On our last day of our trip, we slept in, had breakfast and then headed out to the Hapsburg Treasury Museum. I was really looking forward to this museum as I'd seen pictures of the amazing crowns, jewels, etc., but to be honest I was a little disappointed. It was so crowded with school tour groups that we couldn't get close to many of the exhibits, and when I was able to get close, the jewels didn't look real. I'm not sure how one vision tests the validity of a 20 carat sapphire or emerald, but somehow they looked plastic or glass.
Still, it was pretty impressive looking at the crowns and the baby bassinet and gold embroidered blanket. It looked like being royalty was probably pretty uncomfortable.
We also visited some of the monuments that we had passed by the day before but didn't get pictures of. The most interesting was the Jewish Monument dedicated to the 65000 Austrian Jews who were killed during WWII at concentration camps. The monument is a depiction of library doors that are locked with chains, the doorknobs removed. The books in the library form the walls of the monument but are all turned inward with the spines hidden because we'll never know the knowledge and art that these people could have contributed.
We then went for lunch at Nordeste. It's a fast-food seafood restaurant seen all over Europe and the food is really good.
We went back to our hotel to pack up and rest and avoid the rain and later headed to the Hapsburg crypt which, in truth was really quite fasinating. And creepy.
That late afternoon we met up with some friends who had also stayed an extra day after the tour and went to the Opera house to get tickets for the standing room area only. We didn't realize that we were actually getting the tickets and going to stand and so David didn't dress in his pants so we were told to leave. It wasn't a big deal as I wasn't all that excited about going anyway, but did want to see the opera house. We did some shopping and when the group was ready to leave we met them and walked to dinner at the Italian place we ate our first night in Vienna.
I want to go back to Vienna to see a few things--the horses (don't remember how to spell it) and the opera house, but we'll get real tickets for both events state-side before we leave.
I really like Vienna, and Austria in general. The people are so lively and friendly and I really enjoyed the beauty of the architecture and the spaces. We had a great time there, but were really looking forward to coming home. We'd been gone long enough.
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