Schönbrunn Palace and a Concert

This morning we caught the train to Schönbrunn Palace, the former imperial residence. Tourism information emphasizes that it was built to rival the Palace of Versailles; although that was the original intent, the final design and future modifications are impressive but far from rivaling the opulence found at Versailles.

The grounds at Schönbrunn are extensive so we tried to plan our route to avoid back-tracking. Our first stop was to buy the cheapest things we could find on the cafe menu, then attend a demonstration of how to make apple strudel. The girl who conducted the demonstration clearly had a script she had memorized, but I was still amazed by the way she flipped effortlessly between German and English.

Each person at the demonstration received a delicious slice of apple strudel.

She rolled the dough and stretched it on her arms in the air until it was so thin that when a paper was held underneath, the words could be read through the dough.

A video clip showing how she switched between German and English.

The grounds at Schönbrunn had a few ponds, plenty of well-trimmed shrubs, and impressive flower beds in front of the palace.

A view of Schönbrunn Palace from the roof of the Gloriette.

A view of the Gloriette from the back door of Schönbrunn Palace.

The view from the top of the Gloriette, a structure built to glorify the Habsburg family.

A little bit of posing because it's fun.

As we walked through the airport in Vienna upon arrival, I saw a poster of a panda bear with the words, "Vienna Zoo" underneath. I was thrilled at the prospect that one of my dreams might come true much easier than I thought it would! Before I moved to England I checked online and the only panda I could find in Europe was at the Berlin Zoo. I wasn't willing to take a flight there just to see a panda, but I knew if I ever made it anywhere near Berlin, the zoo would definitely be on my must-see list. When I discovered that Vienna has a panda bear and we were visiting the palace connected to the zoo, I decided to pay for admission to the zoo, no matter what it cost. I was extra-excited when I found out that the zoo doesn't just have one panda, they have three! They succesfully bred a pair and the cub is now over one year old. Fu Long is the first cub born in Europe as a result of natural conception rather than artificial insemination.

A real, live panda bear!

A video of a panda eating bamboo.
Turn up your volume and you can hear him munching his lunch.

A video of two pandas eating bamboo.

Since I'm on the topic of pandas, check out this video clip - it's guaranteed to make you smile or even laugh out loud. Seems to become even more amusing if you watch it a few times.

Oh well. I'll have to keep trying.

We attended the feeding of the seals and it was hilarious to watch the kids in the front scream and shout for the handler to toss fish to make the sea lions leap into the water and splash them.

"Founded as an imperial menagerie in 1752, it is the oldest zoo in the world."

Bats hanging from the rafters in the Rain Forest exhibit.
We didn't last long as the heat outside was stifling, but the heat inside the massive greenhouse was unbearable.

The palace gardens had a few mazes, one of which used hedges so high we couldn't see over them. It's more difficult than you'd think to make your way through it!

In the middle of one of the mazes we discovered an extra little maze of mirrors... so we posed, because that's what we like to do.

One of the mazes had little surprises along the way, like footstep platforms mounted on springs, metal tiles which rang different tones when stepped on, and the walkway above, where the movement of your foot could trigger a spray of water across your feet.

We took the train back into town and hopped off at the Naschmarkt (outdoor market) to pick up some food for supper. Our concert didn't start for a few more hours so we headed back to our accommodation to put our feet up and eat our supper before heading out again.

Random self-portraits provide endless entertainment and are a great way to kill time while waiting for a concert to begin.




Melinda and I may not be highly cultured women, but we do know that when you attend a concert of classical music, you're not supposed to clap between each song. After the first song we looked at each other in utter amazement as loud applause erupted around us and I said, "This is definitely aimed squarely at tourists." The songs were all famous classics... I know this because I recognized almost all the songs. There were instrumental songs and also a few opera numbers. I couldn't help grinning at how directly the concert was aimed at tourists. It was actually quite cheesy at some points, but we still had a lot of fun. I don't think we'll ever forget the Papageno duet.