12. Juli - Dienstag

Today in history class, we learned about something the Viennese call "Golden Autumn." It's the end of the monarchy leading up to the World Wars. Mostly we looked at the Parliament building:

This is the Vienna University where all the most famous people leave their  faces lying around

They are all men, but there's a Ladies Day, where they put pictures of the important women  around, and everyone dresses the busts up... apparently Marble Schroedinger had a little too much fun :)

There was a Geocache in one of the busts heads.

No, really, his head's hollow...

Dear Sigmund, both your thought-provoking and creepy-weird quotes are sacred to the Viennese. No where else do art museums emphasis all the numerous phallic symbols and repressed sexual confusions of its most revered painters...  

This is where they filmed some 3 Musketeers movie, with Charlie Sheen, Chris O'Donnell and  some Sutherland guy...
This, the City Hall of Vienna, was supposed to be Notre Dame... And Tim Curry was standing on the Theater across the street...

This is the best geo-cache in the world... can you see it?

This is the Parliament building

This is Athena, who is supposed to  give her wisdom to the politicians. But as the Wiener  say, "She  has her back turned, so she doesn't have to watch" (her hands are full, so she can't facepalm...)

This is the garden, where it was slightly cooler, and very pretty

This is the wife of Emperor Franz Joesph I, Sisi 

Apparently she wasn't muched loved in her time, but they made a movie and it's kinda a big deal here 

Apparently this thing with the super-large statue of a horse on only two legs is a  big deal...  There are chains and counterweights all the way to the ground, through the foundation. The same artist tried again with another horse and failed.... and literally died of a broken heart, or so goes the story.

Silly American tourists, with your silly I-don't-wanna-walk-machines...

This is the allegedly famous place that Hitler did a thing and it was important, and if the American Public Education System hadn't failed me, I would know what this event was... But there is a lovely two-headed Eagle...

This puppy had the right idea, apparently it was record-breaking 35 C heat...