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Published: July 16th 2012
Schönbrunn
The entrance way to the imposing Schönbrunn Schloss.We decided that since our shopping trips have thus far been spoiled by the grocery store being closed that we would go this morning so that on the off chance we got back late we would have food for dinner. Once our shopping was done, we had to stop and look at some really cute shoe stores and a few clothing stores in the mall so it took a little longer than we expected, we headed off to Schönbrunn.
Our first stop after buying the tickets was a walk through the royal aparments with an audio guide. It was a little hard to follow who exactly all the people were and how they all related to each other. Maria Theresa lived there in the 18th century she was considered the "first lady of Europe". She was responsible for bringing compulsory education to Austria’s school children. It is not surprising since she had 16 children of her own. All of the girls were named Maria.
Maria Anna, Maria Christine, Maria Elizabeth, Maria Amalia, Maria Joanna, Maria Josepha, Maria Carolina, Maria Antonia (Marie Antoinette). They all looked the same too. I am not sure if it was just the paintings but
Schönbrunn 2
A fountain in the entrance way. they all looked almost identical. I am not sure how she told them apart. Obviously she did because she had a favorite. Maria Christine was the only child allowed to marry for love rather than to secure a political position.
One of the other famous people to live in the Palace was Emperor Franz Joseph, much loved by the people he was born at Schönbrunn and lived there most of his life. His wife Elizabeth, known as "Sissi" also lived there but spent much of her time away from the palace. She was very beautiful and a bit obsessed with staying that way. She would spend hours day on taming her ankle length hair. She was known for her obsession for a pencil-sized waist was believed to have an eating disorder. It’s said she only ate strained raw beef juice to stay thin.
Not a permenent residence of the palace but Napoleon Bonaparte did have two brief stays in the palace in 1805 and again in 1809.
After our tour of the castle we went to the cafe where we got a free sample of apple strudel and watched a demonstration of how to make this dessert.
Schönbrunn 3
Schönbrunn - a close up. The recipe has been handed down for over 300 years! Afterwards we went to the Maze. It was fun, until it started to rain! It kept raining on and off during the day, it was a bit miserable in the rain. We just wanted to find our way to the middle because there was a big tree to shelter under, in the maze you just got wet. We finally reached the middle, of course by that time the weather had let up.
We decided to burn off the calories from the apple strudel and walked up, up, up the hill to the Gloriette, from there we had nice view of not only the palace but also most of Vienna. Of course it started raining while we were up there so we took shelter under the archways and waited for the weather to pass before venturing back down the hill.
Our last stop was the Wüstenhaus, or the desert house. It is a bit like the butterfly house at the zoo. There were a number of reptiles, mice and turtles in their own little habitats as well as many different types of birds. Of course my battery chose this
Schönbrunn 4
These were the windows leading up the first staircase. You will notice that one is done in gold. It had been all in white as you see but they came across archival evidence that it had once all be done in gold, so they re-did one window to show you what it would have looked like. I prefer the white myself. time to die and my spare was in the charger back at the apartment. It was getting late though and everything was getting ready to shut down so we decided to head back.
We finally made our own dinner in the apartment today. We made fajita's and veggies. It was a little worrying because I had just started cooking the vegatables and I was opening the meat when the power went out!! We didn't know what to do. It was 7:30pm and even though the company that we rented the apartment from has there head office in the same building just a few doors down they usually leave around 6pm. We decided to take a chance and ring the bell anyway. Luckily for us there was someone still working so she came and got our power back for us. We finished cooking up our veggies and meat. The Fajita seasoning that we bought had a lot of curry powder in it and the chicken started to smell like curry chicken. It was very delicious though and we had a lovely meal!
Tomorrow we are going to the Spanish Riding School. Sadly we will not get to see the
Schönbrunn 5
This is Franz Joseph's desk. He believed in hard work. He would wake up every morning at 4:30am to start working and he would sit at this desk to write letter or go over document, often times working through breakfast and lunch! horses doing their morning excercises because the horses get the summer off. We are going on a tour though so we will see how that turns out!
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