House of Music - highly recommended.

We'd read that the House of Music (Haus der Musik) was a fantastic place to visit, so we decided to give it a go. And we ended up spending 3 hours in there!! Though I suggest if you have a free day in Vienna then allow a whole day for the House of Music, because there was heaps more to see and do but we didn't have time!! It had a lot of history of musicians and music, which was really interesting after being immersed in religion for the previous few weeks. But it also had a lot of interactive activities, which were really fun! We conducted the Vienna Philharmonic from a virtual conductor’s podium (and i don't think we were very good at it because the orchestra shouted at us in German! They were probably saying "You suck - keep your day job!"). We composed our own Waltz, with the use of dice. And composed other music while we were there (using bodily sounds and other noises. We think it'll be a hit!). We also learnt heaps about music! All in a fun, interactive way! I wish that we had a spare day to go back and complete the museum.

The only weird.. but also very good.. thing was that it was almost completely empty. It is a massive place and we only saw people very occasionally. This meant we could spend as long as we wanted on the interactive stuff. And at times i felt like we were the only two people left on earth, as we wondered from room to room to room not seeing a single sole. It's probably because it's Winter time, but also because it is open every day from 10am to 10pm.

I also recommend looking at their website, which has a lot of fun, interactive features. (Go to the interactive bit.)

The only thing I want to know is.. why don't we have a place like that??? From an educators point of view it was so clever and engaging and would be a fantastic place to take kids! And for adults it's just as interesting and engaging and fun. I want one in Melbourne!