The Carolyn Diaries : Kunsthistorisches and the Albertina

Hello Everyone!

Today is the last day in Vienna so mom and I planned quite a busy day trying to check off the last places on our list. We started the morning off in an incredibly cute cafe that had avocado toast! I know it isn't a traditional breakfast, but my California girl heart couldn't resist when I saw it on the menu.

We walk by the Hofburg palace every morning and today mo'm realized we never took a picture of the front for you! So here it is, in all its palatial glory,(and by "all I mean just the front part, the sides wrap around and continue for blocks!)

We made it to the Kunsthistoisches Museum, which was built by Emperor Franz Joseph (aka Sisi's Husband) to accommodate the centuries of artwork collected by the Habsburgs. The museum itself is a total work of art. Gustav Klimt worked on paintings in the grand staircase, and the cupola hall is breathtaking. We decided that because there was so much art to see we'd prioritize the top floor which had works by Breugel, Vermeer, and Raphael. The Vermeer was probably my favorite because if you stood back far enough it literally looked like an actual photograph instead of a painting.

Here's the cupola, it was so striking mom and I decided to get coffee and cake in the cafe there. We got a Sisi torte and two einspanners, in other words the most Viennese things on the menu. The torte was a marzipan and chocolate hazelnut cream, and it was way lighter than we were expecting. I'm definitely taking full advantage of being able to eat nuts now and going to miss all these lovely cakes!

I actually really wanted to go shopping, so mom and I only popped into St. Stephen's Cathedral before heading over to Zara and Swarovski.

Since Swarovski is Austrian they have a huge flagship store with lots of decorations, think of it like the Tiffany store in New York City. They seriously had an entire wall of crystals, ribbons made out of crystals hanging from the ceilings, and their latest limited collection of animal sculptures. The cheetahs were my favorite, I can't imagine the amount of patience it took to put the crystals on one and a time. Don't worry, I'm not crazy enough to spent $28,000 on a decoration, but I did treat myself to a new pair of earrings!

All that shopping was hard work so we stopped by the restaurant next door for some lemonades, pizza, and truffle fries. These by far were the best truffle fries I've ever had. First of all, they had actually shaved truffles on them, and second of all they had a mountain of fresh parmesan on top! I don't know if I can ever order this dish again without being disappointed after this.

We took a quick rest and dropped all our stuff off before heading back to the Albertina. Along the way we accidentally stumbled upon the Lipizzaner stallions! I was so excited to take a picture for you all. It was so funny to see them in their stalls at the palace because it looked like they were people watching out their apartment windows.

We then made it to the Albertina museum. They had Monet, Degas, and Renior paintings upstairs and I was in impressionist heaven. They even had a floor dedicated to sketches that mostly noble travelers would make as they toured Europe. It was really cool to see how some of the places I've been to had changed over the years. I guess without cameras, painting some of the highlights of your travels was the only way to show everyone back at home all the things you saw. Thankfully we live in modern day so I can take you on this trips with me through this blog!

Since the Albertina was actually a Palace in the 1740s gifted by the Emperor Franz II to his daughter and son-in-law, they preserved and restored an entire floor of state rooms/ It was all very glitz and glam, quite fitting for a princess. I even convinced mom to take a selfie with me in the golden mirror below.