In the Before Times (as in, before the coronavirus, when we actually wore clothes other than just switching back and forth between ‘night yoga pants’ and ‘day yoga pants’ and we were able to leave the house without carrying a hall pass from the government stating our exact outing intention) summers in Vienna were crazy! This is the time when tourists are jostling each other over that perfect angle of Gustav Klimt’s painting ‘The Kiss,’ at the Upper Belvedere, taking selfies with the iconic golden statue of the Waltz King, Johann Strauss in Stadtpark, and Instagramming that epic Wiener Schnitzel at Figlmüller.
Nowadays, there’s not a selfie stick in sight. Which isn’t to say the city is dead – on the contrary, now is actually a GREAT time to visit Vienna, simply BECAUSE there are no lines anywhere, and you don’t have to elbow anyone in the face to get a good shot of St. Stephen’s cathedral.
To encourage more tourists to visit, whether locals or foreign, many museums in Vienna have started a special ‘pay as you wish’ initiative, or they’ve simply lowered their prices.
The Museum of Natural History is a wonderful museum to visit if you’re into well… historical artifacts! And gemstones! And dinosaur skeletons!
Now you can see the 29,500 year old famous Venus of Willendorf figurine in all her curvy glory, and capture that perfect photo without 800 tourists reflected in the glass case behind the statue.
There’s a planetarium, the Steller’s sea cow that went extinct 200 years ago, and of course an animatronic dinosaur.
The museum has even lowered its entrance fee for adults (kids get in for free) so now is the perfect time to go.
Head to their website for detailed info on opening hours and entry fees. And of course, if you’d like a private tour of the museum, contact us for more information. We are dinosaur fanatics and it would be our greatest honor to show you some Austrian dinosaurs!
Auf Wiedersehen! I realize now that Heidi Klum said this whenever she kicked off contestants on Project Runway… I don’t think she trademarked the phrase but now I’m not 100% sure. We’ll see if her people contact my people (aka: my husband). Which would actually be kind of cool! Heidi, the ball is in your court.