The first place Elora said she wanted to show Grandma was the “Knight Museum” so we headed over to the Neuburg to see the collection of musical instruments and the armory. They have new audio guides that show pics of the items and also play samples of music from many of the instruments. This was excellent, as it kept Oliver entertained most of the time we were there.
Our friend John came with us too. I really enjoyed getting to look around in here with an audio guide to share with my mom since the kids always commandeer mine. I actually got to listen to some of the music and learn about some of the instruments.
Elora loved being able to listen to the music. She really enjoyed the guitar section of the museum too. I could have spent all day in this section of the museum!
This was the highlight of the museum trip. It is a stone table with a drinking song carved around the edges in three different languages, and in each language the song was written in three parts – tenor, bass, and alto. The song was played on the audio guide and both Elora and Oliver had me play the song for them over and over for the remainder of our time in the museum. They need to put a repeat button on those guides!
Elora doesn’t look that excited in this pic, but check out the display behind her! They are toy musical instruments, and there is actually a mini bagpipe for dolls to play with. Awesome.
We headed into the armory next, and Elora was excited to pose next to the armor that is just her size. She asked me why the children had to fight in battles…
Here is Grandma learning about all the armor.
Our friend John was amazed by this section of the museum. He and Chris looked at absolutely every single item on display while Grandma and I tried to keep the kids entertained.
And here is some fancy armor, not used for battle, but for festivals and tournaments. It is so funny to think of armor being made “fashionable”.
Here we are learning about the Rennen, which is different than the Joust, in that the lances were actually sharp and therefore the sport was much more dangerous. Emperor Maximillion promoted this sport which made him very popular among the poorer knights, who competed in this event because it cost less to enter the tournament. They could then win fame and fortune if they did well in the tournaments. Here is Elora choosing which knight she thinks is going to win.
And the jousting knight. There is the straw bag around the horse to protect it, and the lances were tipped. In this sport you tried to unhorse your opponent, in the Rennen I believe you were supposed to hit the shield of your opponent.
Elora and Grandma in the beautiful palace.
Oliver and Elora hanging out together. I think they may have started pushing each other right after this very sweet picture was taken… sigh.
And finally, the Ephesus museum, with many ruins from the city of Ephesus which was the largest city in ancient Greece, and the ruins are in modern day Turkey. Super amazing stuff in the museum, and there are also pics of the city which also has some really spectacular structures that have been excavated.
Elora really likes this statue of the sphinx. She is fascinated by the story of how sphinxes ask a riddle and attack you when you get it wrong. She makes us tell her all about it every time we see a statue of a sphinx, which is surprisingly often…
These are from the walls of a temple in Ephesus, and they line the walls on both sides of this part of the museum.
Oliver got sick of looking at stuff, and started pretending to feed Daddy rice. Mmmmm…
And we were hungry, so we of course headed over to the Naschmarkt for Grandma’s first kebap. Yum! Grandma says it was very good, even if she is not smiling…
