Day 10 - Vienna Hofburg to House of Music

Vienna Pass? ✔️ 
FFP2 Mask? ✔️
Vaccination Proof ✔️
Time for a day of history and art. What a day!
The Hapsburgs ruled for some 600 years. Plenty of time to continuously scale up beyond imagination. Vienna houses not only Hofburg where the Kaiser conducted business, but also Schönbrunn and Belvedere castles. We began at the Hofburg.
First stop in Hofburg was the Imperial Treasury. We had to see the emerald. THE 2680 carat emerald, a gift in 1661 from Prague.
Some gift! Which wedding anniversary gift year is emerald? Oh, 20th. Missed my chance.

Onward to the Kunsthistorisches Museum (Art History). Our primary interests resided on the classical art floor which is divided into two regions by artists' origins: Nordic and Romance.
On the Nordic side the best known artists were well represented. Rubenesque figures abounded. (A little more delicious bread, cake and beer and I'm sure I'll be modeling such a figure myself.)
We were delighted by names new to us, such as Bruegel. Bruegel's images have a lot going on but there is still a harmony to the depicted scene, which are often of village life not lofty religious themes. No miracles performed here, just a peasant wedding. But man, there are so many stories going on within the main theme. 
 
On to the  Romance language artists. Plenty of Ancient Greek and Old Testament stories, patron pope and wealthy family portraits here. We got our dose of Titian and Rafael. What stood out for me was a 1660 Madonna where the mother and child could have been any young mother and baby by Carlo Maratta.
With our heads beginning to spin with paintings we moved on to the displays of 3D art and castle decorations. These are just a small portion which survived plunder during the Thirty Years War. But again, the rooms full of displays went on and on. Hmm. I'm sure I'll find a bowl or figurine to make up for the emerald I didn't get on our 20th anniversary... 
I settled for a delicious Thai lunch.
All that culture worked up our appetites, but we'd hardly begun exploring Hofburg. After lunch we headed back to get a taste of a day in the life of Kaiser Franz Josef II and his wife, Sisi.
The afternoon began with the display of every single dish, glass, fork, knife, spoon and servingware from the castle and nearby hunting lodges. I literally lost my husband in a luxury kitchenware twilight zone. Oops.
Husband recovered, we headed to learn about Sisi, the Kaiser's beloved wife. Apparently, her story is quite tragic and familiar because she did not adjust well into the courtly customs and constant surveillance. She was quite physically active, with an impressive home gym. The Imperial Chambers were as opulent as expected even though the last Kaiser kept himself to a relatively modest and disciplined regimine.
You're not allowed to take pictures in the Imperial Chambers. Not sure how this found its way into my photo album.
Once again museumed out we wandered over to the Mozart Cafe for a Vienna favorite, the Einspänner: espresso with whipped cream. Still working on my Rubenesque body.
Still not done with the day we explored one more treasure, the House of Music. It's an interactive presentation of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and its famous composers: Hayden, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Strauss and Mahler. Our favorite part was conducting the orchestra. Zubin Mehta provided tips and motivation before the orchestra played according to the user's magic wand. Eventually, or very quickly in my case, the band quit and chastized the novice conductor. We had a blast.
Long, extremely eventful day. We finished it off with an Italian dinner and Austrian red wine, A Blaufänkisch from Burgundland.
Round two tomorrow.