Day 2 - Schonbrunn Palace

Schӧnbrunn Palace

Today my friend had to work so this was the day I had entertain myself. Luckily for me one of the main attractions was right nearby!

Schӧnbrunn Palace is the summer residence of the Habsbury royal family, now a public park with a zoo and tourist attractions. I got there at 10am and it was already very busy! If you want to tour the interior of the palace you have to get a timed ticket and as my entry time was at 10.50 I decided to wander around the gardens for a bit. I, foolishly, did not have a map and boy do you need one! Sure if you just want to trek up to the Gloriana then you will be fine, just walk through the ornamental gardens, passed the fountain:

The Grand fountain

Then up to the Gloriana:

But I thought that I would do this later and went to find the Palmhouse and discovered that the gardens are ENORMOUS! and have little side gardens and paths and large grassy places for kids to play in and...and well I got lost wondering around and only found the Palmhouse just as I needed to be back at the Palace so I headed back to the entrance of the palace and began the tour of the interior. I was not able to take any photos inside but it reminded me of the William and Mary wing of Hampton Court, dark wood panels, a 'Chinese' room and instead of Dutch tulip vases in the corner of each room, ceramic ovens that heat the rooms (it is a surprising modern invention for a Habsburg palace) One of the ovens is where coal is stoked and then the steam moves through the rest of the floor. It is central Europe so heating is less of an issue then in the UK but it is very interesting and unique to have these throughout the palace. The decorations being Georgian makes sense as this was heavily designed by Empress Marie Theresa who was reigning at this time.It is in a Baroque style which favors painted frescoes on the ceiling and mirrors. Lovely to walk around and worth a visit if you like historical houses.

After I had completed the Grand Tour (there are two options for tours and my Vienna Pass allow me to take this tour) I left on time to find the Strudel Show (it took a while to find where it was held as the signs dry up inside the restaurant - it is the basement or 'old kitchen' so go towards the toilets and then down the stairs). You get a free piece of strudel and the show was very education. I hope to make some apple strudel according to their recipe once I am back. They even give you a recipe card and a 'hotline' to call with your strudel related queries! 

After this I used the free drinking water tap in the Gardens to fill up my bottle before heading off to the Gloriana. 

The Gloriana

The view from the top of the Gloriana

There is a great  view from the top of the Gloriana (you have to pay to go up there) but on such a lovely day it was worth it. There is also a restaurant if you need a sit down after climbing up there.

Next I decided to go to the zoo! I really wanted to see the Piranha feed but alas it is only on Monday's but I did see lots of animals. As a zoo it was a really good one! Lots of big enclosures and private places for the animals to go (the polar bears had a sign in their enclosure saying that sometimes they wetn into a private rooms and you might not get to see them which I thought was important). They had access to lots of water and activities. It was educational but they also had lots of baby animals! 

Here are my highlights:

A deer

A South American bear

Brown bears

Giant Anteaters (it was too hot even for the South American creatures!)

The baby leopard

A very active hippo

The actual Tiergarten - that this is all named after. Now a restaurant

Mummy panda

baby panda

A hornbill

A lango - Hungarian street food available at the zoo

I got tired of the zoo and the only thing I really wanted to see next was the palmhouse - which was lovely and similar to the Great glasshouse in Kew Gardens. Lovely and quiet and picturesque.

At this point I was exhausted! So I headed home to lovely home cooked meal and another night on the lovely terrace.

I also stopped off at a supermarket on the way back (a Billa) to get some milk and bread for breakfast and loved  that even in a small shop like this there was a butcher!