Today it was rainy and cool outside—a drastic change of weather, but a great day for museums. We went to the instrument museum at the Hapsburg Palace. It was incredible!!! We saw all kinds of ancient instruments—Mozart’s father’s violin, Brahms’ piano, Beethoven’s supposed clarinet, portraits of Beethoven as a boy and as an adult, clavichords, cembalos, harmonium pianos, piano fortes, dance instructor violins, lutes, positiv organ, pianos with foot pedals, table pianos, another serpent, wind instrument, brass instruments, string instruments, timpani, viola de gamba, a hurdy gurdy! The list really goes on and on, but I was fascinated. It was so great to see the instruments we had learned about in music history in material form and not just as pictures in our textbooks. We also saw a collection of armor dating form the 1400s to about the 1700s. That was fascinating as well. I’ve only every read about knights in storybooks, and here was the armor and weapons that people used to wear! I wish I could travel in a time machine to the day when these instruments were played and this armor was worn just to see what it was like.
For lunch, we picked up something in a little stand. I don’t remember what it was called, but it was a wrap with pork, onions, lettuce, and other veggies, chili peppers, and yogurt cucumber sauce (I think). It tasted delicious.
Our next stop was St. Stephan’s Cathedral. We saw the end of a mass and were lucky enough to hear the organ played. Brian was especially impressed. We used our Rick Steve’s Guidebook to tour the inside of the cathedral and then climbed 343 steps to the top of the south tower where we could see the whole city.
We spent the late afternoon searching, unsuccessfully for the Doblinger music store. Instead of finding the store, we took 2 train rides and a trolley ride around the city only to find the Doblinger neighborhood, not the music store. It was quite a bummer, especially to tired travelers.
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