Belvedere Palace and Restaurant Sperl Open Day Six in Vienna
Friday dawned, and it was already the last full day for all three of us – Faith, Therese and me – to be together. We had been having a ball, just the best time, and on this Friday, we had more fun planned. We would take the tram out to the Belvedere Palace, another of Vienna’s legion of extraordinary art museums, and then have some lunch at the nearby Restaurant Sperl.
The Belvedere Palace once upon a time was out in the countryside, and was one of the summer palaces for the Habsburgs. Now, it is within the city limits, but it is far enough away that we could definitely not walk there. Luckily, the D tram, which travels around the Ringstrasse for much of the “ring,” branches off said ring and stops right next to the Belvedere Upper Palace entrance.
Last stop on this line – Hauptbahnhof
Next stop
The Belvedere Castle
Yes, there are Upper and Lower Palaces, which is to say that the entire Belvedere Palace complex is sprawling, and if you wanted to explore all the different buildings, it could take you a full day, and your efforts would be rewarded, since each building is filled with stunning art. This map of the grounds gives you an idea of how extensive the palace grounds are.
Belvedere Palace Grounds Map
We elected to concentrate our time in the Upper Palace, with its highlight being perhaps Gustav Klimt’s most famous painting, “the Kiss.”
When you walk to the Upper Palace entrance, you can see why it is called “upper” – it is truly on the highest part of the palace grounds, and looking northwest, you have an incredible view of the rest of the palace grounds, and Vienna’s center off in the distance. And yes, downtown Vienna – the Stephansdom, for example – does look very far away from here.
Between the Upper Palace entrance and the walkway to the rest of the palace are two very imposing sphynxes. I find them quite beautiful as well. But once we had had our vista, it was time to check out the museum inside. In the entrance hall was one of Jeff Koons’ Hulk sculptures, in this case one called “Friends” (if you look close you can see a turtle and a bird on the superhero’s shoulder). The way Koons manages to make steel look like an inflated mylar balloon, and I have to say, I loved the placement of this sculpture – the whimsical Hulk against the ornate white entrance hall was a great contrast (too bad it is only a temporary placement!).
We proceeded to spend several hours exploring the different floors of this museum. I was intrigued by seeing some 20th century artists of whom I had never heard before. For example, I loved Emil Witasek’s Self-Portrait with a Woman and Death. While his suit and some of the other details place this painting firmly within the 20th century, the subject matter and the attention to detail could’ve been from the Renaissance.
Of course, the highlight of the museum is Klimt’s Kiss. However, I don’t like the way they have it on display. It is in a dark room with lots of other Klimt paintings, with the paintings lit rather dimly with flood lights, so that you have to squint to really see the paintings well. Then the Kiss in sunk into a wall all by itself that has been painted black. Is this to protect the painting? I don’t know, but it’s strange, and in my opinion robs the painting of much of its sensual power. And of course, with it being so famous, there is a constant crowd of people elbowing to get a good position to look at it – that kind of thing always dampens my enthusiasm for art works (don’t get my started on the Mona Lisa). Overall, the room is wonderful due to the collection of late paintings there, some of which are not completed – but they could do a better job to show them off.
We explored every inch of the Upper Palace, and then we left and got our reward for our hard work of getting culture, lunch at the nearby Restaurant Sperl. There are restaurants on Prinz Eugen Strasse, the street of the palace’s entrance, which may be tourist traps or might be good. Anyway, I had heard good things about Restaurant Sperl, which is in fact just one block to the west, down Karolinengasse (the street that juts out perpendicular to the palace entrance).
Restaurant Sperl has an indoor dining room and bar, but the place to sit whenever weather allows seems to be the extensive garden just off the restaurant’s main entrance. Certainly on the day we were there, which was the first day of our time in Vienna that was not sweltering (it was still summery, but maybe more like in the 80s than in the 90s temperature-wise), everyone was sitting in the garden. And with the arbors giving us some shade, it was indeed a very comfortable, relaxing setting.
Sperl is very proud of their philosophy of sourcing their ingredients locally, so much so that they devote an entire page to telling you exactly where everything comes from in the menu. I ordered Zwiebelrostbraten, beef sirloin with crisp onions, potatoes that are lightly fried, more excellent Viennese pickles and a rich gravy to dunk the potatoes in. It was quite a filling lunch, but then, it’s not like I had to pass a German language exam that afternoon or anything. No, all I needed to do was enjoy myself, lead our gang of three back to the tram, and let the afternoon unfold as it wished.
For the time being, the afternoon’s business was enjoying a lovely meal. Did I mention there was a tall mug of Austrian beer involved? What a nice way to finish up our week in Vienna!
So, when we had had our fill, we walked back to Prinz Eugen Strasse and took the tram back to our hotel. Before dinnertime, Therese and I wanted to see the Votivkirche, which we had passed a couple of times. Faith was feeling a bit tired, so she said she would pass. Next time, I will tell you about our visit to the church, and the rest of our last evening in Vienna together.
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