VIENNA DAY-6

 This trip took place June 2026.

The Austrian National Library Well this was def worth carving out time for. If you are a bibliophile, you really want to put this on your list of museums to visit. I prefer early morning time slots, so I set out to get there when it first opened at 9am. I don’t know if hours change during different parts of the year so you might want to double check.

The Austrian National Library houses a massive total collection of over 12.2 million items, which includes around 3.9 million printed books. Additionally, the famous baroque State Hall (Prunksaal) holds roughly 200,000 historical books printed between 1501 and 1850.
Here are a few pix from my morning walk over there.

Duke Albrecht III founded it in 1368. It was originally called the Imperial Court Library. It got its current name in 1920when the Habsburg monarchy ended.

There was so much to see from the walled library of books, the glass encased printed pages and the painted walls and ceilings… it was really magical. The large world globes are amazing too.

For more on its history, Here is a link to the Wikipedia page.

Found some doors and another church or “kirche”, some street art and a cool Royal Enfield motorcycle before purchasing my ticket to what felt like traveling back in time.

The Reformed City Church of Vienna is a church building that belongs to the Evangelical Church of the Helvetic Confession in Austria. It is located in Vienna’s 1st municipal district, Innere Stadt, on Dorotheergasse.

Situated at the corner of narrow streets in the old town, the church and its vicarage were constructed as a Tolerance Prayer House for the local Reformed parish, established in 1782 following the Tolerance Patent. The Classicist building complex, erected on the site of an abandoned monastery between 1783 and 1784, was designed by architect Gottlieb Nigelli. In 1887, the church received a neo-Baroque single-tower façade, designed by Ignaz Sowinski. Reflecting the Reformed interpretation of the Second Commandment, the interior of the church is devoid of images.

Protestant church services in Vienna were prohibited until the issuance of the Tolerance Patent by Emperor Joseph II in 1781. During the Counter-Reformation, secret Protestantism primarily existed in more remote areas of Austria. An exception to this prohibition, tolerated by the state despite opposition from the Vienna Archbishops, was the Reformed church services held at the Dutch legation in Vienna. These services were accessible to the Viennese population and conducted in German. The first known legation preacher was Philipp Otto Vietor, who served in Vienna from 1671 to 1673.

For more on its history you can click here.

The doors weren’t open so I was unable to go inside and see how it looked.

I had a little bit of time to kill so I just roamed about the Museum area I had been the past few days and came across the Butterfly House when Leis texted me and said she wanted to me up and check out Vienna’s historic Naschmarkt.

While I didn’t have time or interest In waiting for the Butterfly House to open, I worked my way over to the Naschmarkt to meet up and grab a bite to eat.

Naschmarkt is Vienna’s most famous market that serves up a vibrant culinary lineup with around 130 stalls, a market hall and numerous eateries. The selection ranges from Viennese to Indian and from Vietnamese to Italian. The Naschmarkt has developed into a meeting point for young and old. The Flea Market on Saturday is already a cult event.

After checking out Naschmarkt, we took a short walk up to Cafe Sperl for a traditional Viennese lunch.

The History – 1880, the coffeehouse was built according to the design of the ring road architects Gross and Jelinek for Jacob Ronacher. That same year, the cafe Ronacher was bought by the family „Sperl“ an in 1884 Adolf Kratochwilla become the owner , who retained the now well-established name „Cafe Sperl“ at.

In the  Sperl “lived“ architects, artists, musicians, actors, singers, generals and high officials. Among the regulars were the Archdukes Josef Ferdinand and Karl Ferdinand and chief of staff of Conrad Hötzen- dorf. (Conrad was in the summer of 1914, one of the main supporters of an immediate war against the Kingdom of Serbia in response to the assassination of the heir in Sarajevo) Most users circular shapes the Cafe Sperl about the artist and military Cafe. Despite the divergent political and social differences the coexistence was possible.

Of particular note is the 1895 established “Hagen society“. From parts of Hagen society and the so-called seven-Club („C7“), Josef Maria Olbrich, Josef Hoffmann, Frederick mushroom, Kolo Moser, Max Kurzweil, Leo Kainradl and Adolf Karpellus  1896/1897 formed the Secession The Hagenbund was dis- solved in the war winter of 1942.

To read more about Cafe Sperl’s history, click here.

We really enjoyed sitting outside under the trees and enjoying the cold drinks and a breeze.

Well, we got tried of walking but still had some time in the afternoon to check out this famous Ferris Wheel that dates back to 1897. There is a scaled museum inside where they have working dioramas of what the area would have been like back in the day. For more info and the history click here Weiner Reisnerad.

It’s a slow and smooth ride so if you get motion sickness you should be ok. There was very little sway if any and the view all around were fantastic.

And when you exit you Exit through the gift shop… a little humor for anyone who knows about that indie film from awhile back. I should have bought this shirt because I like the design. Heck, maybe I’ll just may my own. Benefits of being a designer.

After some afternoon rest, It was time to get fancied up again for the last formal type dinner for this FIABCI conference that was held at the Albertina Museum.

And so that concludes the FIABCI VIENNA 2026 conference. Time to head back to the hotel and rest up for our big day tomorrow. Please join us for DAY 7 for a short bus ride to Dürnstein and a boat ride up the Danube river the historic Melk Abbey.