International Tourist Guide Day

Today, on the 19th of February, tourist guides all over the world celebrate their wonderful and very important profession. In this honor, the Austrian National Library has opened the doors to its state hall, Globe, Esperanto, Literature and Papyrus Museums – anyone could visit all of those places for free, or even join various free tours. Of course I couldn’t miss this opportunity and I decided to opt for the state hall (even though I’ve been there already) and the Globe Museum.

Austrian National Library, Josefplatz

My first stop for today was the National Library and its spectacular State Hall. Several posts ago I have already expressed all my admiration to this place, but its really magnetizing, and I couldn’t resist going there again. This time I have joined a free tour in English and learned many interesting facts about the library’s history. The most surprising thing I’ve heard from the tour guide is that the State Hall is actually functioning like a normal library: you can purchase a day/annual pass, take the books from the shelves and read them there! Now I have one more thing on my Viennese to-do list.

State Hall

After visiting the State Hall, I headed to the Globe Museum, which is located nearby. It’s the only one globe-related museum in the world, and although it is not that big, it somehow fits around 750 objects, which are really fascinating and diverse.

Visitors of the Globe Museum can learn everything about the history of globes, how they are made, different types and forms of globes, and the artistic aspect, related to them. Besides that, you can simply get a strong visual satisfaction, because the globes are truly beautiful and magnificent.

The Globe Museum is probably not the most famous one in Vienna, but it definitely deserves a lot of attention. I really recommend visiting it, especially if you’re into science, art, or simply would love to see a collection of very old and beautiful things, which helped to develop our knowledge of this world.