Danube Extravaganza: Hot Chocolate Perfection - Days 10 & 11

 To the top of the tower on the top of the hill, I say!  

With potentially poor weather on Days 11 & 12, on Day 10 I chose to do what I figured would be the least fun day to do in bad weather.  Petrin Hill is a 400 foot hill overlooking the city of Prague.  Up on top of it is 200 ft tall Petrin Tower.  My goal for the day was to make it up to the top of the tower.  

I set out from my hostel, and made my way through town towards the Vltava River.  Where I crossed there was a small island in the middle that had a path around it, as well as a restaurant and what looked like in summer might be a small music stage.  After a brief walk around it, I continued across the bridge.  There are two smallish dams on the river through this section, and on the western bank of the river was a lock to let boats upriver.  I also saw a muskrat on the the banks of the river.

A few blocks from the river is the entrance to Petrin Hill.  Petrin Hill is a park with paths that crisscross the side of the hill, through orchards, gardens, forests, and vineyards.  I started up the hill and about 10 minutes in, I realized that I had never stopped to get food on my way like I planned.  I figured I probably needed a bit more energy if I was going to make it up the hill so I set out to find something that looked good.  I walked past a place that had a sign with the words “Hot Chocolate” and “Waffles” on it, and I figured that sounded good.  The hot chocolate was the thickest hot chocolate I’ve ever had.  It was so good…and trust me, I know hot chocolate.  I’m a connoisseur of hot chocolate.  The waffle came with whipped cream, chocolate, a fruit jam, kiwi, berries, pear, and apple.  The waffle was somewhat flavorless alone, but once you got the whipped cream and jam on it, it was good.

Filled up with food, I was now able to make the trek up the hill.  Since I basically had all day to spend there, I was in no hurry to get to the top.  I zigzagged around the park’s paths.  In some places the path was quite steep.  I was impressed with the parents with strollers in some of these areas.  I eventually had to take off my coat because I had warmed up so much.  However, as I got close to the top, the wind started to pick up and the coat went back on.  

No, not steep at all.

I had decided I was going to swing by Strahov Monastery first, before heading up to the tower, but when I walked into the ticket office, I found that they were about to take a break for lunch, so I decided to come back after I went up to Petrin Tower.  The two weren’t very far apart.

Strahov Monastery

Petrin Tower

From up this high on the hill, the view of Prague was amazing.  Most of the houses in this part of town have orange slate roofs, so it makes for a pretty picture from up high.  I made it up to the tower, and bought a ticket to go up.  It is 299 steps to the top of Petrin Tower, much like Bunker Hill Monument in Boston, it is breathtaking, as in, when you get to the top, you are gasping for breath from climbing all those stairs.  It was funny because you could tell who had just arrived at the top by how heavily they were breathing.  The tower was built in 1891 as a sort of rival to/inspired by the Eiffel Tower.  Being up on top of a large hill, it is technically higher, but the actual tower isn’t as high.  It also only took 2 months to build.  It has two viewing platforms and the view from either one is fantastic.  

By the time I came back down from the top of Petrin Tower and walked back to Strahov Monastery, it was back open for the afternoon.  I started out by visiting the library building.  There were two libraries: the Philosophical Library which carries books related to the sciences, and the Theological Library which contains books related to religion and theology.  Both are absolutely gorgeous and it is no wonder they are found on lists of “The World’s Most Beautiful Libraries.”  After the library, I stopped by the church, before heading to the gallery and the exhibit on the monks who lived there and St Norbert who started the monastery.  

The Philosophical Room

The Theological Room

I once again zigzagged my way around the side of Petrin hill, trying to avoid taking the same path as I already had, if possible.  At the bottom I stopped at the Memorial to the Victims of Communism.  Czechoslovakia was under communist rule from 1948 to 1989.  The memorial is for those who were killed, tortured, arrested, and forced to live their lives in a way that would keep them from being killed, tortured, or arrested.  

Memorial to the Victims of Communism

Because it was a nice day, and still somewhat early, I made my way to what they call the John Lennon Wall.  It is a graffiti tribute to John Lennon that changes from time to time.

The John Lennon Wall...this end seemed to be rather Lennon-less, but the other end had a few murals of him.

