Austria – Have Blog Will Travel

Offbeat Europe – 8 Unique and Lesser Known Attractions

Tue, 24 Jun 2014 17:14:59 +0000

Europe is a timeless travel destination. Full of historic charm and large modern metropolises, the continent is home to crumbling stone buildings, cobblestone streets, walled cities, and charming rural villages where fishing and farming are still the main economic drivers. However Europe is also strikingly modern, with some of the largest and most important financial hubs in the world – cities of glass skyscrapers with free public wi-fi connected by efficient high-speed train services.

And despite it’s well-trodden tourist trail, Europe is also scattered with unique, odd, and extremely obscure sites and attractions that visitors often overlook. Museums dedicated to currywurst in Germany or phallic objects in Iceland; odd sculptures and street art installations in Sarajevo, Prague, and Paris; and the uniqueness of Antoni Gaudi’s works in Barcelona offer visitors respite from admiring yet another baroque church or breathtaking vista.

While the Eiffel Tower or Colosseum are at little risk of losing their prestige to many these lesser-known sites, visitors seeking offbeat attractions will find plenty to marvel at in Europe. During our time exploring this continent we stumbled onto our fair share of unique, obscure, and sometimes plain weird sites. Here are a few of our favorites.

Gnome Sculptures – Wroclaw, Poland

Hundreds of small bronze gnome sculpture, about a foot in height, are scattered through the historic core of Wroclaw, Poland and surrounding neighbourhoods. “Cool” gnomes riding motorcycles, wizard gnomes in tall pointy hats, and environmentally conscious gnomes pushing recycling bins are tucked into corners, suspended form lampposts, and hidden in plain sight for those that know where to look. Anyone want to play I spy?

Comic Strip Murals – Brussels, Belgium

“Yoko Tsuno” – You can really see the size

Much like Gdansk’s gnomes, the city of Brussels is dotted with epic murals depicting a range of famous and obscure comic book characters. Tintin (and his little dog Snowy) is likely the most famous characters to appear in these murals, however even non-comic book reading visitors are sure to spot a few other familiar faces while exploring the city. They murals even have a Wikipedia page.

Pregnant Lady Street Art Installation – Prague, Czech Republic

image via

A contender for the strangest piece of public art we’ve seen to date, this sculpture depicts a pregnant lady, kneeling on the ground with her legs spread and her hands firmly clasped behind her head. Still not obscure enough for Prague, the sculpture is created out of shiny aluminum and is very reminiscent of a lego sculpture. Overtly sexual, somehow the sculpture works in Prague, even if passing school children look up at it with puzzled expressions.

Carmo Convent – Lisbon, Portugal

Rows of large arches

Ruined by earthquake in 1755, today all that remains of Carmo Convent are the beautiful Gothic pillars of the former church and a small museum. These exterior elements of Carmo Convent are quite stunning, especially on a sunny day, and the site’s museum houses two Peruvian mummies from the 16th century – an off-putting display that only gets creepier upon closer inspection. A real contender for oldest human hair we’ve ever seen in person.

Pere Lachaise Cemetery – Paris, France

The presence of graffiti shows we are in the right place

As far as cemeteries go, Pere Lachaise is far from the strangest we’ve had the chance to explore. What makes Pere Lachaise so unique is that it is the final resting place for The Doors frontman Jim Morrison, whose headstone has grown into something of a shrine. Forty plus years since his death, fans still leave flowers, graffiti, and the odd joint in tribute to Morrison, while a security guard watches to ensure no one jumps the guard rails surrounding his headstone.

Museum of Broken Relationships – Zagreb, Croatia

Rage and Fury Room (via)

It’s always a good sign when you first hear about a quirky museum like this while washing your laundry in an equally quirky laundromat in Dubrovnik, Croatia, and as promised, the Museum of Broken Relationships did not disappoint. The museum’s premise is quite simple – helping people emotionally overcome a failed relationship by contributing to their collection. In under an hour we browsed the personal belongings of hundreds of contributors from around the world. Some of these displays were funny, others angering, touching, or the equivalent of emotional napalm, but all were wonderfully quirky.

Abandoned Beelitz Sanitorium – Berlin, Germany

Delving deeper into Berlin and it’s tumultuous history, I signed up for a tour of the abandoned Beelitz Sanitorium just outside the city limits. A short walk from the primitive train station, in a small clearing, three buildings sit in a horseshoe shape. Constructed in 1902, these buildings first served as a tuberculosis clinic before becoming a hospital during both World Wars, even treating then soldier Adolf Hitler during the first World War. During the Cold War, this site was the largest Soviet hospital outside of Russia before being deserted in the early nineties. Many a rave have been held here since, and while the crumbling buildings are beginning to show their age, their original beauty is still evident.

Museum of Art Fakes – Vienna, Austria

Small space, big art (fakes)

Incorrectly reading the hours of operation for this tiny museum, Travis and I returned three times before we finally got our timing right, however all this back and forth was completely worth it to delve into the world of art fakes. In addition to learning about the immense level of effort that goes into creating an art fake, from the aged paper used to specific hardening processes, brush strokes, and in one case egg yolk washes, we were able to come face to face with fakes so good that they were verified as authentic and sold for millions of dollars.

