It rained most of the night last night, at least during the time before we fell asleep at about 10:30 PM. The rain made it easier for us to call it a night earlier than when we were in Venice, where we were staying out later. It has also helped us to catch up on the blog, and on our rest. Stephanie was fighting a little bit of a head cold yesterday, but felt better when she woke up this morning.
It was still cloudy this morning, and was much windier and colder than yesterday. After having our breakfast at the hotel, which consisted mainly of various hams and sliced sausages (salamis), we got ready to brave the outside elements. We wore some colder weather clothes (finally, after lugging them around for a week), and took our heavier rain jackets, for both protection against the wind, and the possibility for more rain.
Gilded Centerpiece for the Dining Table – Hofburg Palace
Our plan for today was to visit the Hofburg Palace, the home of the Habsburgs, who were the last ruling monarchs of Austria, ruling until 1916. We stood in line for tickets to see the Porcelain and Silver collection, the Sisi Musium (Sisi was the wife of Emperor Franz Josef, the last monarch), and Royal Apartments. It was very interesting, although the Sisi Museum was a little crowded, and dramatic. Apparently, she had a few issues with eating disorders, and was a recluse later in her life. She probably would have benefited from some Prozac. Unfortunately, she was assassinated while traveling outside of Austria, although according to her writings, she apparently really longed for death.
The silver and the porcelain were very extravagant, one collection of silver dishes weighed over 1000 kilograms, which is about 2,500 lbs. It was also amazing to see how intricate the settings were for the royal dinners. The silver and gold plated porcelain was also interesting, one set was never used for eating, it was too brittle to actually use for a dinner, apparently just made for display. It was a gift from one of the Queens of England.
Part of the Extensive Porcelain Plate Collection
It was amazing to see the opulence that these people lived in while entertaining, but for the remainder of the time, the Emperor actually lived in a very simply furnished room. Sisi was a bit more extravagant, but was away from the palace a lot of the time.
The areas of the Palace that were shown during the tour were very interesting, there was a lot of gilded furniture and gilded wall panels in the palace, and of course, all of the furniture had red coverings, and all of the carpets were red. I guess if you are from royal bloodlines, you better like the color red in your house, excuse me, I mean Palace.
After leaving the Palace, we walked around the grounds outside, and then over to the National Museum for a few outside pictures. We then walked over to the Burggarten, which is one of the gardens around the palace, and has a statue there to commemorate Mozart (the classical music guy).
Then we stopped at a Wurstelstand, which means sausage stand. They are all over the town, and are small, outside walk up buildings that serve all kinds of sausages and beer. Stephanie had a kasekrainer (a sausage with melted cheese inside) and I had a Bratwurst. They were considered to be “hot dogs” which are sausages stuck into a roll similar to a french bread roll. They cut off the end, and then jam the roll onto a pointed metal stake, and then inject mustard, and put the sausage inside of it in the hole made by the stake.
Schonbrunn Castle
We ordered two draft beers with the sausages. It was a great lunch. Of course, we had a little trouble ordering, really trying to decide what to get without understanding the descriptions of the food in German, but luckily, we received some help from some locals eating there who spoke English.
We decided to go ahead and head over to the Schonbrunn Palace, which was the summer home of the Emperor. We had to take an underground train over to this Palace from our location near the Hofburg Palace.
It was not as impressive of a house from the outside, but the gardens around it were VERY large and impressive.
You could not really see a lot of the total area of the gardens because of the trees, but the area behind the summer Palace was open and planted with a lot of colorful plants.
View Of The Castle From The Gloriette
We wondered around and took a lot of pictures, and then went up the hill to the Gloriette, which was an elevated building overlooking the open expanse of the gardens and the Palace.
Unfortunately, it was getting more cloudy and windy, and the photos will not be as colorful as the gardens would have appeared on a sunny day.
When we finished looking around on the Gloriette, we started back down the hill to the Palace, and it started to drizzle more heavily.
Gardens of Schonburnn Castle
We were heading back to the underground station anyway, to head over to the train station to purchase a ticket for tomorrow morning’s train trip to Salzburg.
We then took the underground back to the area near St. Stephen’s Cathedral, and went to a cafe to get some desserts and some hot coffee for me, and a hot chocolate for Stephanie.
After that, we headed back to the hotel, but took a side trip to see the Danube River, which was not very pretty here, and certainly would not have inspired any songs. It is contained in a concrete walled channel, and the walls are full of graffiti. Maybe the graffiti Danube would be the song now, certainly not the Blue Danube. We headed back to the room to pack since tomorrow will be a travel day to Salzburg for one night. We are taking a the 8:20 AM train to Salzburg.