| Family Travels Vienna |
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| Vienna is a vibrant, wonderful cosmopolitan city, with an old town conveniently packed inside the "Ring Road" The public transportation of metros and trams is very helpful to reduce walking. Filled with sightseeing "must dos", cultural venues, fun places to explore, great pedestrian zones and great nightlife in front of the Rathaus...Vienna has it all. It will be very hard to put everything on one webpage... So I am splitting into two pages. "Vienna" will picture the sights, places to go, museums and churches. "Fun Vienna" will highlight markets, grocery stores, Demel's (a pastry shop), the amusement park and the wonderful sprawling food stalls and movie screen opera nights in front of the town hall. Come visit...Explore...relax and have some fun. We gave it three nights...but you could easily stay a week. |
| Date Last Visited -- 2008 |
| Vienna (Wein) |
| Treasured Relics: Reported piece of Christ's Cross with Nail Hold Holy Lance that pierced Christ's Side Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. |
| Solid gold Candlesticks |
| 2860 carat Emerald |
| Musical Instrument Museum |
| Another Wing of the Hofburg Palace..... The New Palace Museum |
| Above: Arch ways and building pediments and ornaments Left: Ephesus, Turkey |
| Ephesus Statuary Another Example of Capitalism at Work In return for financing excavations of Ephesus, the Austrians were granted rights to many, many pieces of Statuary. What a shame they didn't just offer to finance a museum on site to keep the decorative pieces with the buildings in Ephesus, Turkey. Similar to the situation where we have visited a very "naked" Acropolis in Athens, Greece because most of the ornaments have to moved to the British Museums for "safekeeping?" Anyway, we were very happy to visit this museum as we had just left Ephesus a week earlier...so it really was the icing on the cake. |
| Above: The Great Library of Ephesus Left: Removed Statuary |
Medieval Weaponry Museum |
| Hofburg Palace Is a huge complex...Home to the Lippizaner Choir, the Austrian's President's Office and over 5000 government workers. It also house three Important Sights Imperial Apartments Treasury New Palace Museums The New Palace Museums is home to three fine small museums Ephesus Statuary Musical Instruments Medieval Weaponary |
| We visited all six museums in about five hours. Get the Audioguide... but only listen to a few selections or brief descriptions Give the Imperial Apts about 1/2 hour (if you have seen one castle you have seen them all) Hit the highlights of the Treasury -- (Rick Steves' book will help) Listen to the Audioguide for descriptions of the musical instruments and weapons that interest you. The Ephesus Statuary probably won't be a huge attraction unless you have been there |
| Had enough of the Museums...Now have some fun Out the front entrance you can cross to the Volksgartens filled with flowers and head to the Rathaus for some beer and food Or out the right entrance, you can head down Kohlmarkt to Demel (pastries) and Julium am Mein (gourmet groceries) And take a right on Graben St (don't miss the original "loos") to St. Stephans |
| Travel Note: if you are traveling in August, you will miss many of the sights. The Vienna's Boy Choir is on vacation, the Opera is closed for the month and the Spanish Riding School is also closed. But as we were eating our Demel pastries the horses were brought from the stables across the street...so we got a brief glimpse |
| Tram #2 A little weary...and want to rest your feet Follow Rick Steve's Self Guided Tram Tour Simply hop on the Tram # 2 (try to sit on the right) and it will circle Old Vienna. Mom made Homework copies of the book for each of the kids...so I didn't have to yell the sights out on a crowded bus Metro Info You can buy single ride passes or day passes (good deal) or multi day passes) or even better Acht Tage Karte It is a 8 day pass....that can be Shared. We purchased two Acht Tage Kartes (for 16 days worth) and our family of five had three days of unlimited transportation at a much cheaper rate. Visit the actual customer service booth to purchase |
| Kaisergruft 147 tombs of the Hapsburg Royal Family who ruled from 1273 - 1918 including the most famous Maria Theresa (mother of 12 children including marie Antoinnette) and Franz Josef 1848-1916 and his empress Elizabeth (Sissy) As you enter buy the layout map at the front door with the family tree and coffin location |
Vienna has so much to offer to see and do. We did not get to visit the following sites and attractions So I guess we will just have to go back The following sights are closed in August ***The Vienna Opera ***The Vienna Boys Choir Concerts ***The Lippazaner Riding School Horses We did not have time to visit ***Schonbrunn Palace—that reportedly rivals Versailles ***Kunsthistorische Museum--Hapsburg art collection— Durer, Rubens, Titans, Raphael, Bruegrel Natural History Museum—moon rocks and dinosaur stuff Academy of Fine Arts—Sosch Bottecelli, Rubens Belvedere Palace—palace of Prince Eugene of Savoy 19th-20th C art Judenplatz—Jewish museum Leopold Museum—Modern art of Schiele, Historic Museum of City of Vienna Folkloric Museum of Austria Museum of Military History Imperial Furniture Collection Leichtenstein Museum KunstHaus Wein |