Europe offers visitors so many different types of attractions, it really is a mixed bag of so many wonderful things. Have you had a chance to visit Europe? What’s the most off-beat or quirky attraction you’ve seen there?

The post Offbeat Europe – 8 Unique and Lesser Known Attractions appeared first on Have Blog Will Travel.

]]>

From Dinosaurs to Dodos – Vienna’s Natural History Museum

Sat, 01 Dec 2012 00:14:00 +0000

Having already gone 2 for 2 in the Natural History Museum column, with fantastic and interesting visits to the Natural History Museum in London and La Specola in Florence, we decided to try and continue our streak in Vienna. The Naturhistorisches Museum Wien (or Museum of Natural History of Vienna) was originally created to house the extensive collection of Emperor Franz Joseph I and now contains more than 30 million objects (yes, million with an ‘m’), some of which date back over half a billion years.

The facade of the Natural History Museum (via)

Immediately upon entering the museum, the wealth of the Habsburg empire is evident. Located in Maria-Theresian Platz across from its sister building (the Museum of Fine Arts), the building is more reminiscent of a palace than a museum, and features amazing frescoes, sculptural details, paintings, and mosaics.

Frescoes and paintings adorn the interior

Still in awe of the building, we made our way to the first floor exhibits which provide an amazing display on the history of the planet and the human race. They begin with an extensive rock, mineral, and gemstone collection, including a 115kg piece of quartz, and moves onto the oldest meteorite collections in the world, ranging in size from pea-sized to large boulders from around the world.

Cases and cases of rare and interesting rocks and minerals

Fossilized dinosaur footsteps

Fossils galore greet visitors as they continue through the halls of the ground floor. Trilobites, sea scorpions, Nautilus shells, and countless other interesting fossilized specimens are made all the more compelling by the addition of models of what they would have looked like when they were walking (or swimming) the planet millions of years ago. The next few rooms, however, with numerous dinosaur skeletons, including an Allosaurus, Diplodocus, and Pterodactyl, draw the largest crowds and prove that dinosaurs still have the same awe-inspiring effect on adults as they do on children.

A massive Allosaurus immediately greets visitors in the dinosaur hall

Travis beside an Ultrasaurus leg

A feathered Deinonychus model

Finally we reached the real star of the museum – the 24,000 BC Venus of Willendorf. Discovered in 1908, the small statue of an interestingly shaped woman is one of the most important and oldest known statues in the world. In addition to the Venus, Mammoth hides used as clothing, 100,000-year old stone tools, and other objects of prehistoric human life are fascinating to look at.

The Venus of Willendorf (via)

Sculpture outside the museum

Their dodo

Although the first floor was the most impressive, especially the vast fossil and meteorite collections, we also took some time to wander through the second floor which covers the diversity of life on our planet from protozoans to elephants. A seemingly unending collection of taxidermy specimens and skeletons, including a number of critically endangered or extinct species (even a dodo), are regarded as one of the best in the world, however that many animals in glass cases is also a bit eerie. In addition to a ton of taxidermy, some original microscopes and old blown glass replicas of microscopic organisms add to the collection.

With so many different museums to choose from in a city as diverse and culturally minded as Vienna, it was difficult to narrow down our decision, while also setting aside enough time to explore everything else the city offers. However we were extremely pleased with our visit, so pleased in fact that we count it as our favorite Natural History Museum of the trip – to date (Calli argues that this is a sign that we’ve visited too many). If you are interested in science, or geology, or even life in general, or if you have children, we’d highly recommend a visit and promise you won’t be disappointed!

Calli and an elephant

The post From Dinosaurs to Dodos – Vienna’s Natural History Museum appeared first on Have Blog Will Travel.

]]>

The Sexy World of Art Fakes

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 07:24:00 +0000

While researching a new destination, we are constantly on the lookout for unique, unknown, or weird attractions that may be a bit off the beaten path – Remember La Specola in Florence? Carmo Convent in Lisbon? How about the Museum of Broken Relationships in Zagreb? It’s now time to add Vienna’s Museum of Art Fakes Museum to the list.

After stumbling onto the Museum of Art Fakes (Falscher Museum in Austrian) online, we immediately decided to check it out. Being big fans of the USA Network show White Collar, this museum seemed right up our alley. Also I was wildly hoping that Matt Bomer would be there in the name of research and we would meet and fall madly in love and live happily ever after*.

Matt “the dreamboat Neal Caffrey” Bomer – as he’s known around our house (via)

Small space, big art (fakes)

Turns out we were right about the museum being extremely cool, and ended up spending about an hour staring at the forged paintings and delving into the fascinating history of the forgers themselves. In addition to the precise way in which these forgeries were created – from the aged paper used to specific hardening processes, brush strokes, and in one case egg yolk washes – we found the history of the forgers very interesting. The museum provides a booklet (in multiple languages) that describes the lives of about a dozen forgers, many of whom attempted to make a legitimate career in the field of art but, after failing to find a market for their original works, turned to the lucrative world of forgery.

