We got to Vienna yesterday afternoon, and after a little geographical confusion we found Pension Schönbrunn, our hotel. Our room is almost like a little suite. We have a double bed, closet area, nice bathroom, flatscreen tv, mini-bar, couch, table and chairs. It's very spacious.
After checking in Heather had a headache so I made her rest for a while I caught up in my travel journal. When she was feeling better we bundled up and headed out in the cold, rainy weather to explore the city.
We were only a few S-Bahn stops away from the center of the city. Our Eurail book didn't really outline too many sights/attractions other than the usual array of old buildings. We found a beautiful church, the opera house and some other buildings which looked like they were probably governmant buildings now.
We were very hungry (and a bit soggy by this point) and Heather wanted Chinese food. We found a place called Asian Palace by the opera house. We were out front looking at the menu when (who we presumed to be the owner) a lady came out and said "Two?" And we told her we hadn't decided yet. But in a super cute German/Asian accent she said "Ok, two. You eat here!" And led us inside...so we ate there. Haha
Heather had noodle soup with pork and I tried the chicken fried rice. I don't even like Chinese food! We were reviewing the menu to see if there was anything I would eat when our friend decided for us. So I ordered something safe. I was so hungry that I ate about half of it! Vegatables and all. It was sustinance, but I definately did not enjoy it. Heather loved hers, of course. So it was worth it to me. :)
After dinner we walked around a bit more til we were thouroughly frozen and wet. We were heading to our S-bahn when we spotted a small shop with what seemed to be the delicious treats we had eaten in Røskilde! Except these were atop an ice cream cone. Sure enough, same whipped creamy center! YUM! It made my Chinese dinner not so crappy.
Got back to our hotel and thawed in a hot shower. Then we watched 'Spider-Man' on tv with German dubbing. It was hilarious.
Today we decided to tour the Schloß Schönbrunn, which we found completely by accident. It is a palace that is 5 minutes from our hotel. We saw ads as we got off the subway, but there was no information in our guide book. We looked it up online and its the #1 Viennese attraction! No idea why its not even mentioned in the book!
It was €16,50 per person for a combined ticket which included a palace tour, garden access, hedge maze access, and viewing terrace access. We started with the tour of the palace. It was a self-paced audio tour covering 40 of the rooms on the main floor. FOURTY rooms on ONE floor!! Alltogether the palace probably had over 150 rooms (at least). The 40 we covered were the main Imperial apartments of the past Emperors and Empresses of Austria. (They don't have Emporers anymore in Austria. The last one was in 1918) Schloß Schönbrunn was the summer residence of the Imperial family of Austria for more than 200 years. Some of its noteable residents over the years included: Franz Stephan, Franz Joseph, Maria-Theresa and her 16 children (including Marie Antoinette), Napolean lived there for a bit, and many others.
The tour was very informative! We even walked through the room where, 5 year old, Mozart performed his first concert for Empress Maria Theresa! It was gorgeous, of course. Everything was decorated with the original decor and furnishings, so naturally we could not take any pictures.
After the tour we strolled along the expanse of gardens that extend behind the palace and to either side. The rows and rows of trees, hedges, flowers and other foilage were gorgeous with fall colors. Not to mention the huge fountains and sculptures that decorated the paths as well. There were black squirrels everywhere which were super friendly. If you squatted down and put your hand out they came right up to you and sniffed your fingers. One even let me pet it! We thought maybe that one squirrel was friendly, but throughout the day we saw lots of other visitors making friends with the fluffy little critters. It was crazy!
When we had finished our romantic tour, we took on the hedge maze. I had never played in a hedge maze before! It was just like in the movies! Hedges about 6 feet high, aligned to create a super fun maze! There were dead ends and wrong turns everywhere. It probably took a good 20 minutes to make our way to the middle to climb the viewing platform. From the platform you could see the whole maze and watch people get lost. Some other visitors were shouting directions to people below. It was very fun! They offered 2 exits, the short exit was a straight path out...or the long exit, which just meant you came out the way you came in. We took the long way. You would think it would be easy to get out once you had found the middle...but it wasn't! We had a great time!
There was another maze that was a spiral, but it was made from a type of tree and they had shed a lot of leaves already. So it was very simple to navigate. We did it anyway though. After that we played in the playground area which had fun house mirrors, musical mechanisms, a lever-operated bulldozer/crane thingy, and a funny bird contraption that you sat in and it flapped its wings by springs and ropes. Fun for kids and adults!
The last thing on our ticket was a trip to the top of Gloriette viewing terrace. Gloriette is situated on a hill behing the palace and offered amazing views of the gardens, palace and all of Vienna!! It was a very nice panoramic view. Even if we did have to hike another steep hill. (These hills are killing me!) The views were spectacular.
We were going to leave from there, since we had covered everything included on our ticket. But they had a zoo. It is the world's oldest zoo and used to be a private zoo to the Imperial family!!! (Can I please have a private zoo??) And we weren't planning on going because 1) It cost €14/ person and 2) we just went to the zoo in Berlin. BUT Schönbrunn had a baby giant panda AND koala bears! So we ended up in the zoo. We only had 2 hours before they closed so we saw everything important. The giant pandas were much more photogenic than Bao Bao in Berlin. Then there were 2 Koalas who were also very photogenic. And how often do you see koalas in zoos? (We are well aware they are probably in lots of zoos...but they weren't at Berlin and they aren't in Dallas or Denver) We also saw seals, penguins, tigers, lions, a goat in a tree (that was a new one), bison, and Heather's favorite...the red pandas. We spent at least 20 minutes watching the red pandas. The one in Denver is always asleep on a rock and you never see it very well. These two were climbing trees and roaming all over the place!! Heather was ecstatic.
We also found the enclosure for the Spectacled Bear!! Let me digress for a second to explain the importance of this find. In 2007 we went to San Antonio for our one year anniversary. We visited the San Antonio zoo (the first zoo we ever went to together!). They had a grizzly bear who was super cute and we named Stan. Then they had a cage for a Spectacled Bear, which neither of us had ever heard of. We waited for over half an hour to get a glimpse of this rare bear, but it never came out of it's house. So there were a series of pictures taken of me pretending to be the Spectacled Bear. It has forever been an inside joke and comes up anytime we see bears at the zoo. We have since visited probably 5 other zoos all over the place and have NEVER seen a zoo with a Spectacled Bear...until yesterday.
I was so flipping excited!! It had a huge enclosure with lots and lots of trees and foilage and play things. And we looked, and looked, and looked, and looked...but no freaking bear!!!! It was hiding or put away or something!! I was PISSED. So my epic quest to see a real life Spectacled Bear continues. It has now become something like a myth to us. Someday....
We left the zoo and headed back to our hotel (which was about a 10 minute walk), but got distracted by Italian food. Heather had a spaghetti and mushroom dish with a white sauce we had never tasted before. It was lighter than alfredo and had a sort of buttery taste to it. The English translation on the menu said "high salsa" but it had no salsa relation whatsoever. I had a salami pizza which was about the size of a medium pizza in the states...I ate it all. What can I say...I LOVE pizza!! (I think I have had pizza at least once from every country <3)
When we got back to our hotel we watched 'Juno' on tv, once again dubbed in German. And hung around for the rest of the night.
Tomorrow we are going to Salzburg, Austria. Its where 'Sound of Music' was filmed and it was also the home of Mozart! Not to mention it is a very short train ride to Munich....Hofbrauhaus for dinner!? Methinks so!!
Safe Travels,
- Kit & Heather
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