Poppy ring.

Poppy ring. 

Apple Tarte Tatin.

Saute some peeled and cored apples, I used a mixture of Bramleys and Granny Smith's, in butter and soft, brown sugar and a cinnamon stick and lay over a round of puff pastry pressing down carefully at the edges. Remove from the heat and place the pan in the oven and bake until the pastry is golden..you need to use a frying pan with an oven proof handle.

Place a dinner plate over the top and holding carefully with cloths, invert and lift the pan off...ta dah a beautiful Tarte Tatin...serve with cream or ice cream.

Both Barrels Birthday Cake.

Chocolate fudge cake covered in Maltesers for my daughter's 12th birthday....yum.

Ahhhhhh Vienna!

To celebrate my friend's special birthday which also coincides with the 150th Anniversary of her fave artist, Klimt's birth, we went to Vienna for the weekend. It was a non-stop cultcha vultcha tour of galleries and cake! ;-)

Outside the Leopold in the Museum Quarter....VERY excited..and that's before we even saw any paintings! 

View from the Leopold cafe of the Museum Quarter square..the Mumok is the modern building in the background. There'd been a fashion show week too, the red thing is a catwalk built upon beer crates.

Apple Streudel.

Sacher Torte....hmmmm we were rather disappointed it had to be said...it tasted stale! A very dry cake crumb...apparently invented by accident by a Mr Sacher...I'm reckoning he had an old, stale cake and needed to feed his guests so he shoved some jam in it and smothered it in icing...I can hear him now..."they'll never notice".... teehee...didn't stop us from testing more though at various places... ;-)

So Harry Hill would say: now I like Klimt and I like Schiele...but which one's best? Hmmmmm....FIGHT!!!!

I'm firmly down on the side of Klimt..but, you know, I have an open mind...Schiele's growing on me...

Reclining Nude 1917

We liked Schiele's buildings paintings and immediately saw Kate Lycett's inspiration perhaps too.

Self Portrait, seated.

Dinner at The Sky Restaurant.

Ratatouille ravioli in crab sauce.

Veal rolls with lime and chilli.

Sacher Torte, no 2! (still dry!)

The Sky Restaurant is right at the top of a departent store..you go up in a Willy Wonker glass lift on the outside and wlk past the shoe department and into a secret lift at the back of the building.

Beautiful mosaic on the opposite building.

Going up?

Latte and the customary glass of wasser on the side...in Hotel Sacher's cafe. We couldn't face any more cake that night though, not even in the home of Sacher Torte!

Barn owl's face in my coffee?!

;-)

Cuckoo!

I loved the way this jewellery shop used pretzls as decorations!

The Belvedere...Upper Belvedere.

The Kaiser lived and entertained here..now it houses some of the most beautiful art I've ever seen....home of The Kiss...soooooo wonderful...displayed on a black wall for dramatic effect..the gold lights up the room....breath-taking.

Looking down to the Lower Belvedere across the beautiful garden.

Lunch in the Belvedere Menagerie restaurant..where cake meets art! Edible Klimt!!! 

Belvedere Torte....dark purple, almost black marzipan icing covering the lightest of sponge filled with orange flower water cream....OMG...yes it was amazing!

View of the garden from an upstairs' window...

Down the Naschmarket...

wonderfully colourful array of food and gift stalls.

Fish stall.

Cheese shop.

Fruit stall.

Pumpkins!

At the far end is a secondhand stalls area where there was anything and everything on offer from old shoes to ornaments.

The building behind had a stunning facade designed by Otto Wagner..one of the artists from the Secession group.

So we were sat having a very welcome Weisswein (!) when we heard this music getting louder...next thing a beautiful girl dressed in green feathers shimmies by followed by her samba band...they were advertising the samba school! Some very happy faces following her...

Aw...

The biggest bunch of lilies I've ever seen..there is a lady underneath carrying them!

These boys looked a bit young to be buying all that booze!

Traffic lights.

Pretty coloured bikes.

On one of the streets were hand and foot prints belonging to famous people...I only recognised this one: Stirling Moss.

Beautiful buildings all around.

Of course this caught my eye! We didn't go in though, it looked a bit...dodgy!

Lovely Italian restaurant.

Around Vienna.

The VolksTheatre

Tram stop.

One of the modern trams...unfortunately we didn't get chance to ride on the older ones.

The Museum Quarter is housed in the old palace stables...lucky horses!

The MUMOK....(Mum's OK!)

Some of the exhibits were a little bit "Emperor's New Clothes", but interesting all the same.

I found this exhibit very moving...each piece of clothing had a laminated story attached.

Topical.

Another political statement piece, but we really liked the dress!

Andy Warhol's Green Stamp blouse 1965.

Warhol's Ladies and Gentlemen 1975.

The man himself.

Yayoi Kusama 1966 Gold Dress and Silver Dress.

This covered the whole of one wall..I need a translation.

George Grosz 1931 Das Bundris.

Salvador Dali/Elsa Schiaparelli Woman's Dinner Dress 1937.

Salvador Dali Lobster Phone photo.

Christo 1967 Wedding Dress.....ooh!

Tee hee...it's the attendant's chair..

Carl Andre! We saw his brick pile in Huddersfield earlier in the year.

Pier Paolo Calzolan 1969-70 Non.

(tobacco leaves) I was amazed how modern some of the exhibits looked, very interesting to look at the dates.

We saw loads more..couldn't take pics of everything!

Last Viennese lunch...a fabulously tasty tuna club sandwich...yum!

The Secession temple...built to house the work of the Secession artists...the Beethoven Mural taking centre spot...Klimt's masterpiece depicting the gift of art saving the world.

Journey homeward...

Stephan Splatz LOL!

Double decker train...awesome!