Everything Imperial

Today, we set off to do the 'Imperial Vienna' tour that is outlined in our Fromer's book. We started at the St. Michael Gate of the Hofburg Palace. Hofburg started out as a medieval (13th century) castle; however, Hofburg was extended by each emperor until it grow so big that it is actually a 'city within a city'.

We toured the Imperial Silver collection, Sisi Museum and the Imperial Apartments. Unfortunately, they do not allow photography in any of these exhibits. If they had, this blog would have been littered with shots of porcelain, and gold table centrepieces. I was mesmerized by the 'Pirken-hammer' porcelain (white/blue), and after searching the web tonight, see they still exist and sell porcelain today (hurray for me).

This is a picture taken just in front of the gates where they have recently found the remains of both, Roman and medieval foundations, and excavated them.

This picture is taken outside the Imperial Chancellery wing of the Palace. The arms are that of Emperor Charles VI on the roof.

As you can see from the bright blue sky, Vienna is still experiencing temperatures in the 30c range.

Jim and Joey are modelling under the Swiss Gate, which was erected in 1552. The Schweizertrakt (Swiss Wing) is the oldest part of the Hofburg. It was named after the Swiss guards who watched the Palace.

We took a guided tour of the Spanish Riding School facilities, which included the Winter Riding School, the Summer Riding School and the stables where the famous Lipizzaner stallions are kept, and the tack room. The Lipizzaner stallions are currently on summer vacation in Piber. Jim has decided it is a pretty sweet life to be a Lipizzaner stallion as the stables have sculpted horse heads, and marble drinking bowls in each stall. Again....no pictures allowed :o(

Later in the day, we returned to the stables as they let the Mares and their foals out to play on the grass. Lipizzaner's are born dark (brown or black) and turn white as they get older. Apparently, there is a recessive gene and you do get the odd one that stays brown. They currently have 2 brown ones in the stables as this is a requirement for good luck.

We enjoyed lunch at Cafe Demel near the Hofburg. The food was fantastic, and I had the best Eiskaffee (iced coffee) to date. It was so good it actually tasted like a coffee milkshake. If we were not stuffed enough from lunch, we decided to try the Marillenknodel (apricot dumpling with warm butter and icing sugar).....Outstanding! Yes Dad.....we continue to consume more food than one could believe is possible.

Then we headed over to Kunsthistorisches Museum (KHM), which is Vienna's Museum of Fine Arts. However....you likely guessed it that we ran out of time and the Museum was closed. So...the plan tomorrow is to visit KHM, the Hofburg Treasury and take a boat ride down the Danube. We had originally planned a day trip out to Salzburg; however, we still have too much to see here in Vienna.