October 26, 2004
National Holiday = Free Museums
Today was an Austrian National Holiday - independence for almost 50 years. This meant that we had no classes and the museums were open to the public for free. We wanted to take advantage of this opportunity, and you, dear reader, get to take advantage as well. Here are some photos:
First Schloss Ambras:
We first visited this castle on Sunday, but we only wandered the grounds and alas, neither of us had our camera. We determined to come back another time. It just worked out well that we could come for free. This museum holds suits of armor, animal heads, and the heads of humans - as seen in portraits. The only disappointment was that there were supposed to be some portraits by Velasquez, but I couldn't find them. But here are some things I did find -
Next Stop - Ferdinandeum on the Museumstrasse
Uh, I don't have any pictures from this museum. I forgot to ask if it was okay to take pictures, and I didn't see anyone else taking pictures, so I didn't. Sorry. Honestly, I didn't get much out of this museum because I was hungry and my feet hurt anyway, but there were a couple pieces that I enjoyed staring at.
Folk Museum and Hofkirche
After eating a tasty ham and cheese sandwich with peppers, we were ready to tackle another museum, or set of museums because this one came in a pair.
I was super excited about the Folk Museum because of my new interest in folk art ever since my folk art class this summer. I even had experience evaluating a folk art museum, so it's not like I was going into this naive. Sure enough, I wasn't let down.
Okay, there were two things that disappointed me. 1) all of the explanation placards were in German. No English. Couldn't figure out what some of the items were, and I sure would've like to know what they were used for. 2) everything (almost) was behind glass, which is awful for photographing, esp. with my camera. So I don't have too many pics because they didn't really turn out too well. But here's what I do have:
Then we crossed this courtyard -
and entered the hofkirche, which is the chapel the aristocracy used during their reign. Although there was only one room in this museum, I could've spent twice as long here because the exhibit (so to speak) had so much detail and so much to interest me. Standing in rows along pews were statues of former monarchs and other members of the ruling family - each figure in incredible detail. It felt solemn, and I thought of the room Diggory and Polly stumble across in The Magician's Nephew. I wanted to ring a bell and watch these figures come to life.
