Vienna: home of the Hapsburgs

March 23rd

Our train got into Vienna around at 6 in the morning and headed to the hostel, where they told us we'd have to wait until 8 when the shift change came to check in. Since it was around 7 by that time we decided to stick around for an hour and promptly passed out on the couches in the hostel lobby. An hour later, the new people on duty told us we'd have to wait until later in the day to check in. At least we got to nap some. We left our stuff in storage, headed to a bakery for breakfast and then into town. First stop: Stephansdom (St. Stephen's Cathedral). It was lovely and the pulpit was pretty awesome. There has been a church on this site for over 80 years but all that's left of the original 13th century building are the front towers and doorway. I was excited about this church because in it are urns containing the entrails of some of the Hapsburgs. However, we couldn't see them since they are in a vault under the main alter. Still, famous entrails! Cane you tell I like old cathedrals? Stephansdom also has a really cool tiles roof, which I some how completely managed not to take a pic of (or maybe I deleted it while making room for Italy pics, or it is one of the photos my computer randomly decided not to download). Anyway, more about tile roofs when we get to Budapest.

this pics is from wikipedia. It's hard to take nice sneaky pics in dark churches ok :)
tile roof--found online

After the cathedral, we went to the Hofburg, the seat of the Holy Roman Emperors from 1438 to 1583 and from 1612 to 1806. From then until 1918, it was the seat f the Emperor of Austria and today is the official residence of the President of Austria. It is also the home of the Winter Ridding school and Lipizzaner horses, which we did not get to see despite my attempts to convince Rose that yes, that is a famous thing, albeit one that appeals to families with small children. But there was plenty to do at the Hofburg otherwise.

There were some cool Roman ruins being excavated a lower level than the sidewalk just outside the Hofburg

Kelly and Rose

First we audio toured out way thought the state apartments where we spent a ridiculous amount of time looking at an entire floor of silver and china before getting to the actual state rooms and a huge section on he life of Empress Elizabeth (24 December 1837 – 10 September 1898). The exhibit certainly gave the impression that's she's pretty famous so I won't go much into her. But here are four cool things about Sissi (her nickname): 1) She had very very long hair. 2)She loved Hungary and spoke Hungarian fluently. This is very very difficult, as I learned in Budapest. 3) She was assassinated by an anarchist. 4) she had diamond stars that she wore in her hair. I find this cool because I swear they were in a book about tiara that I found in the library a number of years ago.

Empress Elizabeth with diamond stars in her hair by Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Elizabeth by Franz Xaver Winterhalter. Note the super long hair.

Next, we went by Augustinerkirche in the Hofburg complex. It is the former parish church of the Hapsburgs. and has a gorgeous 14th century Gothic interior. In one chapel is a series of silver urns containing the hearts of the Hapsburgs. I'm not quite sure why bits of Hapsburg are apparently scattered all over Vienna but it sure makes a fun tour. The church also contains the late 18th century tomb of Maria Christina the favorite daughter of Empress Maria Theresa ( Maria Theresa is cool because she was the sovereign in her own right rather than by marriage and the only female ruler of the Hapsburg domains. She also had 16 children including Marie Antoinette). The tomb was designed by Canova, whose own similar looking tomb we saw later in the trip.


Our final stop, after lunch, rounded out the Hapsburg-ful day. We went spent the afternoon at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, which has a lot of great Flemish painting amount other things. The collections are based built up by the Hapsburgs over the centuries. Finally we headed back to the hostel to go to bed early after a night on the train and a full day of Hapsburgs. But this certainly wasn't the end of the Habsburgs who we ran into again in Budapest and Italy.

statue of Maria Theresa outside the museum