The next day we took a 3-hour train ride to Vienna. This beautiful capital ranks as one of the best in Europe. Strewn with castles and palaces, impressive museums, gold leafed monuments and spotless streets make it inviting to anyone who loves history and great architecture. It is a city that reminds me of a chocolate box, filled with both surprises and treasures to be savored. Shops filled with the most delightful gifts. It is clear that this was once a very wealthy and prosperous city. It still very prosperous bustling with lots of shopping at upscale stores.
The Habsburgs have ruled over the Austrian empire since the early 1300’s. And for the most part, they were loved and supported by their subjects. Their palaces rival Versailles in Paris with its damask walls, inlaid lacquered walls, gilded rococo designs and masterly painted ceilings. An endless line of rooms for every conceivable use follow one right after the other each one more opulent than the last. After a while you run out of new ideas on how to decorate these big palaces. We toured the collection of royal place settings stacks of both silver and gold plates. The royalty never ate on anything but silver and gold for centuries. Eventually they introduced fine bone porcelain and of course there is an endless collection of royal patterned porcelain. Much of it was given to the royal family by other royal monarchs as wedding gifts, good will gifts or just for the heck of it gifts. They had more gold candelabras and mirrored centerpieces than they knew what to do with. Just storing all this loot was a major task. We also checked out the furniture museum. It housed all the back up finely crafted royal pieces that was enough to supply the “Antique Road Show” into the next century. I have no idea how one family could possibly use so many inlaid desks and gilded chairs.
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