Every museum!

Alison and I first went out in search of food, finding a café with traditional Viennese food – schnitzel! We then walked towards the center of the city, and ended up at Stephensdom, the huge cathedral. It’s HUGE.



We also saw another church, which was exquisitely gilded, with amazing paintings and frescos.



After this church, we decided to head towards the museum area. Side note – while walking around Vienna, people dressed as Mozart approach you, and ask you in multiple languages if you would like to see a Mozart concert. They are actually pretty aggressive about asking you.

We reached the Albertina, and saw a collection with some of Monet’s water lilies, and a lot of Degas as well. From the Albertina, we walked out in to the gardens, attempting to find the Imperial Apartments at the Hofburg. However, that whole part of the city is really a complex of old imperial buildings, museums, etc. So, we gave up on looking for the Hofsburg for the day because we were kind of lost in the park…





...and found the Kunsthistorisches Museum. This museum was built by Emperor Franz Joseph to house the Habsburg’s collection – honestly, I couldn’t what was more impressive, the artwork or the amazing architecture of the building.
The view from the front door: Theseus slaying a centaur

More of the grand staircase:

The main cupola:

The fresco on the ceiling: I think it was called 'Apotheosis of the Renaissance'


We got to see the Ancienct Greek area, the Ancient Egyptian display, the English/Dutch/German painting wing, and then had to rush through the French/Spanish/Italian painting wing because the museum was closing. I think we spent about 2 and a half hours there – with the ticket, you also get a free audio guide, with highlights of the display rooms. Here are some of the things highlighted on the tour:

small mummified crocodile:

many baby mummified crocodiles:

huge mummified crocodile!


Grecian Urn!

Camels!!

After getting kicked out of the museum by a very aggressive announcement system, we were starving and thirsty (it was about 85 degrees and extremely sunny the entire weekend). Also tired – we had each gotten about 4 hours of sleep during the night of travels. So, of course, we headed to an amusement park – right in the middle of the city there is a park called Prater, which has this huge Ferris Wheel called Riesenrad. We first stopped for food at this restaurant called XXL. I should have realized, then, that when I ordered a bratwurst it would have been about 1 meter long. Mildly traumatic. Then, we went on the wheel, and got to see out to the whole city, which was really pretty. WE could see the spire of Stephensdom:

Then we went to the hotel, circled all the things we wanted to see on our map, and got lots of sleep to prepare for the next two days of adventuring to everything in Vienna.