Vienna Day 2 -- Hofburg Estates and Natural History Museum

Update: Back from Kecskemét, Brussels, and Amsterdam. 

Kecskemét is the 5th largest city in Hungary and we were pleasantly surprised by it. We had a hotel right on the main square and got to enjoy some type of local fair/festival thing going on...don't know what it was for though. Oh well, we enjoyed watching this greaser band play for awhile...not to mention the dancing.

Unfortunately, we were laughing too hard to video them singing "Wiwa Las Wegas."

Brussels was, in a word, shit. In several words, it was the worst place we've been. But, Amsterdam more than made up for it. At this rate, you can look for those blogs sometime in 2013. 

Also, we will be home in just about 5 weeks and are really looking forward to it! 

Ok, on to the blog...

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We got up early the next day and headed out to grab some coffee and breakfast before hitting the Hofburg Estates and Natural History Museum. Funny thing though, nothing was open. In fact, there weren't many people on the street at all. Hmmmm. Eventually, we found a Starbucks that was open and (37 dollars later) had two cups of coffee and a bagel. Turns out the day after Halloween is a religious holiday (I knew that) and most everything was closed for the day. Luckily, the tourist spots were still open so it worked out well as it wasn't too awful crowded walking around.  

Looking back, I think we were amazed at Vienna for two main reasons -- the prices and the sheer size of it all. We had only seen Budapest at this point -- and Budapest is not like Vienna. Budapest is huge but it's spread out along the banks of the Danube. Vienna just kind of towered over us as we walked through it. As of this writing, we have seen several other Euro capitals (Rome, Bratislava, Prague, Brussels, and Amsterdam) and so the size and scope of Vienna is not as impressive now for us as it was then. The prices weren't any more outrageous than anywhere else we've been either...except Budapest!

Same street that parade/protest was on in previous blog. Our hotel is about a 15 minute walk down this road.

A few turns and blocks later we arrived at the Museum Quarter

This is not a museum...this is just the entrance to the museums

Franz Joseph Hall -- concerts and other exhibits and stuff

To the right, Modern Art Museum -- further past this is the architectural museum

Leopold Museum -- further past this is a kid's museum

We didn't go to any of these. We had decided on the Natural History Museum, Schonbrunn Palace and The Albertina. There were these and about twelve others to which we could have gone but, frankly, and I know this will be a shock, we're not big museum junkies (I think I mentioned how much fun we had at the Sausage Festival, didn't I?).

We headed back out and across the street to the Hofburg (Hapsburg) Estates. We took a picture of the map and hopefully it will help make sense of some of this (for us too).

Ok, the MQ is at the bottom of the map (#19).
The Natural History Museum is #18 on the left side of Maria Theresa Square (Platz)
#17 is an identical building that is the Art History Museum (separated by the giant Maria Theresa Statue in the middle
That leads you (after crossing the street) towards the Heldenplatz (which is a big open square itself)
and then finally into the living quarters and other smaller museums within the estates themselves.
Gigantic.
In this blog we went to the Natural History Museum and the big garden to the left of the Heldenplatz.
We also walked around the rest of the outside of the Estates.

Maria Theresa Square

This is the side of one of the two museums in the square

Damn! We either need to figure out how to do panaramic shots on our camera or how to smoosh these pics together on this blog

Natural History Museum

From the steps of the museum looking back towards the Art History Museum

So, it turns out the Hapsburgs, particularly Franz Joseph, did more than just build wildly extravagant stuff with their wealth.  Collections began as early as the late 1700's and the museums were built in 1889 to house them. The Natural History Museum holds over 30 million objects. I'd like to think that the Hapsburgs collected all this stuff just so regular people could see it but I have a feeling they were just showing off. 

Either way, here's some of the 30 million!

Inside, under the dome

Yeah kid, I know the feeling

Love to be able to say what all of these were but most of the explanations were in German...not all though.

Straight out of Thundar the Barbarian...anyone?

Orb...haunted...nuff said

The first, let's say, 12 rooms were filled with rocks and minerals

Several of these were from Illinois and one was granite...not from Granite, just granite. 

Ha! Did I mention we're not museum type folks?!
Better question, do you think the guys that excavated this thought any different?

Yet another reason to never go past my knees in the ocean...any ocean.

Meliss wants one of these

Shark teeth

Giant shark teeth! Try finding these in Florida, Mom!

Ok, so the reason we wanted to go to this museum is that it housed the Venus of Willendorf. We had covered this in my World history classes and being able to see something in person that I had only previously seen in books was pretty neat. 

We had to walk under a big shroud to take a look -- and it's this little tiny thing, but really quite remarkable to see something this ancient.

Another similar item...

Anyway, more pics...

Ick!

Us with thermal camera

Four hours later...back to the square.

MQ behind and Maria Theresa pointing the way to the Estates.

We couldn't get thru here the day before because some big shot was around but today it was open. This is through the gates looking back at Maria Theresa Square

This is the Heldenplatz to the right (refer to map above)
Also, everything in Vienna was under construction.

Me under big-ass statue to the left

And then from that statue the rest of the Heldenplatz...
This is just another opening square...to the square that leads into the Estates.
I think the buildings were used as offices for members of court 

Once thru there, you get to the next square

The next square

If you youtube "Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations + Vienna" you'll get a better idea of how huge this place is.

And under that dome thru to the other side...

We could have gone into the Imperial Apartments, the Sisi Museum (anorexic wife of Franz Joseph I, and friend of Hungary...according to the Austrians but not so many of the Hungarians to whom we have spoken. Although the Ersebet {Elizabeth} bridge in Budapest is named for her) or to see some famous horse stables.  But, we didn't. We just walked along and tried to take in some little bit of this wealth.  Little did we know what we would see at Schonbrunn!

More panorama problems!

Oiler man made it!

We began to head out but first Meliss thought it would be funny to have an Oiler man picture in the guardhouse.  I thought it would be funnier to take pictures of her getting in and out of there.

I was right.

On the way out, we strolled through the Imperial Garden. It was pretty impressive on this cold Fall day. I am sure it is even more so during Spring and Summer.

Looking back at Maria Theresa Square

And, back towards the Heldenplatz...that's the statue I was under earlier.

So, we felt sufficiently cultured and classy for the day and headed back towards the hotel. We stopped for a drink at a place that was open and talked to some of the locals. They liked to mention that we owed so much money to China. We didn't mention the 30's and 40's.

They have good beer though!

Random open bar

Sweet moustache...and dogs in bars and restaurants everywhere. Everywhere we've been, not just Vienna.

We had dinner here -- Pizza! That well-known Austrian specialty. 

And just in case I didn't mention how classy and cultured we had become...

Up next Schonnbrunn Palace...