My Pilgrimage: June 21

It’s been a long day, I’m tired, it’s getting late, and I have a long day of travel tomorrow, so I’m going to try and keep this short.

My list for today was a long one, though shorter after I decided not to try and venture out for a Medieval Castle about an hour away from town.  Another time!  Instead, I started with an out-of-the-way ride to the Danube River.  I’m this near to a historical waterway, I have to touch it.  So I did, I took in the sights, the swans, and I made my way back to Old Proper.  Despite what the song says, it’s not blue (and yes, I was listening to it while I was there).

Ok it's looks blue here, but up close it was more green (though not as bad as the Jordan)

My four museum stops for today were all close together.  First was the Natural History Museum.  It has two major claims to fame: the oldest and largest collection of meteors, and the famous Venus of Willendorf, which is 25,000 years old (though interesting they have an even older figure in the same room).  Besides that, it is surprisingly mediocre when compared to Chicago’s Field Museum or, especially with the tiny dinosaur collection, the Houston science museum.

The second oldest gold objects ever found

Isn't she lovely?

And...even older

Ubiquitous dinosaur shot

A tiny portion of their big meteor collection

Across the plaza (with a humongous statue of Maria Teresa) is the Kuntshistoriches Museum, the art museum.  I’ve been blessed to see some great art museums (Louvre, Uffizi, Vatican, to name a few), this is up there with them.  The highlights include Raphael’s Madonna of the Meadow (which has been following me; we studied it in my Michelangelo class and it was outside my door at IPF), Rembrandt, Rubens, Caravaggio, Bruegel, Titian, etc.  As a big fan of Renaissance art, this was a treat.  It was after noon by this time, and I could not find information for any nearby food stops, so I grabbed a quick sandwich at the museum’s café.

Titian's Thesus, like all good European art museums the building is as impressive at the art

Maddona in the Meadow

Caravaggio

Automaton ship centerpiece, the cannons actually fire

They have videos of each of the automatons, but this was my favorite.  You have to stay until the end.

The third stop today was the New Palace, which has three exhibits.  First was the archeological findings from Ephesus.  Second was a huge collection of musical instruments, including two clarinets said to have been played by a young Beethoven (plus his portrait) and the violin of Mozart’s father.  Third was my real interest: the royal arms and armor museum.  Maybe not as impressive as the collection in Paris, but still pretty cool (though room after room of armor gets a little old).  Interestingly, their weapons collection does not include anything from the 20^th century.  Almost like they don’t want to remember the world wars.

Young Beethoven and his instruments (the black one and the small one to the right)

Table with drinking songs

Just one set of suits of armor

Lots of guns

The last big stop for the day was the Imperial Treasury.  If only I wasn’t the walking dead by this point, I could have better appreciated all this had to offer.  The treasury includes two Holy Roman Emperor crowns, the royal cradle for the son of Napoleon and one of the Hapsburgs, a golden rose from the pope, the 11^th century Imperial Cross including large pieces of the True Cross (with nail hole!) and the Holy Lance, a reliquary with one of the nails said to have been worn by Constantinople, and many other pieces that made the Hapsburgs THE royal family.  And then there was my highlight: the royal ecclesiastical collection.  We’re talking rooms full of chasubles, chalices, monstrances, reliquaries (many not labeled, but some including the apostles, a tooth of John the Baptist, a piece of Jesus’ loin cloth, a piece of the cloth used at the Last Supper, and many others), and all kinds of amazing Church paraphernalia.  It’s a liturgist’s (or seminarian’s) craziest dreams come true.  The only problem was the rooms were very light, and with no flash photography most of my pictures are very dark.  That is until the last room, when I decided to try my phone instead of my camera.  I’ll never mock the iphone camera again.

Golden Rose

HRE crown

True Cross

Holy Lance

When I finished there it was 4:00, so I had about an hour before Mass at St. Peter’s.  I spent some of that time back in St. Michael’s and some of the time roaming the streets.  St. Peter’s is an amazing Baroque church.  I didn’t have much information on it, so I just went by what I saw.  I did notice remains under a couple of the side altars, but I have no idea who they were.  By the way, a quick note about what I observed in two Masses in Vienna.  I was surprised.  Both had at least 60 people for Daily Mass, and from what I could tell they were locals and not tourists.  Today’s Mass was about half people in the 20s and 30s.  Both priests wore fiddleback chasubles.  No homilies.  The priest today held his hands “the old way” during the consecration.  St. Stephen’s uses its altar railing, St. Peter’s does not have an altar railing so people knelt on the lowest step.  And no extraordinary ministers.  They seem pretty traditional to me.  Again, they were pleasant surprises.

Then it was time for dinner.  I won’t go into the whole story, but let’s say I was upset with how difficult it was to find a traditional Austrian restaurant.  I settled for an outdoor café near the cathedral, and went total cliché.  Weiner schnitzel and apple strudel.  They were pretty good.  But now I’m tired.  I can really feel the three plus weeks wearing on me.  As much as I like Vienna and could easily spend more time here, I’m worn out from being away this long.  I’m looking forward to tomorrow.  Not the travel (you can probably tell by now I hate it), but more the fact that, God willing, by 7:00 I will be back in Madison.