Zentralfriedhof - II

This cemetery is filled with finely crafted statuary of young women mourning the loss of family.

Zentralfriedhof

One of our best outings in Vienna took to the the Zentralfriedhof, the central cemetery. This place plays a role for Vienna similar to the magnificent seven cemeteries in London but was later. It was opened on All Saint's Day in 1874.

Along the Nome-Teller Road

In the bushes along the sides of the road, we often spied rock ptarmigans monitoring the surroundings for predators approaching their nests.

Musk Ox and Eider Ducks

While I'm sure that were I to walk up to this animal and feel his fur, I would not describe his fur this way, but from my distance, the new fur coming on as the the old fur sluffs off, looks quite clean and comfy. In a well-kept state, musk ox are not bad looking.

Back on the Road Outside Nome, AK

It is not a great surprise that we would find arctic terns here in Nome. They are, after all, named for this place, more or less. These birds hunt by flying above the water and hovering when they see activity below the surface. This fellow in the midsts of such a hovering maneuver.

Stephenplatz

Back out in the sunlight and clearing our eyes and lungs of the heavy sights and fecund smells of over 800 years liturgy and burial, we are greeted with the world of commerce. Above, you see some of the many horse drawn carriages that wend they way through the central part of the city carrying tourist among the historic sights.

St. Stephen's - V

There are usually places in a church, nearly any church, where the simplicity of presentation overcome the overall exaggerated presentation to generate a truly tender moment. This madonna on a column next to a column is one of the better examples of this. The legend is that a servant girl accused of theft sought refuge with the statue of Mary (not sure what this might actually mean) and we subsequently found innocent. Hence, it is known as the Madonna of the Domestics.

St. Stephen's - IV

Here is the main altar area of the church. It is interesting to see that the floor is a nice marble but laid out in a very traditional, almost plain, pattern.

St. Stephen's - III

Above is one of the side aisles, more brightly lit from the expansive windows than the center aisle.

St. Stephen's - II

Another view of the pulpit we saw yesterday. If you look closely, you can just make out one of the small animals on the handrail near the top.

Back to St. Stephen's Cathedral

This is the day we choose to take a tour of St. Stephen's Cathedral. Now we do the deep dive to see more details of what this remarkable church has to offer. But, to give a little context, a few images on the way.

St. Peter's Catholic Church

So many bits of finely detailed and intricate ornamentation to be seen here.

St. Peter's

The pulpits in this church are quite remarkable. The gold and marble are used to good effect. 

St. Peter's Catholic Church

Today, we explore St. Peter's Catholic Church. As you can see, it is a Baroque treasure.

Schottenkirke

I told you that you'd see lots of Viennese churches here in the blog. Today continues this expectation. Today I bring you a few images from the Schottenkirke (the Scottish Church).

Holy Trinity

This appears to be the place that the priest sits when not busy doing priest things.

Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church

Prepare yourselves for looking at lots of churches. Vienna is littered with them and they are, each in their own way, all visual spectacles.

First Look at St. Stephen's Concluded

While built on a grand scale, this place is filled with small masterpieces of stone carving.

More of the General View of St. Stephen's Cathedral

Since there is on this visit a metal gate between me and the details of the place, I can only give you a flavor of the details.

St. Stephan's Cathedral, Vienna

After arriving in Vienna via a pleasant few hour train ride (nice modern train), we headed out to stroll about and see a a few things. We had carefully selected our hotel to be on the metro and tram lines, so getting about was easy. Today was mostly a walkabout. The first stop was St. Stephan's Cathedral.

This is What We Remember

If you ever have the opportunity to visit the Hungarian State Opera, do it. Even if you are not an opera fan, put in your ear plugs and buy a ticket. They are not expensive and it is pleasure to simply sit for 2-3 hours in this beautiful space.

Moving on Toward the Theater

Above is the view looking in the direction the Emperor would walk up the stairs. Behind the woman is the mirror placed for them to see behind themselves.

Moving from the Masses to the Emperor's Entrance

The food concession area is on the front of the building and if you walk through it toward the front of the building, you pass through a beautifully panelled smoking area and onto the balcony overlooking Andrassy Street. Looking up and back toward the opera house we see a series of small balconies on floor up (I presume that they are useable by someone, just not me) and the intricately designed ceilings over them.

Heading Upstairs

Because there is a slope of the main floor of the opera house and there are practice and storage rooms below the stage, we need to go upstairs to get to the main portion of the building.

Back for the Tour

Our last outing in Budapest was a visit back to the Opera House for a tour. You've already seen some of this from our visit to see an performance, but I believe that the photos with the iPhone were limited both by where we could go during a public performance and by my ability to compose using the small camera. Today we start a series to correct those limitations.

In Search of the Elusive Blue Throat

Among the willows we also saw the American Yellow Warbler. He was a hard bird to photograph and one my better images was this one I almost missed as he leapt from the tree into flight.

Along Kougarok Road near Nome

Nome is a small town (<4,000) and the edge of town is fairly abrupt. While there are scattered houses byond the "edge of town" they quickly become so scattered as to be nonexistent. In that gray area between the edge of town and the complete disappearance of humans, we found, on several occasions, musk ox. This time of year they look pretty rough as they shed the heavy winter coats for a fresh coat of hair for the summer. I just love that this guy above has his tongue out as he chews planty bits. Reminds me of a cat we once had.

