Is that red carpet for us??

Yesterday morning we visited the Royal Treasury Museum at the Hofburg Palace. When we arrived they had the red carpet rolled out for us...literally!

The police were starting to set up barricades and the red carpet was receiving its finally sweeping. The Hofburg is still home to the offices of the President of Austria, so we figured something big must be going on.

We stood around for about 20 minutes taking in all of the confusion. Come to find out President Putin was in town to meet with the Austrian president. Putin wasn't expected till around 2pm so we decided to explore the Treasury while we waited.

Can I just say, the royals had some great bling!! One of personal favorites in the collection was a 492 karat amythest stone. It was part of a four piece collection of large stones. Apparently the royals used to give them to other royals as gifts. Yeah, me too!!

The crowns were insane with the amount of diamonds, pearls and other jewels on them. It must have been heavy! As the television obsessed American that I am, I couldn't help thinking of Showtime's The Tudors while I was there. Great stuff

When we left the Treasury, we were sort of barricaded into one of the palace courtyards. But thankfully we took the city tour through here the day before and I remembered a way out through the back. Feeling a little James Bond like, we manuevered our way out the side of the palace, through a little alley way and back to the main courtyard again. The police had barricades up everywhere so we couldn't go back to our original spot next to the red carpet. We cut our lossed and headed the couple of blocks back to our apartment for lunch.

News helicopters were hovering over our building and the Hofburg so we decided to turn on the tv. Putin's arrival was broadcast live so we did get to see it. The military band played and there was a lot of handshaking after that.

All in a day's adventure in Vienna I suppose!