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Published: September 3rd 2007
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The early morning start was worth getting up for this morning, as we had a palace to visit - the Schonbrunn Palace. We were visiting the summer palace of the Hapsburg Royal Family, which has over 1000 rooms, as opposed to the Winter Palace, which has over 3000! Obviously, we didn’t get to look through all of them, but we did get to see some amazingly opulent sights.
Empress Maria Theresa ruled here for her lifetime, and had 16 children at Schonbrunn, including Marie Antoinette. The Viennese people loved this lady, who provided free health care and education (which was WAY ahead of her time), and who was very astute at securing marriages for her many children, that enabled peace for Austria. The palace itself is amazing, and rooms are decorated in gold and contain paintings from India and China (most from before the 17th century).
We weren’t allowed to take photos, but after our tour was over, I couldn’t resist having a horse and carriage ride around the palace gardens. We had half an hour to spare after all, so it seemed like the best way to see everything. The gardens are enormous, and even house Europe’s first
zoo. There are many statues and monuments that the rule family had built, including a roman ruins sight - based on the real deal, but a total replica.
After the palace, we headed into the city centre, to continue our tour, and after a quick orientation, to visit the royal crypts. Behind a small door, and down several flights of stairs, you will find 144 tombs of the Hapsburg family, including Maria’s tomb. The decorations on the tombs are quite sinister looking - there are skulls and scenes of violence - but these images simply represent the afterlife - nothing more.
With the tombs behind us, we had time to explore Vienna on our own. Iz and I decided to walk up the main street, towards Saint Stephen’s cathedral, and were determined to do the stairs there when we saw the turret. Three euros each later, and after 300 stairs, we were almost at the top - I say almost, because they don’t let you go right up to the pinnacle. This is a real shame, as you are stuck in a tacky gift shop, with 6 dirty windows, trying to check out Vienna below - not happy
Jan.
We headed back downstairs, and continued strolling around the city centre - which again, is full of historic buildings. Where in Europe isn’t? This city is extremely clean, and was once one of the five largest city’s in the world. The wealth from that time is still clear today. It was a good idea to follow the horse carriages full of tourists, which led us to an amazing little church - far more exciting than the huge Cathedral.
Inside Peter’s Place, there were paintings all over the walls and ceilings. It was beautiful, and we took a few moments to take it all in. Outside, we were back in the hustle and bustle of Vienna, and it was definitely time for a coffee and something to eat. I had to try a hot beverage from one of the FOUR pages of coffees - and settled on a white mocha chino - YUM! It went down well with the snickers torte we had ordered.
There wasn’t a lot of time left to walk off the sugar, but we did head down to another huge building, and took some more photos there. After walking along the tree lined
street back to the bus, it was time to get ready for our classical concert.
Vienna is also renowned for its music, and it was lovely to listen to classics from Mozart and Strauss. The concert was held in a beautiful building were Mozart himself once played. We had excellent seats, and sat in the second row, watching the musicians, dancers and singers, perform. It was a very romantic night, amongst the music and the crystal chandeliers.
Vienna is certainly a city where you could get lost for several days (at least) and hopefully the many tourists that come to Europe, think to stop off here. It is such an old city, that has had an interesting past, and whose Royal family is still much loved. Hopefully, we will be back some day, if not just to have another mocha chino!
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