Dohány Street Synagogue - III

In the main floor pews (we weren't allowed upstairs), each seat in each row is numbered starting nearest the centre aisle. Some even have name plates on them. I suspect that this is because the named person paid to have a particular seat.

Dohány Street Synagogue - II

It was much quieter today than it was back in 2019 for our first visit. This allowed me to more easily move around and photograph.

Dohány Street Synagogue

A few blocks away from the RUmbach Street Synagogue is the Dohány Street Synagogue. This is much larger and grander place. Above is the view from the side. The twin towers you can see the tops of that adorn the front as mostly obscured by trees and other distractions.

I posted photos of this marvelous place back in 2019. You can see similar photo of there.

Rumbach Street Conclusion

In addition to reproducing the original details, this building has been updated with all the modern lighting and sound amenities. The way these additions are suspended from the ceiling moves them away from the walls and the traditional elements of the space. This little bit of separation gives the traditional a place to be the dominant element in the room. 

It is easy to find views of the interior that show little or no signs of the modern additions. 

Only the electric lights (which were not here in the original) intrude on the stately designs. And we are so used to electric lighting that we simply don't notice it anymore.

A visit here is well worth the short walk from the Deák Ferenc square.

 

Rumbach Street Synagogue Continued

The colors and designs here are captivating. I find the mixture of blues and reds in the geometric pattern on the walls to be quite striking. they really draw the eye to the details.

Rumbach Street Synagogue

The Rumbach Street Synagogue was built in 1872 to to the design of the Viennese Architect Otto Wagner. Like the much larger Dohány Street Synagogue, it has a moorish theme to the design. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by the Nazis in the '40's. What we see today is a reconstruction funded by the Hungarian government and completed in 2021.

Opera House Lobby

And so, I bring these evening at the opera to a close with a few more images of the lobby area. The combination of gold and marble everywhere along with the brightly colored designs makes a lasting impression.

More Views from the Opera House

This really is a most marvelous place. And, in spite of its opulence, a very affordable place to spend the evening. Tickets start (for standing room admission) at about $10. While our seats in the orchestra near the front were more, they were still only about 1/10 the price you'd pay at the Royal Opera House in London or the Met  in New York.

The orchestra pit is pretty large and very little of it sits under the overhanging stage. This both fills the space with music and moves the audience back from the stage a bit more than in some other venues.

On this particular evening, this was a mixed blessing. The orchestra often overwhelmed the singers in this performance of "The Girl of the Golden West" (Puccini). There is some much to say about this performance that I'll save it for sometime when we can sit and talk about it (assuming you are actually interested). I'll just say that this performance was not one of our favorites. However, another opera we attended,"The Masked Ball" (Verdi), was much more to our taste. This opera company is capable of excellent work.

The lobby by the entrance of the opera house is very church-like in its appearance with columns and arches abounding. 

The barrel vault over the main portion of the lobby displays another extravagant usage of gold.

A really remarkable place to visit.

 

A Night at the Opera

The time tested method for a start to an evening at the opera is by visiting the restaurant next door for a slice of dobos torte. This delightful Hungarian cake is quite addictive.

Along the Danube not Far from Parliament

In the archeological expedition that turned up the previously unposted 2019 tour of the Parliament building, I also found unposted images of a memorial located on the Pest side of the Danube River. These are posted below.

Above is the view of the Buda shore as seen from Pest. In this view, in addition to seeing St. Matthias' Church (blogged) and the sundry former royal residence buildings, there is church in the foreground on the right facing to the right with its twin towers that faces Batthany Square. Farther to the right, out of the image is Bem József tér where throngs of people gathered on in October 1956 in a march that marked the beginning of the ill fated revolution.

End of the Tour

All parliament building have more than just a meeting room in them. there must office spaces for the MP's and the staff. It takes a lot of people to run a country. Judging from the size of this assembly room, it takes a really huge number of people (or at least that planned for the possibility) to do it here.

Tour Part 4

Here is a bad photo of the ceiling of the large domed room. I managed to sneak in one shot before I was forced to quit trying or be caught. Just in case you have not by now figured out that this is a cathedral to self-rule, here's your proof.

Parliament Tour Part 3

Now you begin to understand why I was confused that I hadn't already posted this tour back in 2019 when it happened. This place is way beyond a simple building providing a place for parliament to meet. This really is a secular church.

We Interrupt this Program with a Special Message ...

 

I interrupt this blog to bring you a special message: We are home now. We arrived a couple days ago and we've now, more or less, gotten ourselves in the right mental time zone. Things are growing in full summer mode (finally) and it is warm (for the PNW... it is in the 70's F).

Do not dismay. The fun of my photography trip to Alaska and the visit to Hungary, Austria, and England continues. Since there is always a time lag between doing things and posting them here, I thought I'd insert this brief notice that we are safely home (no covid, no broken bones, nobody robbed, no traffic tickets, no broken electronics) and slowly getting our laundry and our lives back to normal (-ish). 

The St. John's Wort in the front yard is blooming and putting out berries now. I really like this bush so I thought I'd use this photo to let you know we are home.

The Tour Continues

The insides of this gigantic building are known for the seemingly endless hallways.