Saturday, June 26th, 2010
This morning we took the U-line out to Schloss Schönbrunn, the Habsburgs’ 1441-room summer palace, of which we toured 40 rooms. It was a quick and easy journey out to the palace, and once off the train there was no need to determine which way to go, you just follow the herds of people all going to the same place. Once inside, we purchased a ticket that included an audio-guided tour of 40 rooms of the palace’s first floor, entry to the Privy Gardens, entry to the Gloriette, and entry to the Labyrinth and Maze. We had about 45 minutes until we could start the tour of the palace, so we headed to the Privy Gardens, which were directly adjacent to the palace. The Privy Gardens in and of its self was nothing spectacular, beautiful yes, but not all that much more spectacular than the rest of the grounds of the palace. The one nice feature of the Privy Gardens was a viewing platform they had added from which you could take a really nice photograph of the side of the palace with the Gardens in the foreground. I think the ONLY thing Tim enjoyed about the Privy Gardens were the GIGANTIC lemons. The garden featured numerous lemon and orange trees, and I have NEVER seen lemons of this size, they were half the size of Tim’s head (you will see in the picture if you click into our photo gallery at the top of the blog and go to the Vienna pictures). Tim concluded from this that we need a lemon tree. We will see how that goes.
After the Privy Gardens we head for the entrance to the Palace tour and picked up our audio guides. No photography was allowed inside the Palace, so unfortunately I have no photographs to show you its splendor, only my words. The Imperial bedrooms and private living quarters, to my surprise, were grand yes, but were not overly lavish or ornate in design. The Emperor’s office for example was extremely understated and was full of portraits of his wife, children, and grandchildren. Some of the more formal gathering rooms where the Imperial family would have received guests however were much more ornate. There are three rooms in particular that come to mind, a long rectangular hall that had two small octagonal rooms at either end of the hall. The two small rooms in particular were very ornate. They featured some of the most beautiful wood floors I have ever seen with detailed designs highlighted with various types and shades of hard woods. In addition there was an elaborately designed “Chinese Room”, as I understand all of the Imperial Palaces of the time had a “Chinese Room” as the fabrics and designs were considered to be very “regal”.
After completing the tour of the inside of the Palace, we made our way back outside through the grounds and up the hill at the back to the Gloriette. Honestly, I am unsure of the original purpose of the Gloriette, it had a small interior building which now houses a café and two long arched open hallways on either side. It was a beautiful structure looking down on the Imperial Palace and grounds. The ticket we purchased also allowed for us to take a winding staircase to a viewing platform at the top of the structure which again provided an amazing photo op with spectacular views of Schloss Schönbrunn and modern day Vienna, which I’m sure would’ve seemed very far away in the Imperial days. From the Gloriette we headed back down the hill to tackle one of several mazes on the Palace grounds. After successfully defeating the maze, which took longer than I anticipated I must add, we walked back to the U-line station and caught a train back to the center of Vienna.
Upon our arrival in Vienna we set out to find a restaurant that was recommended in our guide book as being a classic Biesl, traditional Viennese pub serving solid Viennese fare. After switching trains and a 10 minute walk, we arrived at our destination, a bit out of the “touristy” part of Vienna we were pleased with the atmosphere and were looking forward to our first true Austrian meal. Zu den 2 Leiserln has been serving enormous schnitzels, and when they say enormous they mean ENORMOUS, to politicians, blue-collar workers, and everyone in between for 100 years, so of course we ordered the “Wiener Schnitzel”. A note to anyone who might find themselves in Vienna and want to order a Schnitzel at Leiserln, one schnitzel was PLENTY for the two of us. As Tim has already explained, Wiener schnitzel is NOT sausage, but in fact a giant piece of meat (traditionally veal, but Pork is the most common) pounded thin, breaded and fried. I found Wiener schnitzel to be very much like the pork tenderloins you find so often back home in Indiana. It was good, but not really my type of food, but I feel very strongly about sampling local cuisine. Now the potato salad that came with the schnitzel on the other hand was amazing, and incredibly unlike anything I had ever tasted. I don’t even know how to describe it other than to say that it didn’t have a mustard or mayonnaise or any sort of cream base, and it had almost a vinegar taste….YUM! After lunch we went back to the hotel for a short rest.
After a break we took the train back up to Stelphensplatz, the plaza along the pedestrian Kärntner Stausse near the Stephensdom Cathedral. From here we made our way to Zwölf Apostekeller, a heurigen, or wine tavern, located in the city. Heurigens sell “new” wine that they often produce on the premises, and it is thus usually very inexpensive, less than €2.50 a viertel (250ml). The majority of the heurigens in the area are located in the wine-growing suburbs to the north, northeast, south and west of the city, but we found this gem in the city, thanks to our guide book, and sat down in this atmospheric cellar for a glass of wine.
After the heurigen we took a casual stroll back to Flanagans again, to have dinner and watch the soccer. Tomorrow we move on to Salzburg!
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