Today was our first full day out and about in the city. We met some of Curt’s students at the Wien Museum at 10 am. There are several museums in the city that are free on the first Sunday of the month, so we decided to take advantage of some of them. The Wien Museum tells the history of the city. Its special exhibition featured The Prater, the city’s amusement park that first opened in 1766.

Creepy wax figure from The Prater.

More creepy Prater figures

15th century coat of arms and tournament helmets of the Habsburgs

City model of Vienna in the 1800s

Breaking wheel

The last executioner’s sword of Vienna. It’s not Valyrian steel, but I think Eddard Stark would approve!

16th century decorative armor of Maxmillian II

Original stained glass windows from St. Stephen’s Cathedral (14th Century)

The windows in the cathedral have been replaced wtih copies.

Emilie Floge, 1902 by Gustav Klimt

After the Wien Museum, we headed out to the Heeresgeschichtliches Museum (Museum of Military History). Along the way we stopped at the Heldendenkmal der Roten Armee (Soviet War Memorial). The Soviets occupied the city after the Battle of Vienna in April 1945. They built this memorial to commemorate the 17,000 Soviet soldiers that died during the battle. Its location at Schwarzenbergplatz ensures that it faced the government building where the Allies were cooperating to govern the city. The fountain was already there, but was incorporated to look like it was part of the memorial. The Soviets also buried dead soldiers there, placed a tank, and renamed the platz to Stalinplatz. I didn’t know that Vienna had occupation zones after the war, similar to Berlin; parts of the city were controlled by American, British, French,and Soviet forces. When the Allied forces withdrew and Vienna regained independence in 1955, the city signed a treaty that they would maintain the memorial forever. The tank was removed and the bodies were moved to the Zentralfriedhof cemetary.

We also wandered through Belvedere Gardens, outside of the former royal winter palace. We’ll come back here later to tour the grounds and museums.

The Heeresgeschichtliches Museum is the oldest museum in the city and is housed in a beautiful building. This museum was very interesting and we found that we could have stayed longer. There was a large section of the museum focused on WWI, with special artifacts from the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie on June 28, 1914. There was also a tank demonstration and exhibition on the grounds when we visited.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

After leaving the military history museum we had a quick bite to eat and met up with Curt’s students again to attend an American football game. There are some teams in Europe that play American football and one of Curt’s students is doing a story on this for their study abroad program. Interestingly enough, the team is called the Vienna Vikings. The Berry Vikings students, faculty, and alumni were interested in attending to cheer on the team and see what American football looks like in Europe. The stadium was smaller than most high school stadiums, but there were a good number of fans and the game was fun. There was some light rain during the game, but the stands were mostly covered. We didn’t become uncomfortable until the downpour that occurred in the last 3 minutes of the game. Thankfully we had our rain jackets. The Vienna Vikings won the game!

We’re not sure why an elephant is the mascot for the Vikings team!

On the way to the football game, we had an opportunity to see a waste management plant that was designed by an artist. The artist doesn’t believe in straight lines in his designs, claiming that they do not occur in nature. He also designed some apartment buildings in the city.

We made it back to the apartment after 19,217 steps!