Monday, 23 March our plan was to visit the Leopold Museum for the Gustave Courbet special exhibition and permanent collection that looks interesting. We arrived at the Wolkstheater station and walked to the Museum District past some huge impressive buildings standing proudly along the wide boulevards. There was an animal rights protest in front of the Rathaus which didn’t seem to be attracting much attention, just a solitary guy with a microphone.
There was so much to see at the Leopold Museum: Gustave Courbet, Gustav Klimt, history of Vienna, more of the Secession period, architecture and design . . . we ended up in their cafe for lunch with no time to go anywhere else before our evening engagement. We’re fairly confident with the U-bahn now for getting about and returned to the apartment late afternoon to get ready for our special evening out! Bev put on a dress, Steve wore his best shirt and we went back to the Cafe Schwarzenberg for supper. It’s the oldest Vienna Coffee House, opened in 1861, where we’d been yesterday for cocktails. It’s only a short walk from the Musikverein and the food was OK but the service could certainly have been better. We paid the bill, declining the request for tips and went to the bar at the Musikverein for a pre-performance drink in all its golden glory!
The girl at the reception desk yesterday had been most helpful in finding us ‘the best’ seats in our chosen mid-range price category. We had a perfect view of the whole hall and orchestra with extra leg room and a good position for acoustics. The programme was a Britten violin concerto with an amazing Ukranian soloist and Dvorak Symphony no. 9. A most enjoyable, and very Viennese, evening out. Glad we’d made the effort to smarten up!
A quick U-bahn and we were back in 20 minutes for cold beers in the fridge.