at Schloss Schonbrunn

So on our second day in Vienna, after waking up relatively early, we had a nice dinner at the coffee shop across the street. Vienna is known for its coffee- I had a delicious cappucino with toast.


Then it was off to Schloss Schonbrunn, a palace of Habsburg monarchs. It is well known for being the home of Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elizabeth (known as Sisi). We got a pretty good ticket which let us see the inside, the gardens, the maze, and even see an apple strudel show.


First we wandered the inside. This was the majestic meeting place between Kennedy and Krushchev in 1961. There was original rooms and furniture, adorned with many paintings. There was the deathbed of Franz Joseph including a painting of him lying there, there was the Napoleon room which had a lock of Napoleon's son's hair, and there was a room decorated in black that a wife made (I think Maria Theresa) to commemorate the death of her husband. No pictures were allowed, so I had to buy the guide book later.


This was the view from the outside.

Just walking around.



A pretty mandarin duck on one of the many lakes.

The structure has hieroglypics written on it, since they thought that would be cool, but this was before they were deciphered, so it is all just nonsense.

The Roman Ruins (obviously not from the Roman era).

Sisi cake. Mmm.

The view from the top.


The maze. This was really quite difficult, we went into it not at all thinking, and we ended up doing a lot of circling. When you solve it you see the maze and you can laugh at people taking the wrong paths (as people did to us).


The playground near the maze.

Then we headed to the apple strudel show. The gave delicious samples, and showed us how strudels are made. The chef asked for a volunteer, and nobody was volunteering. So I did, and I helped move the strudel, and brush it with butter. They gave me a master pasty chef certificate, it was fun.

Then we went back to the hostel to collect our things, and head out to dinner to a place my friend's parents recommended.

It was in the amusement park.


A large ferris wheel.

This cat looks creepy.


And this was my dinner. It was pork. I also had a 'Cool Man' soda that was pretty decent. It was very cheapt too, an excellent plus.

Then it was off to the bus station, and back to Budapest.

A better picture of the windmills.

We played some cool variations of war on the busride back. I think there was an accident on the road since we were stuck in traffic for about 45 minutes, so we got back to Budapest around 10:30ish.

It was a great day! And it didn't rain much, fortunately.