Last Day in Vienna and a Visit to the Freud Museum

It's hard to believe it's our last full day in Vienna.  There seems to be a mini heat wave here-- 30C today (June 17), but it's still pleasant in the evening.  We decided to wander a bit, check out some sights we may have missed, visit a few cafes and end up with a visit to the Freud museum.

The first place we stopped at was the monumental Neue Burg (New Castle) which overlooks the vast Heldenplatz (Heroes' Square). It was part of the former Imperial Palace and was completed in 1913. Today it houses the main reading room of the National Library and four museums.  The balcony, which is not accessible, is where, in 1938, Hitler announced the Anschluss (Austria's incorporation into the Third Reich).  The stylized eagles on the top of the building represent one of Vienna's rare examples of truly fascist architecture.

The Balcony where Hitler stood in 1938

Hitler announcing the Anschluss (from the Internet)

We walked further and decided to stop for a coffee at Cafe Central, once Vienna's main intellectual hangout.  Trotsky was a regular there.  Another regular was a penniless poet, Peter Altenberg, who gave the cafe as his address.  A model of him sits at the front of the cafe.

Model of Peter Altenberg

We decided to sit inside to get a feel for the place.  It has beautiful vaulted ceilings and is an elegant place for a coffee.

 Cafe Central

Paintings on the back wall

After wandering around a bit more, we stopped at Trzesniewski's for some of the wonderful open-faced sandwiches we eaten earlier in the week.

Toby and lunch

Close up of the sandwiches

We then walked to Demmer's Tee Haus to pick up some tea.

Demmer's Tee Hau

On our way up to the Sigmund Freud Museum, we saw some more wonderful buildings.

Great turret

Man out on a limb

The sign for Korean Spanish fusion tapas gave us a chuckle.

Korean Spanish Tapas in Vienna??

We also passed the fancy looking OPEC building.

OPEC building

Finally, we reached the Sigmund Freud Museum.  The Museum is housed in the apartment where Freud lived from 1891 to 1938, when he was forced to emigrate by the Nazis.  He died the following year of cancer in London.  The museum opened in 1971, initially limited to the few rooms of Freud's former office while the rest of his apartment continued to be inhabited by tenants who had moved in after Freud left Vienna.  In the mid 1980s, the rest of his apartment (the family's private rooms) was acquired and incorporated into the museum.

The outside of 19 Berggasse


Name plate 

The Waiting Room - the only room with all original furniture

The Consulting Room

The following picture is of Freud's mother and five sisters, taken in the late 1920s.  His mother died in 1930.  Four of his five sisters perished in the Holocaust.

Freud's mother and five sisters

The consulting room and study did not have furniture, as Freud took most of it to London.  However, there were large photographs of the rooms exactly as they were days before he fled Vienna in 1938.  Pictures and memorabilia were also on the walls.  There was an audio guide and a detailed index of the photos and awards Freud had received.

Study

Freud kept his office area separate from the family area.  His sister-in -law also lived with the Freud for a number of years.  Anna Freud, his youngest daughter (who died in 1982 and who gave the museum most of its material) had her practice in one of the rooms.  This room has Anna's memorabilia, another room is a research and lecture area and another room has some contemporary art related to psychoanalysis.

View of the back yard

We then walked back to the inner city and had Aperol Spritz's at Cafe Griensteidl near the Hofburg Palace.  There was an older Cafe Griensteidl that was a hangout of late 19th century writers, but it was demolished in 1897 and the customers all moved over to Cafe Central.  Cafe Griensteidl was reopened in 1990.  It is a great location.  We chilled out for over an hour before we went to dinner. 

On the way to dinner, we passed St. Stephen's Cathedral which dominates the centre of town. It never ceased to amaze- the light in the early evening is wonderful.

Another photo of St. Stephen's Cathedral

For dinner, we went to Figlmuller, which is said to have the best Wiener Schnitzel in town.  The portions are huge (we both could not finish), but the schnitzel is very thin and tasty.  The restaurant opened in 1903.  

Outside of Figlmuller, which is located in a lane between two streets



Toby and Alain with dinner

Alain and the huge, but tasty schnitzel

We walked back to our apartment, noticing the sign for the Third Man Tour of the sewers where the last scene of the film was shot, just a few minutes away from the Naschmarkt.

It is now Tuesday June 18 as I finish this post.  We head to Paris on a 1:00 p.m. flight. 

Auf Wiedersehen Vienna!!!!  A beautiful city with a dark side.  The next post will be from Paris.