We have never been to the National Library in Vienna, and I read it is amazing, so off we went! It is kind of expensive considering you just see one room, but wow was it a beautiful place.
It was completed in 1730. There are nearly 200,000 books in this one hall printed in the years 1501-1850.
There are also a lot of really cool globes. There is a globe museum in here too, but we didn’t spring the money for a visit. It is tough to see too many look-but-don’t-touch places in one day when Oliver is around. He very much wanted to go touch the “big ball”, but I don’t think they would have liked that too much…
In the entire National Library there are over 8 million books and objects – wow… My guidebook from the library also informs me that this is one of the most important libraries in the world.
Here is the beautiful fresco ceiling in the State Hall of the National Library (aka Prunksaal im Österreichische Nationalbibliothek – try saying that three times fast…) 
Here is Elora checking out the really old books. She was actually fascinated by this room and loved looking at all the fancy books they had on display in the glass cases (we weren’t supposed to take pictures of those…)
If you look close you can sort of see the non-photographable books in the case. They all had beautiful hand written pages and illustrations in them, and some of the topics were religion, medicine, astronomy, and astrology.
While Oliver made too much noise, tried to sit on a stone bench (how shocking!) and Chris got told off for all those offenses, Elora and Grandma checked out the exhibits more thoroughly. It was only a short visit, but well worth it.
