About 7:15 a.m. Jody came over with more leftover food and brought back the scale. They were heading to the train and off to the airport shortly. Mike and I were staying in Vienna for another 4 days. After seeing all they brought us we don’t think we will be able to eat all this before we also head back to the US.  We decided to talk with Nicholas about what to do with unopened food before we leave.  We had breakfast in the room today—coffee plus Cypriot cookies for Mike and a cheese sandwich for me.

First thing we had to do today was buy another 3-day train ticket.  Then we took the U4 to Langesfeldgasse station where we transferred to the U6 train.  We took it to the Westbahnhof station where we transferred to the U3 station to go to Zieglergasse station.  Then we just walked up the street to the Imperial Furniture Collection (Hofmobiliendepot).  One reviewer called it the attic of the Hapsburgs and were they ever correct!  As the Hapsburgs traveled between palaces they took their furniture with them. And as each new Hapsburgs began their rule they wanted new furniture—but they didn’t get rid of the old, just put it in a warehouse.   After the Hapsburgs were deposed, the government found warehouses with hundreds of thousands of pieces of furniture.  Until the 1970s they rented it out to people, had it used in historical movies, and now a large amount is here in this museum.  There were even pieces placed in the walkway that you could try—Wow you can sit where the Hapsburgs did!  What a sleeper museum!  

About 1 p.m. we made our way to the Café Restaurant Depot which is attached to this museum.  As today was Sunday, they were only having brunch so that’s what we did.  We had smoked salmon, cheeses, salads, etc. plus cakes, of course and a glass each of the Gruner Veltliner.  This was a lovely little restaurant—rather plain but inexpensive for the amount of food we had.

Then we headed back to the station to get on the U3 train and went to the Volkstrasse stop where we transferred to the U2 to ride to the Museum Quarter stop.  We walked around and around trying to find the Neueburg (New Palace) where the Antique Musical Instrument collection and the Arms and Armor collection were.  The Neueburg was added to the Hapsburg complex between 1881 and 1913.  On the terraced front bay in 1938 Hitler stood and proclaimed the Anschluss (the union of Austria and German).  We finally found it after wandering around a bit, but Rick Steve’s book which said this was included in our tickets was out of date and it was not included.  Oh well, we just paid for 2 senior tickets (we use the age thing whenever it benefits us) and in we went.   First we toured the Sammlung Alter Musikinstrumente (Antique Musical Instrument collection).  It was just full of pianos, harpsichords, violins, etc. that were owned and played by musicians like Haydn, Mozart, etc.  You could also see the world’s oldest surviving claviorgan which was dated 1596.  Then you walk into another section of the museum and you are in the Hofjadg und Rüstkammer (Arms and Armor Museum) which is a huge collection of armor, weapons, etc.  This area includes the personal arms collections of the Hapsburgs.  The next part of the museum was called the Weltmuseum Wien which is dedicated to the collections from all over the world that the various Hapsburgs acquired.  They were quite prolific collectors and of course had the money to buy things and the space to keep them.  We stayed much longer than we had planned, but this museum was well worth the cost of the tickets.

We then walked out the back of the building and it was dark.  What was with that!  Getting dark at 4:30 p.m. in the evening is just awful!  We decided to look for the Palmenhaus (Palm House) which is supposed to be a lovely restaurant that is attached to their butterfly house and overlooks the Burggarten.   Before Napoleon left Vienna, he razed part of the city walls since they didn’t keep him from entering the city.  The Hapsburgs turned part of this area into lovely gardens.  This imperial garden was then opened to the public in 1918.  Overlooking the garden are a set of greenhouses known as the Jugendstil greenhouses built between 1901 and 1907 by the architect Friedrich Ohmann.  Wow! This was another really cool place. 

Once we saw the beautiful interior, we decided this would be the place for our splurge dinner.  Each time we travel we choose one place that will be a little more expensive and call that our special dinner.  They were able to get us in without a reservation so yay (actually there were not that many people wanting to have dinner tonight so we were not surprised, although there were a lot of people at the bar)!  We started the meal with dark bread and pumpkin butter along with a bottle of water.  That of course was followed by glasses of wine—red for Mike and white for me.  If you are wondering why we are drinking so much wine—well it is tasty but actually wine is cheaper than water or soft drinks here!  Isn’t that amazing?!  Anyway, I had the mixed fish grill plus broccoli and rice which came with an avocado sauce.   Mike chose the steak, potatoes, and greens.  The food was delicious and we had a lovely dinner.

Then when we walked out of the restaurant, it had rained which surprised us as we hadn’t heard it do so.  We walked to where we had come in and that area was blocked with barriers.  We didn’t know where to go to get back to the main part of the buildings when 2 couples wandered by us chatting and acting as if they knew where they were going.  So, what did we do?  We followed them, trying to not be so close as to look too much like stalkers.  And yes, they led us to through hallways of the palace and finally to the front of the palace grounds.  Once there we were able to orient ourselves and head to the train station.  We caught the U2 train to Karlsplatz and then transferred to the U4 which took us back to our stop.  Once back in the room it was time to relax and head to bed early as we have had a busy day.