Vienna, Part II

[khiemtran]

Fast-forwarding back to Vienna again, and, after pausing for a coffee and a chocolate and pear strudel, I've headed back to the Neue Burg to see some of the other museum collections my ticket covers.



Note: actually this is the wrong side of the Neue Burg. To enter the museums, you need to walk around to the Heldenplatz side.


So, now I have a choice.

The Arms and Armour Collection...



Or the collection of Musical Instruments...



...



Let's start with some violence...





Plenty of armour here, of all shapes and sizes (including some that were purely for ceremonial roles and novelty armour for games).



Note the little guy about halfway down...





I don't know if these would be terrifying or bewildering to encounter in battle.





And now for the arms...



Build a better tin can, someone builds a bigger can opener...



A close-up of the inscription on the biggest sword.



They also had a good collection of weapons from the "visiting" team (i.e. the Turks), but I didn't get any good shots of them.

On now to the next collection, pausing to watch the dancing class in progress on the way.



The Musical Instruments section is divided into different rooms with one room divided to each important Vienna-based composer showing the instruments of their era.



Sometimes it starts to look a lot like the weaponry collection...



For Haydn fans, if you've ever wondered ... this is what a baryton looks like!



Nearly done now, but there's still the stunning Ephesos Museum to go...



Featuring some amazing artifacts from Ephesus in Turkey, and other places.

Comments

[zornhau.livejournal.com]

OMG! Those suits of armour all lined up? Each is internationally significant and has pages of scholarly text and illustrations devoted to just it.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Yes, the whole museum is like that. You know that picture by Bruegel? There it is on the wall. And that portrait over there? That's Rembrandt. Painted by Rembrandt. And that piece of sculpture? It used to be part of one of the Wonders of the World. People travelled all the way across the ancient world to see it.

It's a shame it was just a flying visit, but I had to catch a plane that afternoon and I was pretty much museumed out by the third hour. It would be nice to go back with a bit more preparation. Also, most of the exhibits were captioned only in German, so I was only able to get the gist of what was said about each one.