This was part of our 2013 winter family vacation trip to visit Europe’s Golden Triangle. Sister (our daughter), Brother (our older son) and Cutie (our younger son) joined us on this trip.
(Click here to see all our trips.)
Day 1: St. Stephen’s Cathedral, State Opera, Cafe Sacher, Fine Arts Museum
We went out sightseeing despite the gloomy weather. The first stop was St. Stephen’s Cathedral, which was situated in the city center. The cathedral was the tallest church in Austria. It’s famous for the intricate color-tiled roof and the beautiful interior. St. Stephen’s Cathedral was considered an important landmark of Vienna. We also climbed the 450-ft tower to gain a great view of Vienna.
Vienna was considered the capital of music. Its State Opera was one of the greatest opera houses in the world. The entrance hall paid tribute to many famous musicians such as Mozart and Haydn. The interior of the opera house was opulent!
The State Opera offered many guided tours in different languages. We booked to join a guided tour in English. When we were listening to our guide describing a room, there was another Spanish guided tour right besides us.
“The English guide and the Spanish guide provided different information!” exclaimed Sister.
We also got to see how the mechanism worked in the opera house to change scenes. It was actually quite complicated!
Afterwards, we went to Café Sacher to taste its famous cakes. There were many customers inside the café, and it was chaotic! It took us some time to figure out how to order. We tried the famed Sacher Tart as well as many other different types of cakes. Yummy!
Kids felt that they had enough sightseeing for the day, especially that the weather was not good. Therefore, only Rei and I went to visit the Fine Arts Museum (Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien). This was the largest art museum in Austria with huge art collections. Even the building itself was amazing. The great entrance hall was very impressive with a giant statue of “Theseus Slaying the Centaur,” wide staircases, and ornated columns. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to appreciate all its great collections.
Day 2: Hofburg
Rei was woken up by loud noises around midnight. He went to the front desk to complain.
“Why was it so noisy outside?”
“It’s the New Year Firework!”
“Oh!”
Happy New Year!
Today’s plan was to visit Hofburg Palace and Treasury. The Hofburg Palace compound has been the main residence of Habsburg emperors, empresses and the royal families. It was conveniently situated in the Vienna city center and easier for us to visit than other Habsburg palaces.
Hofburg Palace was huge and opulent. There were a lot of gold utensils, candelabras, table centerpieces as well as beautifully decorated China plates to showcase the extreme wealth of the Habsburg dynasty.
We had an amazing lunch at the scenic Palmenhaus, which was formerly a greenhouse. The place was airy with many green plants. It was surely an interesting experience! We had soup, salad, pasta and dessert. The food was delicious.
The sky cleared up. We went to visit Hofburg Treasury after lunch. The Hofburg Treasury had magnificent collections of crowns, royal jewelry and various treasures, which demonstrated the stunning wealth of the Habsburg dynasty. There were many guided tours inside the treasury, and there was no way to avoid them, so Sister and Brother decided to “join” one of the tours. (If you cannot beat them, join them!)
Later Sister told me: “The guide kept talking to Brother and me!”
The most amazing collections of the treasury included a crown of the Holy Roman Emperor, an Imperial Cross with jewels, and a “Unicorn Corn” which was actually a narwhal tusk. We also saw some imperial regalia including a Sovereign’s Orb. Sister was very excited.
“That’s the Holy Hand Grenade in Monty Python!”
Then we went shopping and loaded up with a lot of Mozart chocolates.
Amy 'n Rei 