muzeoj

I arrived in Vienna on a Monday afternoon, overdue for lunch and simply over Catholic churches and galleries full of Graeco-Roman art and "Old Masters".  I thought I'd like to see something different for a change, so I somehow managed to find myself in a Catholic church that very afternoon and a museum full of Graeco-Roman art and paintings by "Old Masters" the next day.  These things happen.

The Church was calling me, actually.  There I was, wondering around the streets thinking, "Hey!  I'm in Vienna!  I wonder if I'll recognise anything from Inspector Rex?" when I saw a domed roof in a gap between the buildings.  I was sure I had seen that roof before, so I went to find it.  Karlskirche.  It might have been that dome I'd seen before or another (Vienna was full of interesting roofs), but I was tired and looking for something to do that wouldn't take me too far away from my hotel...

I was a bit dubious about paying for entrance to a church, but I've done it before (I know the fee can help to maintain the building, and if they're going to have thousands of people traipse through the door for non-church-attendance reasons, they may as well get something out of it).  I always wonder how anyone joins a congregation in a church that charges entrance fees.  What happens if you're new in town and just want to come along to the mass?  I was willing to pay my dues as a tourist, though... at least, until I noticed that the church was under construction.

"What a rip-off!"  I thought, "Charging full price when there's a whopping big scaffold blocking the interior view of the dome!"  Then I noticed the church actually wasn't under construction after all - the whopping big scaffold was a semi-impermanent feature.  It was supporting a lift that could take people up to the platform that was blocking the view of the dome from the ground.

My first reaction was to be cranky about it (the scaffold was ugly, and I didn't like the fact that you couldn't see the dome at all if you happened to be afraid of heights).  Then I remembered that I'm not afraid of heights myself, so I went up the lift to look at the dome.  It was quite an experience to get that close to the roof, actually.  It's a close-up and personal view of something that is normally seen from very far away.  I still think the scaffold was ugly, though...

The next day, determined to see something different, I caught the U-Bahn to Museumsquartier and made my way to the Natural History Museum... Only to find out it didn't open on Tuesdays.  That'll teach me to read opening hours on brochures (maybe).  I hadn't intended to visit the Art History Museum.  I was trying to take a break from such things.  However, it was located conveniently close to the museum I couldn't see that day...

In the end I spent just over five hours in the Art History Museum.  Then I noticed my ticket also gave me entrance to another campus of the museum that contained historical weapons and musical instruments.  Fortunately, the woman in the information desk told me I could go there tomorrow, so I happily went back to look at the Egyptian section a second time.  Afterwards I wandered down a street and found myself in the centre of town, just in time to spend the evening window shopping.

The next day I hit the second part of the museum first thing in the morning (well, 10am - it turns out nothing really opens at 9am, so turning up then was a bit of a misjudgement).  I thought I'd be more interested in the instruments, but the rooms full of armour and weapons were quite a highlight.  I may or may not have attempted a substitutiary locomotion spell.  It didn't work (while I was there, at any rate).

Then it was on to the National Library... which was a huge disappointment.  I had seen pictures of the hall - one of the most famous library interiors in the world - and had been particularly looking to seeing it.  They had a temporary display mounted on particularly obnoxious white boards, which ruined every single view of the hall.  There was no where you could look without seeing the display instead of the hall.  I was so infuriated that I actually asked for the opportunity to write a complaint (and someone else patiently waited for me to finish so they could write one, too).

I stormed off to see the Esperanto Museum with anger burning in my heart.  Fortunately, the Esperanto Museum made me feel better... although I realised afterwards that I would have been disappointed with it if I hadn't been so annoyed by the library hall.  It was actually a pretty low-impact affair.  I could think of a number of changes that could make it more information rich (and object rich) than it was.  I left the museum with quite a number of questions and a strong desire to buy a basic "here's what Esperanto looks like" book - but the museum was such a small affair that it didn't have a giftshop attached.

The Esperanto Museum was located in the same building as the Globe Museum, which seemed odd at first, but after reading the information in the EM I realised there was a bit of a "global" theme happening.  I was quite addicted to maps when I was younger (I still love them), and it was interesting to see how the globe has changed over the years.  I thought the two museums in the same building could have supported a small giftshop.  It wouldn't be too difficult to have a few globes and a couple of reprint Esperanto posters for sale...

I must admit that, by then, I was a bit museumed out.  So I took a tram to the end of the line (I like a bit of random trammage) and found myself at a large park.  All in all, not a bad couple of days.