Vienna

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We left the hotel at 9.15 and headed off into town to Kalsplatz where we walked and picked up the Hop On Hop Off bus on the Yellow Line to Schloss Schonbrunn which was the residential palace for the Hapsburgs from the 16^thcentury. Karilyn and I waited while the men fought with a huge queue to get tickets for the Classic Tour which would give us access to some palace rooms, the Orangery, the Privy Gardens, the Maze (we didn’t go to), the gardens and the Glorietta.

There were wall to wall people in some parts but we just had to go with the flow. It was also warming up to be a typical Vienna day.

We started with the Privy Garden which we were not impressed with. It had good structure but edges needed doing, there were weeds in the paths and plants needed trimming. Also the flowers in the box hedges really didn’t enhance the structure. We do far better gardens in New Zealand. We worked out on the queues getting tickets that they were turning over around E20,000 per hour! So, what excuse is there for gardens not being maintained to a high standard.

Next was the Orangery. Here was the place that they grew palms, fruit trees, citrus, and bay trees mostly in pots. These are taken indoors in winter where they are kept warm by an ingenious underfloor heating system.

We then walked some of the gardens which had fountains, statues, lines of trees, paths, hedges and an imitation Roman Ruin. This was followed by having lunch in a café established where the Emperor’s children used to use the building as a play house. We needed to fill in some time as we couldn’t go into the palace until an appointed time since there are too many people to get through the rooms. The tour through the palace was well managed with cameras not allowed and bags left at reception. This ensured that people didn’t get caught up with taking photos and moved along with their audio machines or books describing the room contents. The rooms were very opulent with much gold trimmings, many paintings of the family and very expensive furniture. Empress Maria Therese had 16 children and there were many pictures of these attractive children. She somehow managed the role of bearing children with being Queen. Her bedroom was certainly opulent and a very nice place for making babies. There was a lot of information about the family and who married who and what political afiliations there were. The palace and grounds were designed and built to rival the Versaille in Paris. These grounds and the many buildings of Vienna would certainly have impressed the most discerning royalty from other countries. Before leaving the palace I should make a note of the fireplaces: they were ornate ceramic white and gold, 2 metre high heating structures. These must have had a centrally heated burner with heat sent to each room.

After the tour we walked up the hill the long way around to keep in the shade to reach the Glorietta. This is an ornate structure on top of the hill that gave views out over the palace gardens, the palace and the city of Vienna. It was well worth the effort to see the view.

And so ended our day at the palace and after spending 6 hours there, Karilyn and I missed the opportunity to tour the Opera House. As it turned out, there wasn’t a performance on so we couldn’t attend that either. There were pros and cons to the visit. It is fabulously laid out and a most sumptuous lifestyle is portrayed, but we felt that given the money going into the place there was more that could be done to make the outside landscape equal to the building. When I think of some of our special gardens back home, they are kept in perfect form – trimmed, weeded and mown. This wasn’t. Only in some places.



After another day in the sun we had a well earned gelato, then moved on to beer and various Austrian fare at a back street café. Finally, back to the hotel to get prepared for the next leg of our journey and say farewell to Vienna which we have mixed feelings about. There is so much more we could have done had there not been a public holiday and then following that by Sunday when everything is closed again. The large number of tourists mixed with heat don't make for a good mix but we were adding to the mix, so better not compensate. I guess we're just country folk and prefer the much smaller towns that are not so well known.

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Photos

From the Glorietta looking out to the palace and Vienna
This is a magnificent view of the palace and Vienna from the Glorietta on the hill.

She wanted rain......
A very handy umbrella for the sun, but what's that water spout above?