Optics and Exposure

The 4 of us at Heuriger

Our last day in Vienna was a nice one.  Lauren and I started the morning with a marathon museum session, Lauren and I hit the three museums we wanted to visit from the start: the Schatzkammer (State Treasury) at the Hofburg Palace, the Kunsthistoriche Museum (the Museum of Fine Art), and the Haus der Muzik (Music House), an interactive museum of musical history and interactive exhibits.  After a restful afternoon recovering from the museums, Lauren and I went to a Heuriger (something like a traditional Austrian vineyard-restaurant) with Andy and Uta.  All in all, a wonderful end to our Austrian vacation.

The Schatzkammer was very interesting, and thankfully short.  We spent an hour looking at the massive array of coronation and ceremonial robes for the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire (seated in Vienna), and for various knights and officials in his court.  The jewels were quite amazing as well.  In the gallery below is the crown of the emperor.  It was made following the death of Charlemagne (who established the Holy Roman Empire) and is full of imagery intended to validate the legitimacy of that empire.  The 8-sides of the crown represent the 8 gates of the celestial Jerusalem.  The cross (obviously) is a reference to the Christian church, which the Holy Roman Emperor claimed to lead in a celestial sense.  There are 12 stones on the face on the crown, which allude to the 12 tribes of Israel, as well as the 12 apostles.  The plume across the top is a a reference to the Roman empire, it is meant to look like the plume on a Centurions helmet.

After our brief trip to the Schatzkammer, we walked across the street to the Kunsthistoriches, the fine art museum.  Although we did not have the time or stamina to see the entire museum, we did manage to make it through two wings before we succumbed to art overload.  We stopped at the 1516 Brewing Company for lunch (I was really hankering for their black & tan), and then headed to the Haus der Muzik for a quick tour.  The house was pretty interesting, and contained a lot of interactive exhibits (including some really weird ones) on the theories of sound and music, as well as a lot of historical information on the great composers of Vienna…Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn.  It was pretty cool.

After our whirlwind museum day, Lauren and I needed a quiet afternoon to rest and start packing our bags.  After Andy and Uta finished work, we all went to a Heuriger for dinner.  On the face of it, heurigers are much like restaurants, although they arise from the practice of vineyard’s opening their doors for the public to purchase glasses of the most recent vintage.  Eventually, people began packing picnics to enjoy while they sampled the wine.  Heurigers started staffing a buffet to provide food for the customers who didn’t bring their own, and eventually people stopped packing lunches.  It’s a charming idea, and seems something like eating dinner at a brewery tap room, although the gardens are a much more picturesque environment than a tap room.

This was how we ended our trip, and I’d call that a great cap.  It was a shame we had to leave, but life must go on.

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