Day 9 Schonbrunn/Leopold Museum

This fine morning we struggled a little to wake up. A lot of our bums are bruised from our long bike ride yesterday. We still got up and made it to Schonbrunn. This is the summer house of the Hofburgs (the royalty of Austria back in the day)... thats right, just the summer home. Its bigger than their regular house.

 When you walk around to the side of the palace you can start to see the gardens.. which are what this place is known for. 

definitely started to feel like Alice.. in her wonderland a little bit.

 Then you get all the way to the back and WHAM.. you see this. 

so.much.land.

 I couldn't stop thinking to myself, this is JUST their summer home.

 

And this is the view of the palace from behind.

 and also the view from the palace looking into the backyard.

Saw plenty of people going on runs back here. perfect place to workout. so much to look at, to make a workout interesting. 

 I was creepin into someone elses photo. I always think that they will take their photos all the way to whatever country they're from and put it in their family album.. and therefore i'm in someone elses family album.

 TOURIST OF THE DAY..

for the fluffy chops..

 Then ALL Of Vienna.

 This is the structure all the way at the end of their backyard.

yellow, i've come to notice, is a very Austrian color.

 We had to walk through the rest of the gardens, that were very maze-like.

 Does this remind anyone else about Thumbelina and the singing frogs? 

 I really can't believe i'm posting this.. especially because i'm jumping next to the model.. but it was just too funny to not share.

 Then Nicole pulled her butt muscle and things got even more funny.

 This place is tucked within the gardens, and it looks like they haven't repaired anything on it.. which I kind of liked about it. I especially like that the arch perfectly frames the statue back in the trees. 

 Secondly today, we headed back to the Museum Quarters in the middle of Vienna to the Leopold Museum, where we saw pieces from Scheile, Klimt, and Moser. All artists I enjoy. This one is an up close of one of Scheile's.

 

 Ok.. this guy is phenomenal to me. It's Koloman Moser. His color usage is what sells me. Just lovely.

 Also a Moser. 

 Moser again, he did a lot of mountain scenery.

 He also did this fantastic figure painting. I adore how he used that mustard for the middle tone. A purple/blue for the shadows, and a light pink for the highlights. I basically had an epiphany in the museum over this painting. I sound like such an artsy fartsy nerd right now, and I don't even care. 

 Lastly, one of my favorite Klimt pieces. One, because its so unlike his most famous pieces, less cluttered, more simplistic. Two, because I guess I have a thing for water paintings, and teal. must be my thing.

 

 We ended the night hanging out in the courtyard of the Museum Quarters, where I guess young people hang out often. It consisted of beautiful boys, that Nicole photo creeped on. Us talking about the lack of such well dressed and as good looking boys in the states. And people bringing cases of beer with their friends and getting tipsy. As well as hacky sackers, scooterers, cafe's, laughter, smoking (because everyone smokes, ugh), interesting smells, and GREAT people watching.

Tomorrow i'm going to Bratislava, Slovakia.. 

I never thought I would actually ever say that.

stay tuned..