Why I'm an explorer

In the end, I happened across it completely by chance. At that time my adventures were strictly scheduled, and I was an avid Googler of everything from estimated queuing times to the shortest routes to each carefully planned destination. I only had two nights to spend in Vienna, and there wasn’t time to do everything. But this time the attraction I most enjoyed seeing had fallen off my Internet radar, and so it happened by accident.
By the time I got to the Hofburg Palace, I wasn’t too bothered about examining its beautifully imposing exterior- the temperature had plunged to minus figures and the rain was turning into icy slush. And I, of course, for all my organisation, had forgotten my hat. So it was with a big red nose and red ears that I arrived to visit the Spanish Riding School and the morning training of the white Lippizaner performing stallions, the only way to see them without bringing a suitcase full of cash.
It was only afterwards when I was wandering around the palace, keeping one eye firmly trained on the windows to check out the weather situation, that I saw the signs for the library and, being a lover of books, decided to take a peek.
The Austrian National Library features on many lists of the most beautiful libraries in the world but in spite of that, it isn’t terribly well advertised. So when I walked up the marble stairs and saw the cavernous room on front of me I wasn’t expecting to see a library that could’ve come right out of a Harry Potter film. Wooden bookshelves stretch across the walls from the floor to the high, frescoed ceiling, punctuated by exquisite paintwork and delicate woodcarving. The floor is dotted with marble statues, wooden globes, and exhibits in glass cases. It feels like a place of worship for bibliophiles and history nuts; the reverent silence is punctured only by footsteps and the soft murmurs of tourists like myself.
Between admiring the room and people watching, I was entertained for longer than I had been by Lipizzaner horses. It’s rare that the physical presence of books brings you away to another world as readily as actually reading them might, but here anyone might feel like they were in a fairytale. The price is steep for entry into one room, but if you have even a passing interest in architecture, history or literature it’s well worth it- and if you don’t, what are you doing in Vienna? There’s more to the Hofburg than horses, and I wish I’d had more time to explore it. Just don’t forget to bring a hat.