Vienna and out...

I am writing this on the train to Prague.  An hour late and no air conditioning.  Welcome to Travels with Joanne (yet another example).  No free Cappuccino this time either. 

Another full day in Vienna, at least for us. 

We had one goal, the Vienna National Gallery.  We had some time to kill before it opened so we headed to St. Stephen's Cathedral first.  It is beautiful and Gothic and imposing. And free!  

Guess What!!!  There is a crypt tour in St. Stephen's too!!  Poor mom, I keep dragging her underground to look at dead people.  She's a trooper though and came with.  This crypt was much more crypt-y than the Capuchin crypt but it was shorter and much less informative.  Actual bones though so that's a plus.  

No photos allowed unfortunately so here are many photos :)

Here are the intestines of the bodies in the Capuchin crypt. Unlabeled.

A couple of rooms of broken statues from above

Ok, that's it for dead people, at least in Vienna.  

Back to plan A, the National Gallery.  Housed, of course in an absolutely stunning building.  The gallery faces the natural history museum so it makes for a lovely setting for a sit/cool down before plunging into art, art, art!!  

I guess I only took this photo of the gardeners hard at work.

Into the museum.  But first a snack!  Here is the view from our table, the natural history museum. 

Our snack.  We are really taking advantage of the 
pastry culture here. 

The museum! 

And of course, the art. Out of context, no explanations.  The Habsburgs were big collectors.

I loved this piece but apparently, 
I didn't take a decent photo of the whole thing

This is carved ivory!  

The room of heads

We were there for hours.  I was very tired by the end.  I managed to completely miss the Klimt room.  :(

By the time we emerged, it was time to head home.  Dinner was left over schnitzel! 

Next morning (today), we didn't have anything planned.  We had to check out by 11 and on our way to the train station by 1/1:30 so we just decided to walk around and absorb the city for a last couple of hours.  

We popped into St. Augustine's church.  The trifecta of visiting Habsburg body parts.  This was the church where they stored their hearts.  You'll be glad to hear we were not invited to the crypts to see the vessels however.  

St. Augustine's is very unassuming on the outside.  Easy to miss.  It just looks like any entrance in one of those fancy buildings.  But if you notice the little sign, and enter, naturally, it is lovely.

The pews were especially cool.  They had carvings all over them. And the front ones, obviously for the important people, have heads carved in them.  

The organ

 We visited a couple of touristy gift shops, as one is required to do when in a foreign city. 

And then a last lunch where I had to get a couple of other Viennese staples, sausage and streusel. I had wanted to get some street meat but it was raining too hard for lunch al fresco so we stopped in a pub.  

And that was it for Vienna.  We headed to the train station and now we are half way to Prague. Here is a crappy train window picture to give authenticity to my claim.