Tuesday May 26, 2009

Before leaving Vienna we took the city tour which included the splendor of the Schönbrunn Palace. The tour started out with a ride through Vienna’s most historical sights such as the Museum of Applied Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts, the State Opera House, the Museum of Natural History and the Hofburg, the famous residence of Habsburgs’ Empress Elizabeth, affectionately known as Sisi to the Austrians. We also saw the City Hall, the Burgtheater, the University and the Votive Church. But our real treat was seeing the inside of the Schönbrunn palace, the summer residence of the Hapsburgs. While Maria Theresa, mother of Marie Antoinette, never lived here, there are many paintings commemorating her legend, as well as her children. Everyone remembers Marie Antoinette, who later became Queen to Louis XVI of France, and had her head chopped off at the guillotine. The palace was built between 1692 and 1715 and is bigger than Buckingham Palace. We were able to view over 50 rooms…a lot of gilded gold leaf and inlaid wooden pieces, tapestries, brocade, damask and paintings. For me the special treat was seeing the breakfast room…small table, beautiful china and crystal and gorgeous lace curtains. Now I have a new project when I get back to Andalusia.!

A little tidbit about Vienna...there are 9 provinces in Austria and Vienna is the smallest but has 20% of the population and still 50% is green pasture. Everything revolves around Maria Theresa who was not only queen of Bohemia and Hungry but also empress of the Holy Roman Empire and defended Austria against all the other European countries successfully.

The Opera House which was built in 1869, bombed in 1945, and now restored. All the Strauss waltzes were played here as well as in our bus! Beethoven and Mozart performed here as well.

This city was overwhelming to us. There are 163 famous buildings to see, each one more ornate than the other, with 1.7 million people milling around. Oh, forgot to say we saw the highest Ferris wheel in the world, and I think the first. (Thought Chicago had the first at their world’s fair) but we did get a glimpse of it off in the distance.

By 1:00 we had about had enough so again we settled in at Subway for a reality check, took the tram back to the hotel and off we flew (90 MPH) to Salzburg, about 3 hrs. away. The Days continued their repertoire and I took a wonderful nap. Mary was disappointed that there are so many fences by the highway blocking the beautiful view of the alpine villages and countryside. It was exciting to see the Alps with their snow covered peaks. David was thrilled to return to Salzburg, as he studied here for a year abroad from Bowling Green. He had chosen the perfect hotel for us. We dined outside in their courtyard until the rain threatened. Dinner was great and all was well until Mary got stuck in the bathtub. You can imagine my trying to get her out…with that thought we leave you for the day.