I woke early to meet Dana for breakfast at a nearby cafe. It was so cool to be meeting her here in Vienna! She showed up with her boyfriend, Rob, and we had a great breakfast catching up. It was sooooo wonderful to see her--I always have the easiest time talking to her and seeing a friend from "home" relieved some homesickness.
After breakfast I met Diane at the subway and we went to Schönbrunn Palace, the Hapsburg summer residence just outside of the center of Vienna. All I can say is wow. The stone courtyard in the front was overwhelming and that was just the facade! We took the guided tour and saw all the ornately and beautifully decorated rooms. The most amazing room had huge mirrors and was a ballroom. The rooms were all decorated in a baroque and rococo style. I learned a lot of history and some of it was familiar from 10th grade AP European History. After the tour we went out to the Private gardens. There were well manicured hedges and flowers and it was a great place for photos. Next up was the 'backyard.' There was a long expanse with sectioned gardens and it led up a hill to the Gloriette. it's hard to describe so fear not, I probably took 200 pictures of this area alone. We made a side trip to the labyrinth/maze and got frustrated with it. Our final stop at the palace was walking up to the Gloriette. It was a large columned building with a magnificent view of the palace and of Vienna beyond that.
For lunch, we had Viennese food once again--I had a hot dog in a roll. We then took public transportation to the Hundertwasserhaus. He is an artist/architect who designed these awesome funky apartments. People still live there and the building was really cool to see. Diane and I were tired at this point so we hopped on a Ring Tram that circles the city and just rode it around for a while, previewing some of the impressive buildings we plan on seeing tomorrow.
We hopped off and walked for a while to the Belvedere Palace. The entrance was a cute and impressive building, but we didn't realize that the real attraction was even grander! This rivaled Schönbrunn, with manicured gardens and a really impressive palace at the end of the garden space. We didn't go in, but we did take lots of photos.
We had read about Vienna's greatest ice cream so we decided to check in out. We kind of ended up wandering around Stephenplatz where the big church is, and then a nice guy gave us directions. The place was called Zanoni and Zanoni and there were so many ice cream options. I got three scoops: nutella, biscotti and vanilla and Diane got lemon, coconut and caramel. It may have been the best ice cream I've ever had. We already decided we are going back tomorrow. (gotta add this to your collection of bests, Dad).
To get a great view of the city, we climbed up Stephensdom's tower, all 347 steps, and it did not disappoint. This city definitely feels like a maze while walking in it, but it looks so amazing from a bird's eye view. We descended the steps and sat for a while to rest our tired legs.
We had been wanting to see an opera at the Opera House, but expensive prices led us to find an alternative. Some costumed salesmen talked us into buying half price tickets for a show at 8:00 after a lot of haggling and convincing, so we were seeing a show. With our hour to kill, we got dinner at a nearby place and ate wiener schnitzel--yum. We both had low expectations for the show and were expecting to have been tricked, but the music was great. There were 7 or so musicians and the lead violinist was amazing. Most of the songs were by Mozart, and for a few of them there was an opera singer or a ballet duo. Very neat costumes and good music. I felt so cultured, haha. I'm glad we saw the show, but I'm definitely touring the Opera House tomorrow!
Diane and I walked back to our hostel after the show, enjoyed a beer in the bar, and now we are catching up win life on wifi. Busy, busy day, and we have LOTS of plans for tomorrow. I love this city--may be my new favorite!
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