The Little (Half-Day) Viennese Waltz

On board the lavish but dirt cheap Student Agency Bus from Prague to Vienna (hot chocolate! movies and radio with earphones!), I fell asleep with Leonard Cohen's voice singing in my head:
"Now in Vienna there are ten pretty women.
There's a shoulder where death comes to cry.
There's a lobby with nine hundred windows.
There's a tree where the doves go to die.
There's a piece that was torn from the morning,
and it hangs in the Gallery of Frost --
Ay, ay ay ay
Take this waltz, take this waltz,
take this waltz with the clamp on its jaws." 
I love the way Cohen's song takes Lorca's images from his poem "Little Viennese Waltz" and plays with them!

Stephansdom, or St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna. Situated in Stephansplatz, the heart of the Viennese city centre, this Gothic/Romanesque structure was our first sight of the many splendours of Vienna we quickly glimpsed in our half day waltz through the city!

The mosaic on the roof of Stephansdom shows the coat of arms (eagles everywhere... don't these guys get confused?) of the City of Vienna and of Austria... somewhere outside the frame there's one of a double headed eagle as well.)

Interior of Stephansdom

The Pestsaule or the Plague Column, erected in the late 17th century in memory of those who died in one of the last plague epidemics in the city.

The Donnerbrunnen Fountain, a Baroque fountain in the centre of Neuer Markt Square, Vienna.

Statue of Mozart in Burggarten

The Viennese parliament, with the Athena fountain in front of it.

detail from the Athena fountain

The Viennese Rathaus, or Town Hall.

Apparently, the Rathaus was gearing up for some big function or film festival.