Vienna´s 1st District and its Architecture...

If you intend to travel to Europe, Vienna is a must for you! 

Come to this wonderful city to see and experience the beautiful places, parks,  people, its 
culture and particulary, its architecture.

 Vienna is full of those Baroque beauties in the 1st District.  

According to the Mercer Quality of  Living survey, Vienna has the best living standard in the world. The crime rate is also among the lowest in Europe... 

The streets are clean and the parks are enjoyable to get some relaxations after long walks.

Tourists flock Kärntner Strasse, the heart of Vienna.

The grandeur of the Stephansdome can´t be missed...built in the 11th Century, it houses underneath the catacombs  thousands of skulls.... remains of the locals who died from the pest during the medieval times.

The interior of the Stephansdome is still intact despite the WW II bombing.

Facade of the buildings were carefully planned,  beautifully designed and well constructed... The city mayor Helmut Zilk once lived in the building shown above.... his widow still lives here.

The St Peter´s Church

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The "Pestsäule"  was constructed to commemorate the sufferings of the folks and for those who died from the dreadful pest epidemic that swept Europe during the Middle Ages particularly the one in the 14th Century.

Hotel Sacher.... Queen Elizabeth II  lived here when she made a visit.

The State Opera, the venue of the world famous Opera Ball

Vienna is Europe´s city of music and according to many, the "city of dreams"  for it became home to Sigmund Freud..

The million dollar Lipizzans have their own Stalls in the 1st District, they are being trained under the Spanish Riding School... they have their own public shows.

Hofburg... summer residence of the Habsburgs that is now used for State functions..

The National Library.... When Hitler occupied Austria, he delivered his speech on the terrace above.

Above: The Rathaus ( City Hall)

Below: The building behind is the  Summer Residence of the Habsburg Dynasty now used for the government´s various social as well as political functions as well as for international gatherings.

That´s it for now and I hope you enjoyed the small architectural tour!

Vienna is truly a nice city to live in and I feel so privileged to be able to live here in this beautiful austrian capital for more than 30 years now....

TGIF...enjoy it!

Paris Adventure

 

Hello everyone!

 

Winter had been very long & hard in our part of Europe and with that came my flu with a very persistent coughing.. a total of 2 weeks sick leave  including a relapse affected my office work as well as my household chores.... But, thank God, recovery was at site...

 

Well, there´s a lot of catching-up with my blog, I guess.... First, let me share our adventure in Paris... We took the chance to visit this city a couple of weeks ago and here are some of the photos I took from my digicam... my apologies if the photos are not that sharp, that is because my hands always shake when I take pics, LOL! I was impressed by the Beauty of the Eiffel Tower. It´s actually magnificent to see this Tower right before your own eyes, so solid are its steel structures.

  

 

 

I took it with heart to see the whole of Champs Èlysèes so I marched from the Grand Opera passing by the Obelisk and the Place Vendome with its famous Shops for the rich. I must say, it was very brave of me to do it because it was such a long march of about 1.5 Km.. well, I just had a bit of swollen feet that day and strained muscles.

 

It was difficult to take shots of the Arc because of the trees on the left and right of the Avenue . And so what I did was to wait for the red light, crossed the street and stood in the middle of the Avenue beside the traffic light to get a pretty good shot.

 

The Avenue des Champs-Elysées has 4 lanes each side...my godness, you could imagine how nervous I was when the green light was on and I was  caught in the middle of the Avenue waiting for this monstrous traffic to a halt!!!

 

 

 

 

I had to see Mona Lisa, so inside we went  into the Louvre and to my dismay, hundreds of visitors gathered around her to take their pics,  as if they wouldn´t want to leave the area to give chance for others to take their own shots...

 

 

This Glass Pyramid is the entrance to Louvre 

 

 

 

 

 

 The Tower of the Notre Dame Cathedral behind the buildings

 

 

 Front of Notre Dame Cathedral 

 

 

The main entrance to the Cathedral

 

 

Sacré Coeur in Montmatre

 

 

 

 We also visited Chateau de Versailles

 

 One part of the Garden of the Chateau 

 

 

The beautiful and amazing murals of the Chateau 

 

 

We also visited the Brocante of St. Ouen and we saw this pair

of chairs, very French and I must say they are so lovely!

 

The Brocante has all the pieces you may want to bring home from a holiday. you name it, they have it.  But, each piece commands a great price plus the customs duty should  not be forgotten.

 

 

 

Art pieces, vintage or antique were also offered..

 

Tasting the Tart Au Citron

 

In Montmatre, the sweets are allover...

 

...... as well as the fresh market was interesting to see.

 

 

sweets, sweets, and more sweets!

 

fresh harvest were also offered

 

 

 The Seine

 

 

To sum up our travel,  I learned a lot, especially  the beauty of the French architecture, their arts, the way of life of the locals and the richness of French culture.. and I tend to go back to see more...

 

  

Note: Coming up next : Easy Spinach Tomato Tart....here, a quick peek below

 

Thank you for taking time to read this blog, am wishing you a good start of the week.

xoxo,

Mercy