Schonbrunn Palace & more

Missing the detail

Being Sunday, the supermarkets here are closed.  We couldn’t get milk for my cereal or pastries from the supermarket bakery.  Fortunately, there was a nice café-bakery next to the hotel, so we treated ourselves with a filled croissant and a pastry back in our room with our own drinks.

Despite the luxury of having many months to plan for this trip, I hadn’t gone into the details of where to go in Vienna.  It’s just me … I used my time to plan the skeleton of other trips instead rather than the fine details of this trip.

I paid the price this morning by having to research the sights and costs.  We concluded that we could have enough of an experience visiting the Schonbrunn and Hofburg from just the outside and/or the free areas.

At our age, we’ve seen enough of opulent rooms in big palaces, housing the furniture, porcelain and jewellery of famous people.  There’s only so much opulent and obscene wealth I can handle.

Schonbrunn Palace

We headed out at 1000 to the Schonbrunn Palace by public transport.  As we walked from the station across to the palace, it was apparent that today would be a scorching day with a max of 32 degC expected.

First, we explored the free portions of the gardens before heading towards Neptune’s Fountain and walking uphill towards the Gloriette structure.  It seemed strange that one had to pay to go enter and go up to the Gloriette when the elevated bank on which it was built already gave a good view FOC.

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We continued wandering the free areas and found the entrance to the zoo, which we weren’t interested in.  While the FOC parts of the Schonbrunn gardens were nice, they were a little unkempt, e.g. the hedges needed trimming and the grass needed mowing.

Around midday, an hour after we had arrived, we were done!

Historic Centre

We took a train to Vienna’s historic centre, intending to get to St Stephen’s Cathedral.

Disembarking at a stop by the river, we got tempted into lunch at a bratwurst stand.  We ordered a spicy cheese sausage and a regular one, both in very nice bread.

We continued to St Stephen’s where we were quite taken by its ornate gothic interior.  It was quite unexpected considering its plain façade.

We found our way to the Hofburg palace buildings, which we had decided we wouldn’t be entering.  Kim did get swayed briefly as we walked past the entrance to the Sisi (Maria Theresa) Museum.

With limited interest which was waning in the heat, we didn’t even work out which building was which amongst the various Hofburg buildings.

We returned to the hotel for a rest till the evening.

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Hundertwasser House

We took public transport to Hundertwasser House which I had visited in 1998.  The artist is famous for irregular and colourful architecture.  Because he lived in New Zealand for a while, I felt a bit of a connection.  Hundertwasser was well-known in New Zealand for his works in Northland.

Prater Park

We found our way by foot through green parkland to the amusement area of Prater Park.  The park is free to enter and one pays only for the rides.

Even though we’re past the age of wanting to spend money on thrill rides, the atmosphere was still great.  It was even better as the sun set and the lights came on.

We both remember the historic ferris wheel which dates back to 1897.  To our surprise, it was possible to do the ride with a harness standing on an open platform instead of the normal gondola.

The normal ride was a bit pricey so we skipped it.  We weren’t sure if the open ride was cheaper (like an unreserved seat on a train) or more expensive (for the special experience).

We did take a ride (three revolutions) on the newer and faster ferris wheel before enjoying a pork schnitzel in Schweizerhaus beer garden.  The beer went down particularly well, in the scorching summer heat.

With transport disruption due to works, the ride back was a bit complicated and we got back to the hotel around 2200.