We made it to Maria Theresa Square, which has a giant museum on either side - The Fine Arts Museum, and the Natural History Museum.
We bought our tickets and headed into the Art Museum
We started in the ancient art wing, with the Egyptian and Near Eastern Collection
Collection of Greek and Roman Antiquities
The building itself is very beautiful and ornate
Kunstkammer Collection - This collection has fascinating and extravagant items collected by the Habsburg family from the late Middle Ages to the Baroque era.
One of the many insanely detailed carved ivory items in the collection
Nora's impression of the statue
A very cool little griffin pitcher
Going back out into the main atrium
Heading up the stairs to the paintings collection
The Ildefonso Altarpiece by Rubens
The Art of Painting by Vermeer
Large Self-Portrait by Rembrandt
I love looking for dogs and cats - especially funny ones
So grumpy
Jane Seymour by Hans Holbein the Younger
How do you know if a painting is REALLY famous? If it is in Animal Crossing, lol!
Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel
Another Bruegel - Children's Games. This one has "Where's Waldo?" energy
The point
"Hunters in the Snow" merchandise for sale - the plush bears were especially interesting
Looking around for the other paintings gallery we wanted to see...
Infanta Margarita in a white Dress by Velazquez
The Madonna of the Meadow by Raphael
It was time to head back to the bus pickup area, so we headed out
The Mozart Monument - it is hard to see in this picture, but the flowers in front are in the shape of a treble clef
The Opera House
Getting back on the ship to get ready for the evening
A little while later once we were all dressed up and ready to go, we got back on the bus which took us to the Palace Pallavicini, driving by some other historic sites on our way:
The Tegetthoff Monument
The former War Ministry building - which now houses other government ministries
Getting a picture with the palace - the Palace Pallavicini has been owned by Pallavicini family for over 150 years, and they still live here in part of the building. They hold events in the entertaining rooms.
I thought this smaller door within the large front door was interesting
The stunning staircase
When we first arrived, they had a welcome reception before dinner with live music
The dinner and main show were held in the magnificent Great Ballroom
The room was embellished with gilded trim, giant chandeliers, and baroque mirrors
The table settings
Our table - we sat with another family in our tour that was from Chicago
We had a delicious dinner there, with a wonderful show of singers, musicians, and dancers
They kept bringing out little pitchers to refill the coke. I'm not sure how these two were able to sleep that night
Some of the show
At one point, they were selecting kids and teens from the audience to come up and dance. This is Ev trying not to get picked, hehe-
Dessert
At the end of the show they performed the Blue Danube Walz
As a kid, I played a lot of the Carmen San Diego games, especially "Where is Europe is Carmen San Diego," so whenever I thought of Vienna I thought of the illustration from that game - a grand piano and a candelabra
It was fun to see a similar scene in real life, lol
Family picture
The outside of the palace
Driving back to the riverboat:
The Austrian Parliament Building
The area of Vienna that has a whole bunch of skyscrapers
A swan swimming in the river
We were greeted back on the boat with a platter of Mozart balls - chocolate balls with a filling of pistachio and marzipan
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