I then crossed the Charles Bridge which was built in the second half of the 14th century and is one of Prague’s major landmarks.  I took a quick wander through the busy Old Town quarter, before heading back to the hostel for the night.  And what a quiet night it was, because I had no roommates.  I was the only one in a 6 bed dorm.

On Day 2 of Prague, I set out knowing that I might happen across some rain, sleet, or snow.  Stop #1 was the Franz Kafka Head.  I kind of feel like it is fitting that the man who wrote The Metamorphosis, has a weird mirror-like head statue in central Prague, that rotates once an hour.  It is also right outside a 3-story shopping center.

From Franz Kafka, I headed down to the Memorial to the Heroes of the Heydrich Terror.  The memorial consists of a plaque on the outside of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius, and an education room, and memorial in the crypt where the assassins of SS Officer Reinhard Heydrich, a high-ranking member Nazi official in Czechoslovakia.  A group of men who had all fled Czechoslovakia in the early days of WWII because they did not want to fight alongside the Germans, parachuted into Czechoslovakia, with a plot to sabotage the Germans and to assassinate Heydrich.  They accomplished their task on May 27, 1942 (though Heydrich didn’t die until June 4th).  The Nazis were obviously furious and set out to find the assassins.   Before having found where the men were hiding, the Nazis arrested anyone even loosely tied to the men, and massacred or arrested nearly the entire towns of Lidice and Lezaky before burning it to the ground because they thought there was a tie to the assassination.  They hid in the crypt of the Cathedral of saints Cyril and Methodius in central Prague for 21 days before being informed on by a traitor within the groups’ ranks (one not hiding in the crypt).  The Nazis laid seige on the church.  The men in the crypt fought until it was obvious they would not make it out, and took their own lives.  The assassination was a huge moral boost for the resistance in Czechoslovakia during the remainder of the war, as well as showing the Allied forces that the country did not favor the Germans.

Bullet damage is still visible on the outside of the Cathedral of Saints Cyril and Methodius where those who assassinated Heydrich hid.

From the memorial, I headed down to the Vltava River where there is an area where they have a farmers’ market…even in sleet the market was open with people there.  

From the market, I continued down the river to Vysehrad.  Legend has it that Vysehrad was where the first settlement in the Prague area was made, though no one can confirm that.  Vysehrad is up on a fortified hill, has a number of buildings, a church, and a cemetery.  The cemetery is very crowded based on the size.  A number of famous individuals are buried there, though truth be told, the only name I recognized was composer Antonin Dvorak.

At this point it was only around 12:30 and I had already visited the places on my schedule for the day.  I decided I was going to head up to the Powder Tower.  Really, the Powder Tower is just another old tower in town, so it was a quick 5 minute visit once I got there.   

The Powder Tower

With nothing else planned for the day, I trekked back to the hostel.  I stopped for lunch at what seems to be a local fast food place called Bageterie Boulevard.  They have sandwiches on baguettes and delicious potato wedges.  I got back to the hostel sometime around 2-2:30 and relaxed for a bit.  Feeling like I ought to do something, I researched “Best Hot Chocolate in Prague” and set out for Chocafe which did indeed have one of the most amazing hot chocolates I’ve ever had.  It was so thick!  I have another place marked, to try tomorrow.  With my hot chocolate to keep me warm, since it was the coldest day of my trip so far (around freezing), I headed back to Charles Bridge.  It was nearing sunset and I wanted to get a view of Prague Castle lit up before calling it quits for the night.

Danube Extravaganza: Excalibur, But Real! - Days 8 & 9

 Do a deer, a female deer, re a drop of golden sun, and mi…I love Salzburg!  

Mirabell Gardens

I had a brief 30 hour or so stay in the town and have already decided that someday I will return and hit up some of the countryside, as well as visit the places that were closed because it is winter.  I considered staying longer, but as some of the things I wish to do would require warmer weather, different clothes, or a different month, I decided to move onto Prague as I had originally planned.  With my arrival in Prague, Czech Republic, I will have now been to: USA (of course), Canada, Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Spain, Curacao, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Tanzania, Iceland, Nepal, the Netherlands, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic.  

