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Published: June 23rd 2011
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View from the top of the fountain
Kids in front of the top of the fountain that faces the rear of the Shonbrunn We arrived in Vienna early in the morning but a day and a half later than planned. We pushed forward with resolve to get the most out of our day. Exiting the plane, we collected our baggage and headed for the City Airport Train. Our pre-purchased ticket was dated for two days earlier, and John jogged up the platform to inquire whether it could still be used. The agent studied it for a moment and confirmed it was ok to use. As he turned to jog back and help the family with the luggage, the agent called after to say that the train wasn’t leaving for 6 minutes and there was no need to rush. Her colleague cheerily added “Yes, there is no need for stress; you are in Austria now.” – a very welcome end to the day’s journey. The train was super-chic modern with a smooth-as-silk ride that delivered us to the city in 16 minutes. From there a short walk brought us to our hotel where we checked in, showered, and tried hard not to crash. Based on the original itinerary we had tickets to visit Schönbrunn Palace requiring us to arrive between 10 and 11am, and due
Aaah Cake! A wonderful greeting from Austria!
Freeflowing dessert is one of Andrew's favorite aspects of vacation. Here he enjoys a fine Viennese chocolate cake at an outdoor cafe. to the early arrival of our flight, we were still on-track to make it. We hopped on the U-Bahn and were on our way. What a spectacular subway system! Trains run so frequently (every 3 minutes) that there is really no reason to run to catch a train. Everything is well-marked and easy to navigate, and the system virtually operates on the honor system. We are told that there are steep fines if you are caught without a valid ticket, but the lack of turnstiles to enter and exit the system has a surprisingly significant positive effect on the whole transit experience. We arrived at Schönbrunn which is a bit outside the city center and found our way to the entrance with only minutes to spare. The tour with audioguide covers 40 out of the 1441 rooms in this sprawling palace, but it was enough to get a sense of the history of the Habsburg Dynasty and how they lived. We were all starving and quickly found lunch in a pleasant outdoor café on the palace grounds. Summoning our strength we went on to explore the vast gardens, replete with massive and beautiful fountains and a spectacular “gloriette” building which
Fountains on a grand scale
Lauren poses in front of one of the many enormous fountains in the gardens of the Shonbrunn palace is situated on the top of a steep hill with sweeping views of the city. We explored a reasonably challenging hedge maze (our at least it seemed challenging in our mentally impaired states) and a fun little garden with a life-sized kaleidoscope made of mirrors. We were all flagging, having slept very little on the plane, but were determined to make it to nightfall without napping. We had heard good things about the Vienna Zoo, its entrance was essentially inside the Schonbrunn Palace gardens, and it seemed like it might keep us awake without being too challenging. We were only able to explore a small part of the vast and extremely well done zoo before we could walk on no longer, but our short stay brought us several delights, including watching the feisty feeding behavior of a pack of sea lions (including an extremely large and energetic bull), a walk-through a bat cave where we were all buzzed by bats (except for Lauren who couldn’t be coaxed into entering), and a good luck at some rare Pandas. We then decided to limp our way back to the hotel and try to recharge for dinner. The half hour at the hotel
Mother and Daughter
Sonia and Lauren with the Shonbrunn palace in the background was the hardest part of the day, three out of four of us dozing off without intending to and having to be prodded back awake. But John picked a restaurant in Stephansplatz and we made our way there for lovely Italian dinner at an outdoor table. We knew we had won our battle with jet-lag when Andrew performed his ritualistic jet-lag induced sleep through dinner on this first night instead of his traditional second night performance. Once back at the hotel, we were all asleep before heads hit pillows and slept soundly until after 9AM the next morning. (Scroll down to see all 12 photos).
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