Schönbrunn Palace and seeing an old friend

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Today we would meet an old friend of my wife's. They had not seen each other in more than 20 years. They had met while both lived in Japan. Since we would meet up with her near the Schonbrunn, we chose to explore there as well.

She actually lives in Graz, but would be in Vienna to see her mother and daughter, so it would work out perfect. We arose early and went down to the free hotel breakfast. It was a decent spread, and was also very filling. I had some meats and cheeses, along with a croissant and coffee.

We headed out about 8am to the palace. It does not cost anything to roam the grounds, so that is what we did until about 12:45pm.

My favorite part was the Gloriette and the view from up there. The palace and grounds are very beautiful, and are probably the number one symbol of Vienna. There is so much history there, and it is even a UNESCO World Heritage site. I was fascinated to learn that JFK and Khrushchev met at the palace in 1961. We did not enter any of the building, as we were more interested in the grounds. They also had an Easter Market which was fun to to stroll through. We purchased a few small items from the market.

We were to meet her friend at 1:15pm at a nearby rail station so we headed that way at about 12:45. We found her quickly and we went to eat lunch. We chose a little fast food noodle shop that was close by. The food was good, and the conversation even better.

We stayed there talking for about 2 hours. She then had to go meet up with her daughter and they would both go back to Graz.

We had planned to go back to the palace and visit the zoo, but it was already 4pm, so it would not give us enough time. We decided to go to see some other places in the city center. We hopped on the U-Bahn, to Karlsplatz station, and went out explore. We found the Brahms statue close by, and showed that to our daughter. We told her how she was put to bed many times with "Brahms' Lullaby", as were many babies over the years. We also saw the beautiful Karlskirche.

We then walked across the street and saw the Künstlerhaus and Wiener Musikverein. After that, we walked to the Vienna State Opera House.



We also went to the Buggarten, where there is a statue of Mozart. We stopped for some gelato at Zanoni & Zanoni. We had read about this being a good place that was cheap as well. Both were correct. I had some dark chocolate and coffee that were very good. Two scoops is 2 euro, so not bad at all. After our much needed break, the girls wanted to go see the Lipizzaner Stallions and I wanted to go and see some other places. We split up and would meet at Michaelerplatz in an hour or so. I walked over to check out the Neue Burg, Parliament, City Hall, and Burgtheater buildings. We found each other easily as planned, and went to get some dinner. We walked down the famous Graben pedestrian street towards St. Stephen's Cathedral, where we decided on a pizza place that we read about. It is called Pizza Bizi, and is very good. You get two slices of great pizza for just 3 euro. Only issue is that it gets very crowded and can be difficult to find a table.

After our dinner, we went to visit the Haus der Musik. Our daughter plays the viola and is really into music. They offer a deep discount if you go between 8pm and 10pm, so we did it. The two hours were plenty of time to see everything un-rushed. We were tired, and made or way back to our hotel via U-Bahn at about 10pm. I stopped near our hotel to get a dürüm kebap. That is honestly one of my favorite things about Europe....kebap on every corner! I could live on the stuff, and it is cheap too!

With all the walking this day, it was simple to fall asleep.

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