Vienna Day One Continues!

The rest of day one (February 28th) starting with the rest of the crazy stuff I saw in the National Museum:

These are hand stones and model mines were carved into them. They were popular gifts during the 18th century.

Why yes I would love a solid gold vanity set and tea set…. said only the richest Kings and Queens ever. Why would something you use everyday be made out of gold? A little excessive but very pretty none the less.

Those are not real flowers, porcelain was used to make those. So its a solid gold and porcelain tea set.

Emperor Franz Joseph I - he was known for his sideburns and mustache. Apparently he kept it so well trimmed that this was the only way the people knew who he was since he was the only one in the whole empire to keep up this 1880s mens fashion.

Right in the middle of the museum was this very nice coffee shop.

A portrait of Jane Seymore the third wife of Henry VIII

So I saw these two paintings and immediately thought of Desperate Housewives and the intro to the show. The paintings were made around 1510/1520.

No idea why but there was a whole room dedicated to how animals were slaughtered to eat. Strangest room I think I have ever come on in a museum.

Favorite painting in the whole museum, can you guess why? its flowers!

I love finding amateur artists in museums it takes a lot of confidence to come out to paint something that is famous enough to be in a museum.

Faberge egg! I wasn't supposed to take pictures but I got one out before I was caught!

Knight gloves lol from 1544

A view from above and below of the cafe

Me!

Toys, though I don't know for who and at one time period

14th century knight sword!

and a 14th century cross bow, with a wrench

In the middle of the museum area was a statue to Marie Therese, the empress from 1717-1780 and was the mother to Marie Antoinette. I knew they liked her when she was ruling but I didn't know they continue to. Its nice to see when countries, who are democratic, respect their past and pay respect to them with monuments.

The national library and archives

Middle of the Hapsburg palace in the center of town. The President lives in the wing to the right, the old wing of Marie-Therese and her family.

Entrance to the center of all the shops.

Store lane!

I love the advertising for the donuts. I don't know what it says but it looks funny.

More stores

Entrance to the Hapsburg Palace for the Kings and Queens when they lived here.

I found another one!!

Inside the castle was the dish sets of every emperor or king.

1880s hair goods used by Empress Elizabeth better known as Sisi. I got to tour the appartments in this palace but pictures were strickly forbiden. I hear the guards in every room tell people to not take pictures. I opted for the guided tour since I didn't know much about Austrian history. Coming from French history it was very cool to see how the other half of European royals lived during the same time as the French. For the most part the two countries did not interact so their history didn't overlap much at all during the tour. It was pretty much just all about Empress Elizabeth and how she changed many rules about women in Austria and then her husband Franz Joseph. Empress Elizabeth (Sisi) was different because she shaped how people thought of her which was different than those Empresses before her. So there are no pictures of her after she is in her 30s, she worked out every morning, had a strict diet and she traveled a lot. She was originally from a small German country and she spent a lot of time there when she was married or in other countries. She didn't like Austria at all so she tried to stay out as much as she could. Since she traveled a lot and tried to keep a certain image up, she became a world wide celebrity. Her apartments and those she shared with her husband showed how she kept up her figure and her style. She had a room dedicated to her hair. Every morning she would spend hours on it not only because it was so long but because cared how it looked. You could tell from the tour that either the people of Austria still love her or are fascinated by her or us tourists are. We barley touched on any other king/queen of Austria. Which was a bummer for me because I wanted to know more about Maria Therese who was the mother of Marie Antoinette. I asked the tour guide when the tour was over why he didn't talk about that period much and he said it was because we didn't go through those apartments. The apartments that she lived in are now occupied by the President of Austria. Apparently they are really pretty.

The cathedral of Saint-Etienne called Stephansdom built in the 13th century.

This was the sign for the square where the statue of Marie Therese was. Its just seems like such an old sign so I had to take a pic!

That night I went to go see a concert where Mozart and Bach was being played in another Hapsburg Palace (yes there is two in the city that are less than a hour walk from each other.) It was a good performance but it ended like a comedy. For about an hour and a half 3 violinists, one pianist, one cello player and one clarinet player played Mozart and Bach in the same hall that Mozart played for the Empress Marie Therese. Then at the end they stood to leave and bowed while everyone clapped and decided to play another song. Well somehow everyone started clapping at the same time so they played some song that was interactive and we had to clap along at certain times which the first violinist told us when to. Then they decided to play another song and this is where it got funny. So they played for a little bit and then 'seemed' to get tired until the audience clapped and 'gave' them power to go on. It was hilarious! I really enjoyed the whole experience.