Vienna - Schoenbrunn Palace

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We said good-bye to Mary and Chandler this morning bright and early as they took off for the airport. Then we took off for the hotel in Vienna. It was a decent hotel except for the air conditioning. They try to be very green in Europe so air-conditioning will only turn on once it reaches a certain temperature outside...like 99 degrees Fahrenheit! It never would turn on the whole time we were there, and believe me, it was not that cool. Luckily, I brought a travel fan. That fan is the most beloved travel item I own!! Much better than my travel curling iron that blew up.

So our hotel was about 2 blocks away from the subway station which we started getting pretty good at using. We were on the green line which got us all over to the historical and entertainment locations. Our drop-off point was Meidling Hauptstrasse which I think might be ingrained in my mind till I die. If we ever got lost, I wanted to know what to look for.

After we got situated in the hotel we took off for the Schonbrunn palace . This was a summer palace just down the way from the Imperial palace because the Imperial palace was too warm in the summer. Poor little Habsburg royalty. All I wanted was air conditioning in the hotel. They got a palace; and gardens to boot! It was amazing. The decadence was crazy although I believe that Emperor Hanz Joseph tried to keep it at bay, somewhat. He appeared to be quite the workaholic and his wife, Princess Elizabeth (Sisi) appeared to do quite the opposite. She was very obsessed with her body and became quite vain about her hair that was down to her ankles and her waist that never got above 19 inches. She would wear eye masks to sleep rubbed with raw meat and berries. She would have her servants swath her thighs in vinegar when she slept. I have no idea what that does, but maybe I should try it! And in the end, it doesn't sound like she enjoyed her marriage or being in the royal family that much. Unfortunately, we were not allowed to take any pictures of the inside.

Later in the evening, we went to the Mozart concert in the Golden Hall, Vienna Musikverein . It was wonderful, and the hall was beautiful! We started on a spiral staircase that started winding and winding up to the gods! We finally got to the top and we could see out over everything. We were third row from the very top but it was awesome!

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