We had breakfast at Coben's again - because the food is good, because it's close to the hotel, because it's easy, but largely I think because we wanted to watch the scenery in the Opera House square on our last day in Vienna. (Technically we're still here on the 9th, but by 0715 we'll have to be in transit to the airport.)
We went our separate ways for the morning: Sarah had expressed considerable interest in the Imperial Treasury, which didn't appeal to me. I opted instead to start walking. I had no particular plan, but ended up walking counter-clockwise half way around the Ringstraße from our hotel. I didn't complete the circle as I had an appointment to keep and had to cut back to the hotel.
We met at 1245 at the Opera House for our 1300 English language tour. Our guide was ... well, his explanations were slightly worn by repetition, but he loved his subject and presented it well, and when people asked questions he perked up and gave really good answers - he was great. And wow, that place is resplendent - and complex, with hydraulics under the stage and the floor audience seating, and so many scene changes, and the small airplane-like screens associated with every seat so you can have live subtitles in the language of your choice.
Speaking of which: Sarah's third row stage right ticket a couple nights ago (for opening night!) cost €232 ($335CA), and she came back ecstatic, overflowing with the experience. As our guide explained, despite their high prices, they're actually government subsidized and ticket prices would approach €600 ($866CA) for the more expensive shows if not for that.
We took the tram out to the Belvedere, and stepped out into a light drizzle and low temperatures ... our first bad weather of the trip (happily, it never went beyond a drizzle). There are two palaces, the Upper Belvedere and the Lower Belvedere, with huge formal gardens between. (I say "huge," although both the palaces and the gardens were small compared to Schönbrunn yesterday ... but "huge" is still allowable, because they sure weren't small.) Our tickets were for the Upper Belvedere, as it houses a very impressive art collection - mostly in my time period.
Despite which, it was Sarah who kept pushing for us to go there all week ... I think my lack of enthusiasm was because of Gustav Klimt - who's the star of the show there, and I'm not much of a fan. Klimt's "The Kiss" is the most famous work in the gallery ... but we expected it. The surprise work of art that ambushed us was the two metre square canvas of Napoleon Bonaparte on a rearing horse - trust me when I say you know the image. You can argue whether it's great art (it was made as a propaganda piece, by a not particularly well known painter), but for whatever reason, it's become truly iconic. In researching this, I find there are five versions around the world - one of which is at the Belvedere. ( "Napoleon Crossing the Alps" )
photo: Tourists Behaving Badly (at the Belvedere) - Max Klinger's "Crouching Woman"
Sarah has been wanting ice cream or gelato all week, but for various reasons we never got there. And today we actually had the time and it was early enough that Zanoni and Zanoni were still open ... and we were both too damn cold (and it was still drizzling a little). Instead we stopped in the Lower Belvedere café after walking the gardens, and had hot chocolate and cake - Sarah had apple strudel, I had "Hungarian Cream Cake" which I quite liked.
Our final stop of the day, and probably of our whole trip, was, of all places ... Quick Yammy. I had expressed an interest in returning, and Sarah developed a noodle craving, so off we went. I had the crispy duck (very crispy) on noodles (good), she had vegetables and noodles. I also sucked back what will probably be my last European Fanta for quite a long time.