Our stay in Vienna has been quite enjoyable. We really lucked out, once again, on our location. The city center is easily reached from the island and after taking the train the first day we found that there are excellent dedicated bicycle paths from our doorstep right into the inner city where all of the museums and points of interest are situated. So after the first day we started riding our bicycles into the historic area for our day’s outing. We found an excellent, quiet spot near the big, historic library to lock up our bikes.
Since there was a circus in the park, just down the street from
our house, we went to that the second night we were in town. Our hostess
had free passes which were distributed to the neighborhood and generously
made them available to us. This was our favorite kind of circus, (next
to Cirque de Soleil which is so exceptional it can’t even enter into this
rating), the one-ring kind. We enjoyed acrobats and clowns and trained
horses and jugglers and magicians and trained dogs.There are many, many museums, churches and art galleries in Vienna and we decided to be selective about how many and which ones to visit. So, we first visited the Globe Museum, which is only open 1 hour a day, 3 days a week. The attendant was distinctly unsettled to actually have a visitor and spent the entire hour we were there counting up his daily proceeds of E5.
The Globe Museum was quite interesting and featured original globes and many reproductions of old globes and maps. It was interesting to see matching sets of globes, one of the earth and one of the stars. These were apparently very popular in the 18th and 19th centuries. The oldest original globe at the museum was from 1536 and there were several replicas of even older ones. It is amazing to realize that just a few years before this globe was made most people thought the earth was flat. We were also amazed at the amount of detail and level of accuracy on the old globes. There were huge globes, 3 feet in diameter, and little tiny globes.
In the afternoon we visited the Albertina, one of the most well-known
museums. The featured artist was Albrecht
Durer. The curator has done a masterful job of presenting the collection
and it was easy to follow the development of Durer’s
skill, level of detail and ability to show perspective. We also enjoyed
an interesting display of photography in another wing. The artist,
I can’t remember his name, had one series of photos of “grafitti” , starting
with cave dweller’s carvings and covering every stage, right up to current
times.
The next day we visited the Treasury Museum. This exhibit displays the vast holdings of the Habsburg dynasty. It included richly embroidered coronation robes with ermine capes, lavishly jeweled crowns, gowns covered in pearls, king’s baby blankets and christening dresses, belts, swords, and jewelry. There are also many religious valuables, including vestments, altar cloths, and relics. Among the relics is a large golden cross with a big chunk of wood inset into the gold. This is purportedly a piece of the crucifixion cross soaked in Christ’s blood. This was acquired by the royal family in 400ad and has been held in the family ever since. My favorite pieces on display were a fabulous set of opal jewelry which was given to Maria Theresia on her wedding.
We took the afternoon off and hung out in the park for awhile watching people bungee jump off of the tower and
toddlers riding on mechanical animals that they could steer.
Then in the evening we went back into town for a special event, “The
Long Night of Museums”. For E10 you could get a pass to all museums
and the museums were all open until 1am. It was very busy and there
were quite long lines, so we spent some of our time sitting in the courtyard
listening to the music concert. The weather was fine and the night
was balmy. The crowd was extremely well-behaved and we had a good time.
Sunday we rode our bikes out to visit Maria Theresia’s palace,
Schonbrunn. I think I have told you about Maria Theresia before, but
just to remind you, she had 16 children and married off all of her 11 daughters
to kings. One of her daughters was Marie Antoinette.Naturally the palace, which was used by the Habsburg royalty right up until they gave up the monarchy in the early 1900s, was elaborate. I enjoyed the displays of furnishings and the audio commentary, but my favorite was the room with all of the portraits of Maria Theresia and Josef and their children.
Today is Monday and we are just going to hang out, get packed and ready for our 10 am departure tomorrow.