Vienna

Schonbrunn Palace from Neptune's statue

The problem with staying in a 5 star apartment, with coffee machine, is that there is no incentive to leave it.  However as doctors recommend no more than 7 espressos a day we decided to crack on to Schonbrunn Palace which was a convenient 5 or 6 train stops from us.

The palace is in the 'Rococo' style (thanks Veinna guidebook) and was built as a palatial hunting residence initially before being heavily rebuilt during the successive centuries to the appearence you see today.  More details here.

As well as being the summer residence of the Hapsburg dynasty Napoloean himself pulled up a pew there in 1805 and 1809.

The Gloriette

The gardens are as much a part of the complex as the palace so we thought we'd walk around those to orient ourselves first.  We read there was one of those labyrinth hedge mazes so we walked to that only to be disappointed that it was closed for the winter.  

Not much we could do about that so we walked up to Neptune's statue & then to a building called the Gloriette.  A building dedicated as 'a Monument to Just War, that which leads to peace'.  

Top of the Gloriette

It was a beautiful building and from it there were great views of Schonbrunn Palace.  Apparently it was used, amongst other functions, as a breakfast room for emperor Franz Joseph I.   It's good to be the King.   

From here there may have been a slight disagreement amongst the family about where to go next.  One faction wanted to visit the palace zoo and the other, more sensible faction, wanted to do a tour of the palace itself.  

Main hall in palace
Kennedy met Kruschev here in 1961.
No photos allowed inside - shhhh!

'Fine!  You two go the zoo, while mum, Ryan and I go to the palace.'  All well and good until the ticket lady at the zoo said 'no unaccompanied children'.  

Brilliant.  Through gritted teeth Nicki took one for the team and chaperoned the boys around the zoo in the freezing outside air while Ryan and I headed for the warmth of the palace.

We grabbed an audio tour and made our way through the 40 rooms out of the 1400 viewable to the public at our own pace.  The rooms were impressive but I think a fairly good grasp of Hapsburg history wouldn't go astray as the multitude of names dropped throughout the tour confused me somewhat.

Ryan enjoyed it though.  Mainly because he had his own audio guide which made him feel a bit grown up I suspect.

Vienna Capitals in yellow.

Rejoined the herd after that and the boys told us that they they had seen giraffes, rhinos, elephants etc etc so they were pleased as punch also.  Not sure what some savannah grazing African giraffe thinks of overcast, foggy, 3 degree wintery days in Vienna but that's an argument for another day.   

We went home after that and made some dinner and then headed out for some you beaut Viennese culture at the Albert Schulz Eishalle for some ice hockey.

Winners Moser Medical Graz 99ers.  No, really.

The local team stuck to the script leading 2 nil for the majority of the game only for them to lose the lead in the final few minutes 3-2.  Fortunately they restored parity at 3 all with only 2 minutes to go so the game went to overtime. 

Where they promptly lost.  Not the result we wanted but you can't win everything.  Just ask the Vienna Capitals.