The Cast System (Location: Prague, Vienna, Prague, Vienna, Prague, Vienna...)

Schönbrunn Palace

No, not talking about the Indian class structure based on the colour of one's skin (that would be the caste system), but our series of weekly trips to Vienna for Dahlia's treatment (the first bit of which involves a series of plaster casts on her legs to correct the position of the feet). Yes, it is annoying that the treatment isn't available in Prague. But let's be real - there are much worse places in the world to have to travel to than Vienna - city of palaces, parks and plaster.

It's kinda funny that we had never visited Vienna in our travels, since it is the closest foreign capital to us. It should only take 4 hours to drive there from Prague but the roads are so crap and there are so many small towns that it would be quicker to buy a skateboard and push Dahlia there. Has no one here ever heard the term 'HIGHWAY BYPASS'!? Gradually we started experimenting going further and further west, till in the end we were driving an extra 100km via Slovakia and cutting off 30 minutes.

We haven't had the best luck to date regarding hotel recommendations where hospitals are involved (loyal bloggees will recall the Oslo maternity ward debacle), but we struck gold this time. The hospital recommended the closest hotel which we discovered on arrival was not only cheap and quite nice, but was also adjacent to Vienna's most visited attraction, the Schönbrunn Palace and gardens.

Schönbrunn Palace is the Versailles of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Viennese suburbia seems to go on hold for a massive series of gardens, monuments, a zoo, and of course the incredible golden palace. The gardens are really something else, a combination of woodlands, ponds, manicured flowerbeds and hedge-lined paths. We haven't been to the zoo or the maze but we have walked all over it, including to the 'Gloriette' at the top of the hill. It's like a big fancy shmancy pavilion at the highest point, with a great view over Vienna. And 'Gloriette' exactly how we felt by the time we had finally reached the top pushing the pram! There was another time Steph walked to the top with the pram by herself, and somehow got lost on the way down, ending up on dirt roads in the woods and a screaming hungry baby, who she decided to feed in the middle of the woods...but that's a whole other blog.

While Schönbrunn is the most stunning of the palaces, in the city centre you can't help but be overwhelmed by multitude of these grand palatial buildings - 51 in all! Today they are used for all random purposes such as museums, government buildings, hotels etc. We mostly appreciated the grounds of the Hoffburg Palace - the gardens are now a public park (where we sat drinking beer, coke and milk enjoying the live music) and the greenhouse is now a butterfly conservatory. Dahlia enjoyed the first the most, since drinking is something she is quite good at, but focusing on small, constantly moving creatures is still a work in progress.

And of course we managed to get extremely lost at least once walking around the city - which is even more irritating when you are pushing a pram. The moral of the story is that whilst those cartoon maps look fun, it can be really hard to distinguish one church from another on them...

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