The ticket consisted of a visit through the silver and porcelain collection of the palace, the Sisi museum, and the imperial apartments. It came with an audio guide and was one of the best audioguides I've ever had. I was captivated by everything! The different porcelain and gold settings were so interesting to learn about because they were each created with a certain purpose at a different time in the history of the royal family. You can see some of my favorites below.
After the Silver and Porcelain collection was the Sisi musuem which went through the life of the Empress Elizabeth, who went by Sisi. Sisi, a 5'8" 95' lb empress who exercised (which was not acceptable in the early 19th century.) Her life was very dramatic, so it made for an interesting exhibit. We learned of her odd dieting, exercising, opulence, and depression. Again, it was so interesting. The last part of the palace, went through the various rooms that Sisi and her husband, the Emperor Franz Joseph lived in. Overall I'd give this palace an A+!
By the time we were done, it was lunchtime and we dined on delightful little open face sandwiches from. We had chicken liver, herring with onions, pepper, bacon and eggs, and a couple others and they were juts divine. Then we decided to go to the famous Demels (a sweets shop) for some Sachar torte and apfelstrudel. It was crowded as can be, but we finally found and table and invited a sweet mother me daughter combo who were from the states to done with us since they had been looking for a table as well. Mary, the mother, asked us where we were staying and when I mentioned it was a decent walk to the west of the center, I think she realized her bluff. Turns out they were staying at one of the oldest, fanciest places in the center of Vienna. She must have felt sorry for us, because she kindly picked up our bill. One day.
Next up was Nasch-market, a great little outdoor market with produce and cafes and little shops and we picked ourselves up some snacks (and ate a curry wurst) for our opera standing line experience.
The opera in Vienna, somehow has up to 600 standing tickets. You get to the standing line (a window on one side of the opera) a couple hours before the show, wait until its 80 minutes before and they start selling standing tickets. There are three tiers, and we ended up getting the best tier for just 4 euros a pop. Next we had to go get in line inside the theatre and about 50 minutes before the show started, they let us into the standing section single file and they let us get our standing seats. There are rows of railings and they even have little screens with the English of the opera lyrics. After getting our spots, we marked the rail with our scarves and then we to have a pre-opera coffee with our 40 minutes before the show started. The opera itself was interesting. We saw Fidelio, a story about a political activist who was thrown into jail and is almost murdered, but his wife saves him by dressing like a man and almost marrying the jail warden's daughter. It's a little less modern (think 1000 BC) and that whole story takes about 2.5 hours. Luckily the screen itself had all the lyrics, so I read along the whole time. I felt like I was in the operating room, standing for hours without really knowing what was going on. It was also tho because there were so many bodies packed into such a small space, so it truly mirrored wearing gown and gloves.
Now I'll be honest, we left at intermission. I was being a really good opera watcher and paid attention to the translations the whole time, although I was moderately bored I would have stuck it out. Elizabeth was completely not into it, and since I only would have stayed out of guilt, we dipped. Definitely worth the whole experience though :)
Pics: 1-4) bunch of porcelain and table decor you probably don't care about 6) in the standing spots at the opera before it began!
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