We had a fantastic dinner tonight at the City Grill in a suburban mall in Vienna. Yes, a mall. But a mall like none you’ve seen in the US. It has a little bit of everything, lots of restaurants both fast and fancy as well as clothing, supermarkets, computer stores, and even a radio station. The food was great (lasagna and provenciale pasta) but we spent the time there listening to the Greatest Hits of Michael Jackson with much of the clientele rocking out to the tunes. It has been like this for most of the sit-down dining experiences we have had since arriving in Europe. They definitely had a thing for the King of Pop over here. The weird thing is that it doesn’t exactly get old – it just becomes funny.
Anywho – we spent a long day with the Hapsburg dynasty at Hofburg Palace. The first part of the tour took us through the Silver collection where they displayed the many, many, many, many different collections of dinnerware and silverware — I mean, really, how many different types of place settings does one really need? At the informal dining room of Emporer Franz II where the family gathered for meals, there were at least 5 different glasses and as well that many different knives and forks used for service. Craziness…
I kept hearing the phrase “Damn, it feels good to be a gangster” in my head as I looked at all the treasured booty the Hapsburg’s acquired over the years.
I tell you – if the museum tells you that the tour should take x time, Maylene and I will surely take 2x-3x to complete it – we tend to read and look at just about everything in there and have been known to close down a museum or two in our time.
We visited the Imperial Apartments and the Treasury. Morbid highlights include pieces of the actual crucifixion cross and the spear that pierced Jesus. Oh yeah – and the pieces encased in gold are supposed to be the nail that went into his right hand. The other items in the gold case are seals of approval by Pope Innocent (we think the VIII but can’t entirely remember from the audioguide that we were listening to). None of the descriptions were in English so it could be a little challenging to keep up with it all. Thought you guys might find these interesting. I thought it most fascinating that all were collected by the Habsburg family – ranging in time from the 1100s to the 1600s (yes, just a few years after the actual action took place)… 😉
Sorry – the scaling and pics definitely didn’t look like this in the editing page. Forgive the erratic placement…
