Vienna (Day One)

~ Prepare to be overwhelmed with pictures, many of which were taken by Marissa. I am dividing the trip into days because I don't want the blog post to be eight miles long, and because it will take me a few days to write about it.

We arrived in Vienna at 11:30 AM on Thursday. I slept almost the entire time on the train, which was nice. We found our way to our hostel easily from the directions they'd provided. Our hostel was really great - Hostel Ruthensteiner - if anyone is planning a trip to Vienna any time soon, I would definitely recommend it. It was very clean and everyone that worked there was really nice and super helpful.

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After we got our luggage situated in our room, we went out to see some things. For some reason, it was snowing all day on Thursday, both in Prague and in Vienna. It seemed to come out of nowhere as it had been pretty warm recently. The weather for our first day was not great. It was cold and wet, but luckily we had lots of things on our list that were indoors. We decided to start with the Hofburg Imperial Palace. It was really amazing. The Habsburg dynasty, who inhabited the palace, ruled Europe for over 600 years, in which time they acquired many amazing things. The first part of the exhibit in the main part of the Palace was a collection all the Royal silver and china. It went on forever, basically. Their plates alone would have taken up several huge rooms.

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A really interesting piece from the dish collection

After the huge china collection, we got to view the Imperial Apartments. They were pretty over-the-top; crystal, velvet, huge portraits, fancy carpets. There was also a special exhibit about Empress Elisabeth, who was married to Franz Josef and lived from 1837-1898. She was called "Sisi" by her husband, and had a really interesting, but in some ways tragic life. She was stabbed to death by an Italian anarchist. Very dramatic.

Sometimes it is hard to believe that actual kings and queens like we see in the movies actually existed. If you are ever in doubt, just go to the Hofburg and visit the Imperial Treasury. This was probably my favorite thing I saw in Vienna. As someone who likes jewelry and gemstones, there was plenty to interest me here. This collection puts the Crown Jewels of England to shame. The opulence and sheer quantity is mindboggling. And it's so amazing how old these things are! There are elaborate, intricate and ornamented garments worn by kings and their courts that are over 1000 years old. You just have to see some of this stuff to believe it. Unfortunately pictures can't even begin to do any of it justice.

After we were done at the treasury, we visited the Augustinian Church, also in the Hofburg complex. Here is the tomb of Maria Christina, built in the 14th century. Very beautiful.

Maria Christina's tomb

By the time we finished looking around at the Augustinian Church, it was evening and the museums were closing, so we headed back to the neighborhood we were staying in. We stopped at a little restaurant and had espresso and sundaes!

We relaxed at the hotel for a while, then went down to the lounge area to plan our next day and get some tips on places to eat dinner. We ended up eating at an Austrian restaurant near our hostel - I had wiener schnitzel (sort of - it was made with turkey instead of veal). It was delicious. A great end to the first day of our trip.

Planning Day 2