The Hofburg Palace complex, with all of its sprawling buildings and luscious gardens seem to go on forever.
The area is almost too large to appreciate from the ground. You only begin to realize how large it is by looking at an aerial photo. It may be difficult to realize its true grandeur from the photos we took. Very appropriately, we entered the complex from the southeast via Josef’s Platz. I’m really digging all the appearances of “Josef” here, mainly because my name is spelled correctly!
Josefsplatz is home to the Jewish Museum and the Augustinerkirche, where an interfaith dialogue was taking place.
The Augustinerkirche was less ornate than the Dominikanerkirche, but no less stunning and humbling. We then proceeded to Michaelerplatz, which is one of the “main” entrances.
On a somewhat unrelated note, Michaelerplatz is home to some Roman ruins that were discovered only 20 years ago. Older aerial photos, like one we saw inside the Hofburg tour, show Michaelerplatz as a solid intersection, not interrupted an area half the size of a football field.
Here is an explanation – click to enlarge!
The Holfburg complex contains no less than 19 museums, so unless you have several days to spend there, it’s necessary to pick two or three on which to focus. The first one we selected was the Sisi Museum, which discusses the life of Empress Elizabeth (affectionately called “Sisi” – pronounced “See-See” – by Emperor Franz Josef and the adoring Austrians), their official residences (The Kaiserappartements), and displays their the enormous (and stunning, but seemingly endless) collection of cookware, dinnerware, and tableware. The only photos we were allowed to take were these, which show the grand staircase that leads into the Emperor’s apartment.
They appeared to have a set of tableware for everything. They also represented the changing styles during their rule. Some of the sets were huge – with hundreds of place settings. Some were silver, others were porcelain. There was a very good explanation of how the porcelain came into use. Originally, porcelain was considered inferior to silver. However, during the Napoleon era, all silver – with no exception, including the royal place settings – were required to be melted into coin. The silver was then replaced by porcelain. Some of the dinners had to feed thousands of people. Some of the flatware and porcelain is still used today at official Austrian state dinners when other heads of state are in attendance, and is indicated as the royal china with the double-headed eagle. The exhibit also showed immense candelabras that were almost too ornate. My first thought after leaving this part of the exhibit was, “Man, I thought we had a lot of crap we didn’t use!”
The Sisi Museum focused on the life of Empress Elizabeth, from when she was a young girl and a teenager, to when she was swept away by the Emperor at about 15 years of age. Orginally, Franz Josef was supposed to marry Sisi’s older sister, but he fell for his younger cousin instead. She was overwhelmed with love for the handsome man, but wished that he wasn’t the Emperor as she was a bit of a recluse even at that age and had great reservations about joining the royal family and the duties that came along with it. As she aged, and started a family, she became very reclusive, as she was completely and utterly miserable in her life. She hated her official duties and responsibilities as Empress, and wanted to return to her much more simple life in Bavaria. It’s very clear that she lived a very sad life, as indicated by her clothing, actions, and notes from her youngest, beloved daughter, who recorded many journal entries describing her mother’s unhappiness. Sad as it is, the gentleman who later assassinated her actually gave her her wish.
Her apartment, as well as the emperor’s, were no less stunning than the exhibit about their courtship. Similar to the picture in the grand stair, it had red carpet with gold leaving all over the place. Each one had a small salon, grand salon, sleeping room, writing room/office, bathroom. Sisi’s apartment was the one of the first to have a private WC, meaning she didn’t have to use the outhouse.
After a quick lunch break, we returned to walk the grounds. We have been blessed with fantastic weather. While there has barely been a cloud in the sky over the last few days, it has been borderline brutally hot. Needless to say, Susan and I have both gotten quite a bit of sun.
This is one of the interior courtyards
This clock is pretty cool. Note the three parts, especially the ball at the top that rotates as the day passes.
This gate leads you to the “main” main entrance, shown in the picture above before the explanation of the Sisi Museum. This building contains the National Library of Austria. We walked through the gardens, which contained beautiful rose gardens.
At the far end of the garden is the home of he Austrian Parliament
Here is the Kunsthistorischesmuseum, the Art History Museum. This is an immense museum that takes a day or two, at least, to complete.
After lunch, we proceeded around the back to the Schmetterlinghaus, or Butterfly Museum. This museum was just what we needed – short and sweet – but it offered no relief to the heat. This museum is a tropical garden. Not only was it hot, but it was extremely humid, so we began to sweat instantly.
The first thing you see is butterflies to be
Then you enter the “jungle,” where they fly around free. Some were cooperative, others weren’t!
Snack time!
This one was especially tame
This one is the same kind as the one that’s in the picture with Susan. Note the beautiful blue on the top of its wings.
This brings us to the end of our time at the Hofburg palace, but not the end to our second full day in Vienna. We considered visiting the Schatzkammer, which contains ecclesiastical and secular treasures, some of which are priceless, and the Spanish Riding School, however cost and time seemed prohibitive.
We turned our attention - and our legs – toward the Nachsmarkt, which is the largest street market in Vienna. It stretches for half a kilometer, and features a huge array of wine, cheese, spices, fruit, meat, seafood, and (at the far end), a flea market. It was funny because we were repeatedly hit with things that smelled very good, and others that smelled very bad. There was one place called Kaseland (Cheeseland) that was filled to the brim with more cheese than I have ever seen. The two photos show both directions, but don’t really do the size justice.
Since it was getting late in the afternoon, we turned around, went back through the market and part of the Hofburg Gardens to Stephanskirche, which is the “main” or most recognizable cathedral in Vienna. The South tower was closed for “technical problems,” so we planned to try that again on Thursday. However, we were still able to photograph the outside.
You can see the spires of the cathedral reflecting in the windows of this building.
This being the latest in a series of days with lots of walking, we returned to the hotel to rest (and post on our blog)! We passed Herr Mozart on the way
And I took this lovely photo of my lovely wife on the way back.
We did go back out for dinner, but ended up at a sausage stand northwest of the hotel. I know that sounds anticlimactic, but this sausage stand, Wurstelstand am Hoher Marked was listed as a must-see in our Lonely Planet guide. We then went for desert at Eiscafe am Schwedenplatz. I had Truffel, and Susan had Spaghetti Eis. Both were beginning to succumb to the heat (the high was around 86 Fahrenheit) by the time we took the photo.
Tomorrow marks our last day in Vienna, as well as our first in Budapest!
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