We got up super early to catch the train to Vienna! So early that we watched the sunrise on the way to the train station.
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| The 6:14 train to Vienna! |
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| We sat on the top level again! |
After the two hour train ride we finally arrived in Vienna! We got off the train and figured out the tram system and bought a 24 hour ticket. Then we found some breakfast and got on our way to our first stop! The Schonbrunn Palace!
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| They love their fountains! |
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| You could take a horse and carriage ride around the palace grounds if you wanted. |
We decided to take the free self tour and walked around the garden for a couple hours.
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| This place is huge! |
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| This place reminds me of a Jane Austen movie or something. |
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| The fountain was off right until we walked up. Perfect timing! |
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| Crazy fountains! |
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| Poseidon and his subjects I guess |
While I was busy taking pictures Michael walked up to the top of the fountain.
This palace is so huge, it has it's own zoo!!! I can't even imagine the personality of the imperial family. They had their own zoo. We didn't have time to go check it out. Plus they charged an arm and a leg to get inside! I guess that's what pays for the grounds keeping.
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| Pretty view and pretty colors! |
After going to the top of the fountain, we saw their was a path going even higher. We saw lots of people going up there and thought there must be something worth seeing so we made the trek! Boy was it worth it. Wonderful view of the palace and the entire city of Vienna!
We could have hiked even farther up to this structure but we said a picture was good enough. We were already sweating buckets
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| Little ducky walking around the palace! |
We would have gone inside the palace is we had loads of extra time. Even thought we got there right when it opened, by the time we left, there were hoards of people waiting in line to buy their inside tour tickets. We had way too many landmarks to see so we decided we were good to go so we left.
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| Loved this sign! We were very close to the Slovakia and Hungary border being in Vienna. |
We rode the tram back into the center of town and the first thing we saw when we got off was the Opera House! We were so hungry that we decided to pass it up for now and find food.
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| Busy street! |
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| The front of the Opera House |
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| The side view |
We met a lady on the tram that told us where some good non-touristy eating places were. She told us that inside this garden area was a nice cafe` we could check out. We made our way over there but decided the toast and coffee only cafe` thing wasn't what we wanted. We looked at the grounds before we left.
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| This is the back side of the Austria National Library. |
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| Michael is trying to find us on our map. |
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| Crazy architecture! |
Before leaving the gardens, we stumbled upon a Mozart memorial statue. They made a treble clef out of flowers! How clever!
We walked down the adjacent street hoping for food. We passed by this building but we have no idea what it is. We couldn't find it in our map/ book.
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| Mystery building |
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| This little guy was hanging out on the sidewalk! A big bull dog was sitting next to him but he got up and left before I could get the picture. |
We finally found a place to eat lunch. It was a traditional Austrian food restaurant. Michael was pretty excited about it.
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| Lunch time! |
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| Sorry Mozart....but that's gross! |
So for our first meal in Vienna, Michael ordered bratwurst with sauerkraut and I ordered roasted chicken.
After lunch, Michael ordered a small cup of coffee. They weren't kidding. It was very small.
After lunch, we walked down the street shopping for some souvenirs and eventually made our way back over to the Opera House.
We really wanted to go inside but all the doors were locked and people were just sitting outside. We couldn't figure out what was going on. We saw a sign for guided tours but couldn't find any information about it. We found the security guard but he spoke no English and just pointed to the side of the building. What a big help! We didn't want to give up so we went off trying to find someone who spoke English and could help.
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| "What is going on??!....." |
We found the Opera House Museum and figured they would know what to do so we went in. The lady informed us that the only way to see the inside was to do the guided tour. She also told us how lucky we were because they only do tours three days a week and we were just in time to catch the very last English tour. We bought our tickets and hung out in the museum before the tour.
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| We LOVE Gustav Mahler! |
They had a ballet area and a ballet bar with feet positions laid out on the floor so we had some fun.
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| lol |
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| Michael is so graceful! |
Ok enough ballet fun! The museum was steaming hot so we went back outside for our tour!
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| Michael cooling off in the fountain. I don't think that statue god appreciates it very much. |
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| We found our restaurant!! |
So now we're finally inside the Opera House! Almost tour time!
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| I think I might exchange my wedding dress for this one! |
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| The foyer |
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| Backstage |
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| Fancy box seat |
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| Chandelier |
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| This plays the Opera subtitles in any language you want. |
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| The stage! They were getting ready for an opera that night. |
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| The concession room |
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| The doors to the boxes |
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| This is the Royal Tea Room. Apparently the Prince used to drink tea in here during the Opera. They said he enjoyed the tea more than the opera. |
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| I just love Mahler! |
We left the Opera House and made our way over to the last few landmarks we wanted to see before catching the train back to Linz.
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| This statue is the exact same as the one in Linz. Interesting. |
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| Mmmm not sure what this is either. We were in too big of a hurry to look it up. |
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| This is the Parliament building |
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| This is the front of the Austria National Library |
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| During WW2, Hitler stood on that balcony and announced the alliance between Germany and Austria to tens of thousands of people. |
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| Another museum! |
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| Making our way to Town Hall |
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| Town Hall |
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| That is the Stephendom Church. The whole front was under construction. Boooo |
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| Town Hall again |
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| Town Hall with a really nice and old screen. They were getting ready for a film festival. |
Well, we just had too much on our list of things to see and we ended up missing the train back to Linz. So we decided to enjoy our time and catch the last one out that night so we made our way back to the train station to figure out what time that would be.
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| We passed the Stephendom on the way |
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| I love giant pedestrian only streets! |
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| The Happiness Station! A.K.A. Gelato!!!! |
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| Our Starbucks Country mug collection is growing! |
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| On the train headed back to Linz. We were beyond exhausted. |
