...But the dancing was a lamentable mess!

Yes it's true, Vienna remains Vienna even as the years go by and the big glassy buildings go up. There is something so quintessentially Viennese about this city that nothing can destroy. Mozart and Strauss rule supreme here and you can feel so classy just by ducking into one of the elegant coffee shops and sipping on a latte (or Viennese coffee if you're feeling particularly touristy! :p)

There is so much to do in Vienna that it's easy to feel overwhelmed. Almost every building is beautiful enough to be a 'tourist' sight.

But personally I think it's worth pointing out two highlights.

First the Hofburg (the royal palace in the city) houses some extraordinary state apartments as well as the Sissi museum! For those of you who don't know Sissi, obviously you didn't get to watch that delightful Romy Schneider movie when you were little. (For the unenlightened, she's a famous Hapsburg empress who's beauty and tragic life have made her famous.)

The second is the incredible gallery at Belvedere which is another palace housing an exquisitely eclectic collection of art, the centrepiece of which was The Kiss by Gustav Klimt (see picture). Not all the paintings were famous but there is something beautiful and special in each and every painting to appreciate.


On another note I let Johnny talk me into seeing a kitchsy touristy performance of Mozart and Strauss instead of catching a performance at the Staadtopera and although the band had a phenomenally cute Audrey Tatou lookalike it wasn't enough to save the more than average male singer and the worst ballet dancers I have ever seen (they probably couldn't even make it into the corps de ballet of the Australian Ballet, a true lamentable mess...). The performance was also spoiled by people who kept skipping into better seats than they paid for, the entire crowd who got up to leave before the orchestra had left and people watching the entire performance through their video camera. (I know, I'm a ballet snob but I can't help it...)

But all in all Vienna is such a beautiful city, it's the kind of grandeur and beauty that you hear in the music of Mozart and Strauss, it really is a song in life.