Final Moments in Vienna

Melinda will be starting a nursing program at university in September so we added the Josephinum to our must-see list (besides, I'm quite fascinated by all things medical so I was curious about the place too). This small museum of the history of medicine in Vienna was well-advertised in tourism brochures, but the signs on the street were terribly inadequate and it took us at least fifteen minutes to wander the neighbourhood, ask directions two or three times, and finally find the place.

Instruments for ophthalmic surgery... I'm sorry, but there's no way I'd let anyone near my eyes with those things.

Eye mirror from 1851.

A case with an orderly collection of models showing diseased eyeballs. Lovely.

The description card on this case was only written in German so I have no idea what these goggles were used for, but I still think they're great!

The Josephinum is particularly known for a collection of wax models. There were plenty of organs to view and a few full bodies focused on blood vessels or intestines or muscles. It reminded me of Body Worlds but without the ethical and legal debates raised by the public display of preserved human remains. The truly amazing thing about this exhibit is that the wax models were created two hundred years ago. The models are protected under original, hand-blown Venetian glass in rosewood frames.






Vienna is a beautiful city to explore, with impressive buildings around each corner. Today we walked past the museum quarter, university, parliament, city hall, law courts, Volkstheater, Natural History Museum, and the Kunsthistorsches museum.

Melinda digging into her stash of chocolates during a break on the steps outside the Hofburg Palace.

One of our tour books provided directions for a walking tour so we gave it a try. Some of the directions weren't very clear and some of the sites weren't very impressive, but it was still an interesting way to see some back roads in the imperial area of Vienna.

Sculptures over a doorway.

I loved the shapes and colours in the buildings along this narrow road.

Fish sculptures framing a window.

Hofburg Palace.

As I shot the photo shown above, yet another Mozart concert salesman dressed in costume tried to get our attention. The conversation went something like this:

"What are you doing tonight?"
"We've already seen a concert, thanks."
"I don't want to sell you a ticket, I'm wondering what you're doing tonight. We could maybe go for coffee or something."
(laughing as I kept walking) "No thanks!"
"Okay, then you could come to my place!"
(still walking away) "Yeah, um, that's not happening."
(calling out to me across the plaza)"Come on! I'll make you pasta and I could give you a massage..."
(as we finally rounded the corner) "Not a chance."

I've lost track of the cathedrals we've visited so this one will have to remain nameless.

A beautiful fresco on the ceiling of a cathedral.

As we walked down a side street we took a little detour down a gated archway and discovered this beautiful little courtyard.

Our feet were getting sore so we caught a train to the Stadtpark, walked along the paths for a while, found a monument to Johann Strauss (not as much information here about musicians as we thought there would be - they don't even have a music museum - so we were pleased to see some monuments), and found a park bench to rest for a while.

A monument to Johann Strauss.

The view from our park bench.

I read somewhere that an easy way to explore Vienna is on the tram system because you can ride in a loop around the old part of the city and enjoy beautiful views without getting sore feet. As we waited to get on the tram I commented that it would probably be like a sauna due to the incredible heat. We discussed this a bit and hoped that there would at least be open windows or something to provide a bit of a breeze. We boarded the tram and began to wilt in the sweltering heat almost immediately. We jumped off after just a few stops and rode back to our accommodation on the underground train.

Melinda realizing this maybe wasn't such a good idea after all.

We returned to our accommodation for supper and a short rest before heading back into town at 9:30 p.m. for another big-screen concert at City Hall. A busy final day in Vienna!