Why am I not a princess?!

After Mozarthaus, Alison and I again attempted to locate the Hofburg Palace, and finally did! It's huge, and practically in the middle of the city. We also almost got taken down by some horse-drawn carriages trying to get to it.

It’s pretty funny that we couldn’t find it the first day, but I guess that will kind of demonstrate just how many huge old buildings there were in those few blocks of the city. After we found it, we stopped for lunch at a café. Lunch actually ended up being more like ‘mid afternoon dessert’ – we decided to try sacher torte. SO GOOD. And we each had chocolate/coffee/iced tasty things because it was sooooooo hot out.
We then took a tour of the Hofburg – our ticket let us in to the Silver Collection, the Sisi museum, and the Imperial Apartments. We were mostly just interested in seeing the Imperial Apartments, but we walked through the other two exhibits quickly. The silver collection was about 15 minutes of ‘OOOO THAT’S SHINY’ and ‘did they eat off of solid gold plates?!’. The Sisi museum was interesting – it showed the life of Empress Sisi – wife of Franz Joseph. She is supposed to have been the most beautiful woman of her time, but was also quite opposed to the court lifestyle, so was kind of mysterious. And she was assassinated, so of course there’s a whole mystique about her now. What I got out of it was that she was anorexic and a little crazy.

Finally, we got to the Imperial Apartments. I WANTED TO BE A PRINCESS SO BAD. I kept asking Alison why I didn’t get to be a princess, and she quite aptly responded ‘If you were a princess, they wouldn’t let you do science.’ So, I guess overall I’m OK with my life direction. They didn’t let us take pictures inside of the apartments, which was quite sad, because everything was gorgeous. The Habsburgs used the Hofburg as their winter residence in the city, and went out to Schonbrunn for their summer holiday. So amazing.

After touring the Imperial Apartments, we went to the Secular and Sacred Treasury. Crowns, jewels, and relics, basically. Here are some highlights.

Crown. Pretty. and Shiny.

The crib of Napoleon's Son. He married one of the daughters of Maria Teresa, Marie Louise, so the baby Napoleon was technically a Habsburg. When Napoleon fell, his wife and baby came back to Vienna.

The largest emerald in the world.

Unicorn Horn, or narwhal tusk, you decide.

A huggggggge agate bowl. What made it really valuable is that part of the natural veining of the agate looks like it says Christ, so the Habsburgs thought this could have been the Holy Grail.

This was in the reliquary: a nail from the True Cross.

Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. With lots and lots of jewels.



Coronation robes, with gold threads. Pretttty.

Coronation medallion of the Order of the Golden Fleece. They never quite explained the order, but there is a golden fleece hanging from this collar.

Goblet! and British tourist who wouldn't get out of my way when I was taking the picture.



After this, we decided to go over to the Belvedere Museum, which has the world’s largest collection of Klimt paintings….