her wealth of knowledge. I feel blessed to be on this trip woth her. But we also had an amazing experience tonight. We went and listened to Mozart's Requiem at Karlskirche. It was the most beautiful thing I do believe my ears ever did hear. I would close my eyes and I felt like I was floating or something. And the sound of it in this grand Baroque church just added to the amazing-ness. I recorded some parts of it on ky phone and ill send those soon. I also had an amazing dinner of huhnershnitzel, which is some sort of chicken schnitzel with rice that I loved. Very delicious. There are a few downsides to today: it is freezing, it is raining, and I spent a lot of money today - lunch 7 euro, dinner 10 euro, mozart's requiem in Karlskirche 18 euro, cd recording of mozart's requiem after the performance 15 euro, satisfaction of money incredibly well spent PRICELESS. Haha. I loved today and I love this city. Tomorrow we're going to church at an international ward. That should be great. I'll email again tomorrow but for now I love ya lots! Talk to you soon!

Kell the bell who didn't go to .... Well, you know...