Parlament (built in 1883 and designed by Theophil Hansen) was gorgeous. At 13,500 square metres, it’s one of the largest buildings on the Ringstrasse. The statue in front is Athene, and the first article is engraved on the wall.
From there we walked to the Rathaus (aka City Hall, a gloriously Gothic building designed by Friedrich Schmidt and opened in 1884). It has 1,575 rooms. The central tower is more than 100m tall and has a copper sculpture at the top called the Rathausmann; there is a replica in the gardens.
I was very taken by the Gothic architecture of the Votivkirche (begun in 1854, the first building on the Ringstrasse) but sadly it's closed on Mondays so we weren’t able to visit it.
From there we went back to the hotel for a flop (pedometer battery died so no idea how far we walked, but it was our usual long ramble!).
Wandered back into the city for dinner, and realised we’d taken the very long walk round the Hofburg – because the other side of the Spanish Riding school is at the top of Kolhmarkt…
The Stephansdom by night is beautiful.
And we had Sachertorte at the Sacher café for dessert – very nice inside, though the stools were incredibly high!
1 comment:
Gorgeous and that dessert looks incredible. Where do you start eating when it's a work of art? ;-)
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