We woke up about 8a and had breakfast at the Cafe Englander at about 9a. Not only because it is good but also was included in the cost of the apartment. Finished up and headed back to the room briefly, leaving just past 10a with our first stop the Mozarthaus.
Mozarthaus was where Mozart lived from 1784 to 1787 and is the only surviving residence of his from his time in Vienna. They had many neat artifacts and there was lots to see in the museum. It was interesting to see a small but opulently painted bedroom that had been decorated fifty years earlier to serve as a model for the entire apartment block. The painter was adept at painting the plaster to look like marble. The study was also a highlight, just imagining him in there at all hours producing an astounding six pages of music a day!
Stairs in Mozarthaus, where Mozart lived from 1784 to 1787
They had a map of Vienna from the late 1700s that was interesting as it was much smaller and surrounded by a wall and moat. Genetta and I always seemed to be around a small group of other tourists with a lady my age that seemed to be in heaven just being there. One downside was, like the Mozarthauses (Mozarthausen?) in Salzburg, photography was not allowed. Boo!
We walked a short distance to the site of the house where Mozart died on December 5, 1791, Mozart-Sterbehaus. Though no longer standing there was a nice plaque marking the spot. On the way to our next destination we passed Donnerbrunnen, a Baroque fountain and looked at some stone walls from Vienna’s original Roman settlement in Michaelerplatz, a plaza located in front of Hofburg Palace.
Plaque marking where Mozart-Sterbehaus once stood, the place where he died in 1791
Vienna street
Donnerbrunnen Baroque fountain
Another shot of Donnerbrunnen
Another random street scene
A jumble of houses in Vienna, Austria
Then entrance to Hofburg Palace, Vienna
Closeup of the dome atop the entrance to Hofburg
Remains of Roman walls in Michaelerplatz
Next we wandered over to the Beethoven museum but it was almost 1p and they were to close for lunch at 1p for an hour. We decided we didn’t want to rush through it so went to Starbucks and got coffee frappuccinos then, after a brief stop at an adjacent tea store, headed to the Freud museum. We passed the striking Votivkirche, a church built in 1879, along the way.
Intricate tiled roof of the University of Vienna
My war on stick people continues…
Liebenberg Denkmal, a war memorial
Sign for the tea shop, or Teehaus
The striking Votivkirche, built in 1879
The Sigmund Freud Museum was really well done. It was in the location of his office from the late 1800s until 1938 when he paid the Nazis the equivalent of 200,000 euros to leave with his stuff. His trunk was on display there with attached slips of paper detailing his travel during his emigration. He headed to London where he died the following year. After he left Jews used the space as they were no longer allowed renting privileges by their Nazi oppressors. Tragically most would be murdered in concentration camps before the war’s end.
Sign in front of the Freud museum
Placard marking the office entrance
His office was stuffed with antiquities from many ancient cultures. That was a side of him I had never known about. He started as a hypnotist but realized later that something better was needed so developed the technique of psychoanalysis. The office was the location for Wednesday night meetings among a small group of prominent psychologists. His daughter Anna became a famous child psychologist and worked with children while also caring for her dad during his long battle with cancer. A fantastic exhibit on early female psychologists, including Anna Freud, was in an adjacent space.
Some of the antiquities Freud had in his apartment
The Freud museum in Vienna
This chair makes me feel very uncomfortable!
Look at the back garden through frosted decorated glass
We ate at the nearby Freud Cafe, which was absolutely plastered with various paintings of Freud. I had a Coke and ham and cheese sandwich, keeping it fairly light as my stomach was upset. Genetta had Coke and a ham and cheese crepe (called a pancake in Austria, what?!).
Vienna subway signpost
View of a main street in Vienna with hills beyond
The next stop on our whirlwind tour of Vienna was the Beethoven museum, Wien Museum Beethoven Pasqualatihaus, on the fourth floor of an apartment building in what may have been (they aren’t sure) his apartment. It is here that he wrote his famous Fifth Symphony and Fur Elise. This was easily the weakest of the museums in Vienna, it turns out we could’ve seen it before their closing time for lunch earlier. Most all of the displays were only in German and they had few artifacts. It was neat, however, to see the environment (possibly!) where he cranked out his masterpieces.
