Day 9: Saturday, September 19

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A Museum Kind of Day

We got up a little later than usual this morning; ate breakfast, showered and planned our day. Today we have decided to visit the Kunsthistorisches (Art History Museum) and the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum). These two museums are located on each side of Maria-Theresien Platz.

Kunsthistorisches (Art History Museum)

We left the apartment at about 9:45 and caught the #43 tram to Shottentor station. Walking around the Ringstrasse (Ring Road) we found Maria-Theresien Platz; there the two museums flank the Platz. First we went into the Kunsthistorisches (Art History Museum), using our Vienna Passes for free entry. We took a fairly extensive tour of the exhibits and building. Absolutely stunning!:

Kunsthistorisches – in Maria-Theresien-Platz
In The Lobby of The Kunsthistorisches Museum
In The Lobby of The Kunsthistorisches Museum
Lobby ceiling
Vince at the door of the Egyptian & Near-Eastern Collection
The Egyptian & Near-Eastern Collection
“The Madonna Of The Meadow” (1506), by Raphael.
Time to go back through that magnificent lobby.
The Egyptian & Near-Eastern Collection
Back to the Lobby

… Then Lunch

It was lunch time so we walked further down the Ring to the Maredo restaurant, opposite the Staatsoper, and had a wonderful lunch WITH salad bar! I had chicken breast with a cherry sundae dessert (of course!) and Vince had Weiner Schnitzel.

Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum)

After lunch we walked back to Maria-Theresien Platz and entered the Naturhistorisches Museum (Natural History Museum). Here, we also used our Vienna Passes for free entry. We toured the entire building: absolutely awesome, and the dinosaur exhibits were especially interesting:

This dinosaur was terrorizing the kids… and they loved it!

And then there was the mechanized dinosaur:

Another fantastic lobby
Vince and the elephant

Finishing up in the Natural History Museum, we rested for quite a while in the gardens outside the Kunsthistorisches, and took a few more photos:

Statue of Maria Theresa
Outside the Kunsthistorisches Museum
In Maria-Theresien-Platz
Ya gotta get a gimmick: Street buskers in Maria-Theresien-Platz

A video panorama of Maria-Theresien-Platz before moving on:

Michaelerkirche (St. Michael’s Church)

We then walked through the grounds of the Hofburg to Michaelerkirche (St. Michael’s Church). Unfortunately there was some large special event happening on the grounds of the Hofburg, so it was quite crowded. We reached St. Michael’s Church, though, and began our tour through it. Such a beautiful church – it is one of the oldest churches in Vienna (dating roughly 1220–1240) and also one of the city’s few remaining Romanesque buildings:

Time was getting on so we thought we’d start making our way back to the apartment to end the day. We left St. Michael’s Church and walked up to Stephanplatz where we caught the U3 U-Bahn to Ottakring station, later transferring to the S45 S-Bahn to Hernals Station. Leaving Hernals station we stopped at the Hofer grocery store on Julius-Meinl-Gasse and stocked up on food supplies (we did a lot of grocery shopping this trip).

We returned to the apartment, rested for a while, then Vince made a nice light supper with the remainder of our cheese and meats from the other night. We ate the last of the Mozart Balls for dessert (oh noooooo!).

We did the usual photo backup/viewing and journal updating, rested a bit, then went off to bed at around 10:00PM; both of us quite tired from our busy, but fascinating, museum day today.

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