Vienna Day 3 - Schonbrunn Palace

Update:

Szeged Wine Festival was quite fun -- good wine and good cheese. Not so good rooster testicle stew...

Anyway, looking forward to being home in a few weeks and so...on to the blog.

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It wasn't a problem getting up early on our 3rd day in Vienna because there was some kind of road construction happening right outside our window. The construction would continue the rest of the week as well, so yippee for us! Also, there was construction everywhere in Vienna. We saw as many cranes as we did awesome old stuff. But, I suppose it has to be that way.

Today's goal was Schonbrunn Palace. It was the summer home for the Hapsburgs when they tired of living in their estate on the other side of town. But first, breakfast...and yet another idiot moment for the two of us.

So, I really wanted to eat apple strudel while in Vienna. We found a decent looking breakfast place along the way as we walked more or less in the direction of the palace (man, we really have to get a compass at some point -- you would think with Melissa's native skills she would be able to tell me what time it is and which way to go based on the position of the great sun god as he moves across the sky, but no luck).

The waiter dropped off our menus, we ordered cappuccinos, and all seemed right with the world. Even better, the menu offered a basket of rolls for like 1 Euro or something ridiculously cheap like that...and since my apple strudel was about 25 dollars, we thought that would work out well. 

The waiter took our order, we sipped our coffees, got out our map and tried to figure out how to get to the palace without getting lost. During that time, Meliss noticed that the waiter kept taking baskets of bread from one table to another and just moving them as people got up and sat down. In hindsight, this should have been a clue. But, when he dropped off our basket and strudel it didn't SEEM like it came from anywhere other than the kitchen.  The strudel, in vanilla cream sauce, was incredible.

We ate the strudel and a few rolls -- I mean, hell, it was only a euro for an assortment of like 8 rolls and whatnot. After filling our bellies, we packed the rest of the rolls in our bag for later (we're so smart, we thought!). 

And yes, when the waiter came back he looked at the empty basket of bread and said...basically...."ok, so 8 pieces of bread and a strudel? That'll be 35 Euros." What the what?!?!?!?!?! Our bill was almost $50.00...yikes!

We did think about pulling the bread out of our bag and throwing it back in the basket but that wouldn't be very proper, now would it?  The really sad part is that Meliss realized the assorted breads we took had all, at some point, probably been on someone else's table and so we ended up tossing them later in the day. Lessons learned. 

Cursing and laughing at ourselves, we walked on and ran into Vienna's Parliament building. Not as impressive as Budapest's, but still remarkable. Plus, a group of...hmmm, let's say Chinese students were there on a field trip.

Again, need a panoramic camera to show full view

backside of monument

Still a bit nonplussed by the whole bread basket situation, we made our way to Schonbrunn. We have been able to see so many amazing things while in Europe -- and while we may differ as to what comes second, third, and beyond on a list of places we've been, we both agree that for sheer "holy shit ginormous"edness, Schonbrunn takes the cake.

I guess all the sites are unique...and we wouldn't necessarily choose this one to go back to...but it is surely one amazing complex. It definitely drilled home what "royal wealth" truly means (even on a cold fall day when all the flowers were already dead).

Front of palace--notice the crane

Oilerman at front of palace

Ok, this is the entrance to the palace...now, directly to the left and right of the palace are gardens.
Directly behind the palace is a massive park(?) with fountains, statues, a maze, a zoo, and other rich person stuff.

Map of complex...I think the red at the bottom is the palace...and the red line
 about 3/4 of the way up is the Gloriette (pics later). 

None of the fountains were on...but I imagine the whole scene would have been even more spectacular

We took the tour of the palace (no pics allowed) and it was just about everything one would expect from a palace. Rooms upon rooms filled with all manner of extravagance including corridors built behind walls so the rich folks wouldn't even have to see the servants attending to their every need. But that was just the start (I wonder if any of the paintings had those eye holes cut in them...probably). After walking through the palace, we exited out the back door to the "garden." Including the palace, the whole complex is 435 acres large. It was like nothing we have ever seen.

I wonder if the king would let us play washers here?

Looking out from the back porch (I doubt they called it a porch), we could see the Gloriette. But first, we headed to the left to check out the side gardens.

Along the way...and everywhere we looked...were these perfectly
trimmed walkways leading to some fountain or another

Side view from the back of Schonbrunn Palace

Inside the "flower tunnel." I think this side was ivy and flowers...the other side was roses.
All of them were dead-ish for us, but still.

More of the park

This is the left side of Schonbrunn Palace

Again, I can't imagine how much better this would be in the spring or summer.

Backyard from the side

Close up from the side

On our way back to the middle.
Meliss has a fascination with these guardhouses...I do not.
Thankfully, I didn't have to climb under or over a spiked gate to get in there.

Another view from any number of rows of perfectly manicured trees

Ok, so we had walked the left side of the backyard, as it were. Next, we started heading for the Gloriette. We had to walk this far just to get a full picture of the palace...

And from there, we were still this far away from the Gloriette...

Gloriette is the big structure at the end of this LONG parkway

 Made it a bit closer

Neptune's Fountain was off too...

And we were this far away from the palace

We wound our way up

Still winding

Finally!
Ok, we still had a bit to go but it took about 45 minutes to walk from the palace to here.

This was built in 1775 for Franz Joseph I. It was mainly used to entertain guests -- but was also
built just to have something neat to look at. 

This looked a lot smaller from across that pond. These flank the Gloriette on either side (one is behind a crane...go figure).

And here's Schonbrunn from the Gloriette

A closer view...to the left is the maze garden and zoo.
We didn't have time for the zoo, but we did make it to the maze.

Front of the Gloriette

There's a very nice cafe inside the Gloriette, quite expensive...but the bathrooms were cheap.
Those two people are standing about where we took the next series of pictures.

Looking out the back

From on top of the Gloriette

From on top with Oilerman

From on top again -- that's St. Stephen's Basilica on the right...next blog.

On our way back down we stopped to have lunch, leftover pizza if I remember correctly...also, this is where we threw out the previously handled rolls from breakfast. We just sat in amazement at all of this. Afterwards, we continued down to the opposite side we came up and hit the maze garden.

These statues lined the pathway

Oh, this should be no problem for us...

Into the maze...

This was fun lost, not frustrating lost like we usually are.

Where's Mad Eye when we need him!

We made it! At then end, we got to stand on a platform and watch others try to make it.
These dummies never made it...we won't tell you how long it took us.

Looking back at Neptune's Fountain from the maze

Oh, this map might help now -- it shows the west side of the park. Neptune's Fountain is "e" and the mazes are "a." 

The children's maze in the distance, yep, that's more our speed!

The children's maze was less a maze as it was a long, serpentine walk -- but around several of the corners there were little games or activities that people could play.

Like bouncy boards

Or a bunch of mirrors

Ha!
Meliss looking good on the pole.
Wait...what?!

Continuing now from the maze towards the palace -- to see the other side garden.

But first, we walked through the Rose Garden (G)...no roses

All dead -- the more I look at these, Meliss and I may have to
go back to Vienna for one day this summer just to see this in bloom.

Fountains off, flowers dead, and construction cranes notwithstanding, Schonbrunn really is the most jaw-dropping single thing we have been to so far. Other things (like the Coliseum) are more historical, other things (like the Cuckoo Clock Tower in Prague) are more fun, but for sheer magnitude this is the place.

Up next, St. Stephen's Basilica...