Hofburg and Prater

Today was museums followed by a bit of fun. The Hofburg Complex was the seat of Austrian power for hundreds of years, now it has Museums, Â the National Library… you get the idea. The first was visited was the Silberkammer which contains the court tableware, silverware etc. A very interesting and large collection. These people were far ahead of the Jones if you know what I mean. There was a collection of chamber-pots and when we explained to Sydney what they were for she said “Those poor servants…”. The explanation of a duck press brought a “Gross”.

Next was the State Apartments which were the residential and state apartments of Emperor Franz Joseph I. and Empress Elisabeth (or Sisi) and show 19th-century imperial life. No pictures allowed, sorry… The apartments were typical of royalty of this time period but also had a sense of modesty to them. Or at least what modesty an Emperor and Empress could have. Empress Elisabeth was quite the feisty one rebelling more and more against court life as she got older. The odd thing was Swarovski Crystals was the sponsor of the first part of the exhibit which focused on Empress Elisabeth’s life and looked a lot like a Swarovski store. It was an odd juxtaposition since the Empress seemed to like modesty and Swarovski is, well, Swarovski. I wonder what the Empress and Emperor would say if they saw their personal items displayed in such a manner.

Next museum, the Treasuries which has items royalty ‘need’. Beautiful. Them Jones can live….

The last museum was the Albertina a recently restored museum that houses one of the largest collections of prints, Â drawings,Â modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings in the world. Supposedly. Both Kim and I walked out disappointed. The colletion of old masters was good but nothing that could not be seen elsewhere. There was an Alex Katz exhibition and although his works looked like they would be fine as individual pieces as a collection they walked on each other thus rendering them flat. What really surprised us was when found a print that Kim really wanted to see,Â Young Hare by Albrecht DÃ¼rer, and in fine print was written ‘facsimile’ or copy. In fact all the prints had this tag and when we asked where were the originals are we were told they were not sure, there are many museums in Vienna. So we left and if you come to Vienna skip this one.

In the evening we went to Prater. Originally an Imperial hunting grounds, it is now a public park with a fun fair which was our destination. Lots of fun with Sydney including the longest bumper car ride I have ever taken….