We took Grandma to see the Treasury with all the old crowns, sceptors, jewelry, and also an impressive collection of relics. We didn’t have a nice camera, so we only took a couple pics inside to show off Grandma next to the beautiful relics. But there is a really nice collection there and it was fun to go visit again.
This is a painting of a coronation. I can’t remember whose, but I am just amazed at all the people they packed inside the cathedral. There are also paintings that show lines of carraiges of all the different lords and noblemen who would come to pay tribute to newly crowned royalty. We read that the processions would take hours because so many people would come.
And when the kids got bored of looking at Treasure, they played “Let’s pretend to nap on the benches and then wake up exuberantly!” Very fun, but louder than one would expect from a sleeping game.
Here we are walking around at the Hofburg, which is actually really huge when you start wandering around the whole thing. I don’t understand how people would live in such a huge place… I think they must have only ever seen about 1/10 of their own house…
Elora loves these little guard towers, but check this one out. There are actually spikes covering the front of it. To keep bad guys out, or to keep the guards in?
Elora posing with a famous horse statue. Now, I have been told – so if I am wrong I apologize for repeating misinformation – that this statue is very famous because if you notice the entire statue is balanced on the horses hind legs. Most statues (and this part is at least true in Vienna) of people on horses that are rearing up, balance the weight of the statue on the hind legs of the horse and ALSO have the horse’s tail touching the ground. So this one is very famous for not using the tail as additional support for the weight of the statue.
And here we all are in front of the beautiful, huge palace. This is only a tiny part of the whole palace complex…
We walked across the street to the Augarten which has some nice fountains and beautiful roses so that that kids could run around and play after being in the museum all morning.
The kids wanted to feed the ducks, and a lot of birds showed up too. At first Oliver didn’t like this and shouted “No birdies!” because he only wanted to feed the ducks, but after awhile he decided the birds could eat to.
And what would be more fun than feeding the birds until a huge pack of them develops, and then letting the kids loose to chase them? I almost got pelted in the head by birds taking these pics…
Chris repeated the process several times for the kids – good fun, way more amusing than museums. Especially because look at the air Elora is getting! She must be trying to fly away too.
We wandered around the gardens for awhile. It has been under construction for the past few years, so here is a newly renovated monument in the park that I had never seen.
And we found a little playground tucked in the corner of the garden with a real teeter totter. Most of them here are on springs (which I like better because the kids can’t make a real teeter totter work all by themselves yet…) But they still thought this was pretty cool when daddy helped them.
More pics of the beautiful garden. I believe the building in the background is the Burgtheater.
I wish I had taken better pics of the roses, but the whole garden is full of beautiful rose bushes of different colors. It smells amazing in the spring.
We headed over to the Rathaus for some lunch at the international food festival, which for some reason I have no pictures of… and on the way there Elora found this big silver head which she thought was pretty awesome. Here she is making a tough girl pose next to the huge head! It’s a virtual planetoid!