Beethoven museum in Vienna
Square in front of the University of Vienna as seen from the Beethoven museum
Wien Museum Beethoven Pasqualatihaus, the apartment block where Beethoven lived in the early 1800s
Cool looking church in Vienna
A nearly all-glass walkway over the street. Nope, nope, nope
A short distance away was a museum packed with globes. It housed the second biggest collection of globes in the world (the first being in Greenwich, England). Greenwich’s collection is private, however, unlike Vienna’s. There were all sorts of neat globes — early ones with California properly not an island then ones during a one hundred year period where it was believed to be an island due to a false report of a sea passage, a chalkboard globe, globes of celestial bodies (Venus, Mars, and the Moon), etc. The Moon ones through the 1950s were neat in that they were only half represented as the far side of the moon had never been observed. Globe manufacturers used the space to list what was on the Earth-facing side of the Moon.
A small part of the museum’s collection of globes
In this globe’s reality California has already split from the rest of the U.S.
Planetary globes
A lunar globe from before we got a look at the dark side
There were exhibits describing the different projections used in making the flat pages that are wrapped around the sphere of the globe and how globes are made in general. There was an interesting exhibit that compared a virtual mercator globe to real geography. The museum also had a lunarium (with candle for the Sun), planetariums, etc. Downstairs they had a small museum about Esperanto, the language crafted to be used throughout the world. They had an anti-fascist poster in the language and it was surprisingly possible to discern its meaning since I had a knowledge of several languages. On the way out of the building I purchased a book about the globe museum.
A sheet with all of the slices that are pasted on to a sphere to make a globe
Instrument showing the planets and their moons
Even more globes — I was in heaven!
A pocket globe and guidebook to various cultures
An Esperanto poster speaking out against Fascism in the 30s
The final museum that our ticket provided access to was a papyrus museum located in another building. As it was getting close to closing time we cast about frantically looking for it, finally finding it in the Hofburg Wien, the presidential palace of Austria, in a library. True to its name, it was packed with papyrus. Not just ancient Egyptian papyrus dating back to 1500BC but also Arab papyrus from the 800s AD and even clothing made of papyrus.
Hofburg Palace, Vienna
Papyrus exhibit in the National Library in Hofburg Palace
Statue in Heldenplatz, Hofburg Palace, Vienna
Gate in Hofburg Palace
Statue of Kaiser Franz I in Hofburg Palace
Interior of the dome in Hofburg Palace — the netting is to keep the birds away
Statue in Josefsplatz just outside Hofburg Palace
Amazing sculpture all over Hofburg Palace
Finally on to the last museum of the day, the Haus der Musik. On the way we at some donuts at a nearby shop — Genetta had chocolate with vanilla cream and myself a strawberry-filled donut. Both were very yummy. We did a little bit of shopping nearby, picking up some music-themed items. It took a while for me to warm up to the museum itself as it seemed pretty gimmicky. Things like standing in a giant chamber and listening to heartbeats and other sounds, a room with “perfect surround sound”, etc. However, we both got in the groove when we came upon the exhibits dedicated to Vienna’s famous musicians. They had amazing hologram busts of each and at the entrance to the room dedicated to each one their signature was displayed in neon. They had many items from each and a bit dedicated to the grand balls that they played at, with super fancy invitations to each one.
Hologram at Haus der Musik, Vienna
Set designs for operas at Haus der Musik
Fancy invitations to Viennese balls in the late 1800s
Mozart’s signature in glowing light at Haus der Musik
We wrapped up the museum just past 8p and walked back to the apartment by 8:30p. Freshened up a bit and headed out at 9p for the cathedral. It was very dark and the organ was playing, reverberating about the high stone arches of the space. It was like something out of Phantom of the Opera!
Underground parking entrance near St. Stephen’s Cathedral
Neat looking statue at St. Stephen’s Cathedral
Sunset in Vienna
The cathedral’s amazing tile roof
A striking silhouette in the window of the cathedral
St. Stephen’s Cathedral’s spire lit at night
Went back to the same restaurant we ate at the night before as it was so good. Had fantastic bread with spread for an appetizer. Genetta had a beer (pilsner), breaded veal, and “hash browns”. I repeated my meal from the prior night (how adventurous!) — steak with fried onions, reddish sauce, and roasted potatoes. As with the prior night it was very tasty! Headed back to the room about 10p and offloaded photos and talked with Michelle on FaceTime before turning in for bed just after 1a.