Turner forgery (right)

Rembrandt copy (left) next to a photo of the original

We were also surprised to learn that many forgeries are not of a specific known masterpiece, as the appearance of these well known pieces at auction would be cause for inquisition. Instead, many forgers paint in a specific artist’s style, and create paintings with the intent of passing as an original that was lost or previously unknown to the art world. Apparently this approach has worked quite well, as many of the master painters (Van Gogh, da Vinci, Picasso etc…) created hundreds or thousands of unclassified works. As well, many pieces of art have been considered lost overtime, especially during periods of war, with their existence becoming a mere myth. These forgers were so good they even fooled “experts” who verified the paintings as authentic works, giving the green light for their sale for millions of dollars.

Signed Monet forgery

Although the forgers features at the museum have been caught (and have served time or since passed away), many museums and collectors refused to cooperate with police investigations by turning over their paintings for fear they would be found to be fakes. As a result, many of the forgers were actually prosecuted due to their own arrogance and some even provided proof against themselves to ensure they received recognition for the works. Furthermore, there are potentially hundreds of fake and forged paintings being passed off as real works in museums and personal collections around the world.

The Art Fakes Museum is quite small – only one large room and a small shop – however it currently has about two dozen forged paintings on display as well as a small shop where you can order professional copies of masterpieces. Located across the street from Hundertwasserhaus, the museum is easy to find and definitely worth a visit.

*A few problems with this scenario – if you haven’t already figured it out, I love Travis, and Matt Bomer is committed with three kids. But it won’t stop me from dreaming!

The post The Sexy World of Art Fakes appeared first on Have Blog Will Travel.

]]>

A Holiday Tradition – Vienna’s Christmas Markets

Tue, 27 Nov 2012 20:24:00 +0000

I’d had my heart set on visiting Vienna’s Christmas Markets since the moment I learned of their existence – six months earlier in early May, not usually when sane people start planning for the holidays. After months of excited Christmas market chatter, and hours spent online researching the best markets in Vienna, we finally had the opportunity to visit one during our first day in Vienna. As it turns out, we loved it so much we returned nightly during our five days in the city and made time to stop at three additional markets in the area.

The lovely Rathausplatz market

Vienna’s Christmas Markets, called Christkindlmarkt or Weihnachtsmarkt in Austria, are not only beautiful but also a holiday tradition that dates back over seven centuries. The first official Viennese Christmas Market was held in 1296, as an opportunity for traders and shopkeepers to sell their goods to residents, and although the goods being sold have changed with time, the attraction remains.

The largest and most popular market we visited during our time in Vienna is situated in front of City Hall, and therefore rightly named the Wiener Christkindlmarkt at Rathausplatz (Rathaus being the Austrian word for City Hall). In addition to hundreds of stalls selling everything from sausages and pretzels to hot mulled wine, dried fruit, and candied nuts, trees in the surrounding park are decorated with lights and there is a tall central Christmas Tree in front of the beautiful city hall. Overall, the atmosphere is quite incredible and we couldn’t resist stopping in nightly to nibble on something new.

One of hundreds of festive stalls

Ordering in Austrian is actually quite tricky

In addition to the large market at City Hall, we explored three other markets while in Vienna. The Weihnachtsdorf Maria Theresien-Platz Market, located on Museum Quartier next to the Natural History Museum, is still quite small, and only in it’s fourth year of operation, therefore the walkways and stalls are less crowded than some of the larger markets (which we enjoyed). Besides a great selection of culinary treats, we found some unique gifts at the market to take home as well.

Hand painted ornaments

Although a bit difficult to find, as it’s located in the central courtyard of the former General Hospital (now part of the University Campus), we found the Weihnachtsdorf im Alten AKH, (or “AKH” Christmas Market) on our second attempt and were really pleased with the younger atmosphere, clearly influenced by it’s proximity to the University. We also discovered a delicious treat at this market called Schneeballen (or snowball) which is a type of pancake dough, cut into strips and formed into a ball before being fried and covered with powdered sugar. If you’ve ever had Italian Crostoli it tastes similar, however the consistency is more that of a cookie and less crunchy.

Row of colourful stalls

Adorable little ornaments with fragrant cinnamon

Finally, we found our way into the historic neighbourhoods of the 7th District and the Weihnachtmarkt am Spittelberg. Although small, only a few blocks in length, this market (and surrounding stores) focuses on craft work and features some lovely jewellery, ceramics, and traditional holiday decor. I really enjoyed the handmade feel of this market and was able to find an adorable ornament to bring home as well.

The amazingly tall tree in Rathausplatz

Strolling through these markets became one of our main activities in Vienna, taking some time away from museums and landmarks. However we really enjoyed trying new foods and immersing ourselves in the holiday spirit. After taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of these markets, it’s easy to understand why so many tourists visit Vienna in December. Unfortunately, some larger and older markets we not yet open during our visit, (we were about a week too early but luckily didn’t miss out all together) which seems to me like the perfect excuse to come back!

The post A Holiday Tradition – Vienna’s Christmas Markets appeared first on Have Blog Will Travel.

]]>