Wow - what can I tell you about Gala night? It was incredible, awesome, breathtaking...I have so many photos to show you of this amazing night so please stay a while and enjoy. If you want to see larger version of the photos, just click on them. Our itinerary said to meet in the hotel lobby at 6.30 in cocktail dress where we were to be collected and taken to the Vienna Museum of Fine Arts. Can you believe our transport?
Fifteen horse drawn carriages to take us through the streets of Vienna to our destination. Myself and Tracy shared a carriage with Dave Baum and his wife Jen. Isn't the museum beautiful? It houses paintings by Rubens, Rembrandt,
Vermeer, Dürer, Raphael, Titian and Velazquez, as well as the
most comprehensive collection of Bruegel's paintings in the
world. It was number one on my list of things to see in Vienna as I studied many of these artists including Gustav Klimt at college and university too.
It was lovely to see the carriage being drawn behind us and then the one in front as it arrived at the museum.
Here is the outside of the museum. It was closed to the public and on the ground floor there was a string trio as well as lots of lovely mocktails and canopies being served for us. On the right you can see me and my Stampin' up! Great Gran (even though she's younger than me) Natalie.
It was amazing to see everyone so dressed up in beautiful outfits. Below I managed to get Mon, Bekka and Zoe having a natter and a posed pic of us together too. Top right a photo of the UK achievers but oh wait, who's missing??? Is Monica!!! She made it for the next photo!
This next photo shows all the achievers from the UK, France and Germany. What an amazing bunch. I felt so lucky to get to spend time with these amazing women.
Then we were called upstairs by our Master of Ceremonies:
Wow the table settings were gorgeous. The beautiful white framed chalk board - and we got to keep them! The menu was mouthwatering and the food delicious too. Lovely pic below of Bekka and Tracy.
Look how they'd created a restaurant for us in the gallery area (thanks for the photo Monica)
I loved this statue and what a beautiful photo of Shelli.
My place setting not only had a hand crafted menu but a gift too, a signed CD of the Vienna Boys Choir. Any guesses what our next special treat was? A twenty minute performance from the boys themselves - I got goosebumps and shed a tear too, it was wonderful.
Love this photo of Monica and Pete, such a lovely couple to spend time with. As you may know, I have a bit of a thing for shoes so the photo below shows you Bekka's, Jules' and my own footwear for the evening! Cor - look at that starter, yummy!
Poor Bekka had the sun in her eyes for the first part of the evening so I lent her my fan to grab some shade. Got to love Monica for letting me post this photo of her. She stood up after the meal and the chain strap of her purse had caught on her skirt. I think it's better than walking out of the ladies with loo roll hanging out of your skirt though!
Finally back to the hotel and after a few nightcaps up to the room. A fabulous pillow gift awaited me and here are some cards I made with the stamp set when I got home:
Phew - lots of photos there. I still have more to come, but please pop back tomorrow as I will have photos of all the swaps I received - yum!
Hugs
What a day that was my lovely!! I loved sharing that wonderful dinner with you and you looked amazing !! just like i did with my purse hanging off my behind LOL
ReplyDeleteaw thanks lovely. Hope to see you again soon
ReplyDeletexxx