In order to get to Salzburg, I got up at 4:45 am to get on a train that was leaving at 5:38 am.  It was the second cheapest ticket, but also got me to Salzburg at 8:15, so I could have pretty much the entire day in the city.  As we approached the city I got excited because I could see mountains in the distance with snow.  While there was no snow in Salzburg, the mountains were a beautiful sight.  First thing I did was head to the hostel I was going to be staying at, and dropped off my luggage.  I also picked up a Salzburg Card which gave me basically free entry into everything I wanted to see on my visit.  Most cities those cards aren’t worth it to me because of how I schedule things out.  Perhaps if you were to do 2 intense days where you hit up everything, moving non-stop, then it might be worth it, but I ran the numbers when planning the trip and in the other cities it wasn’t worth it.

After dropping stuff off I just started to wander.  I knew what direction things were from the hostel and as how one of the things on my schedule was “Wander Old Town Salzburg”, I was doing exactly what I had planned.  Most of the buildings look like they jumped out of a movie set in the 1700s or maybe early 1800s.  I love it.  It still has that old timey feel to it.  I first headed into Mirabell Gardens which are next to Schloss Mirabell.  These gardens actually had some pansies planted in them, so did actually look somewhat like a garden.  These gardens are famous for the “Do, Re, Mi” steps and were the gardens that Maria and the Trapp kids ran through during the song as well.

Those are the "Do Re Mi " steps at the end are smaller than I thought they would be.

As I made my way through a still awakening Salzburg, I saw my name on the side of a building. Not my first name, but my Furst name. Turns out that there are some fairly famous confectioners in Salzburg who share my last name. They're the ones who created Mozartkugel, a small chocolate involving pistachio, nougut, and chocolate. Anyways...they also have some very tasty looking cakes, so I got a chocolate torte.

I slowly wandered towards Hohensalzburg, this old castle fortress up on top of a large hill overlooking the town.  There are two ways to get up to the castle: walk or take the funicular.  As my Salzburg card got me a free ride up, I figured I’d rather save myself 15 minutes of intensely steep walking.  I’m very glad I did.  No point in wasting extra energy when I’m already walking so much.  

The castle on the hill was built in various phases from around the 1200s to the 1700s.  The museum explained that as technology changed, so did the castle.  They updated the castle to make it more difficult to break through with the latest and greatest of technology.  The castle was intended to be a place for the citizens of the city to come to if anyone were to invade, and it would provide protection to them.  While it rarely was needed for those sorts of instances, it was used as full time housing for the Bishop Prince (or something like that).  It was rather hazy at that time because it was the Holy Roman Empire, etc.  Being a bishop was a lot different then, than now.  He basically was like the supreme leader of Salzburg.  The citizens were taxed and he built a castle to protect them if invaders came.  The citizens didn't like that later on and revolted against him.

One of the uses of the castle was to spot fire in the city.  Up until the 20th century, they kept a watchman up in the fire tower to look down at the city.  If fire was spotted they would fire a cannon to alert the town, the number of shots saying what district the fire was in.  They later installed this interesting bugling device that could be heard for a long distance and used to communicate with the folks in the city.  They had multiple arsenals and a granary to save food for the citizens if they ever needed to hold up in the castle.

One of the best parts of the castle was of course the view.  Up on top of one of the towers they had a panoramic viewing platform.  It was a sunny day with few clouds so the view was amazing.  I really could have stayed up there for a long time, but I felt I shouldn’t hog the space, so I took pictures in every direction and then headed back down.

However, instead of taking the funicular back down the side of the mountain, I walked down so I could get a different viewpoint.  Also, walking down meant I could swing by the Stift Nonnberg, which is famous as the convent from The Sound of Music.  I think you could actually go into the convent, but I wasn’t sure if you could at the time, so I didn’t.  Guess I’ll have to swing by the next time I’m in town.

"Reverend Mother, I have Sinned"  You might recognize this entrance to Stift Nonnberg from The Sound of Music

After getting back down into the Old Town, I stopped for lunch.  A kasekrainer hot dog, essentially a cheese filled hot dog.  It was so delicious, I went back again the next day too.  Probably because I haven’t had any sort of meat in over a week.  

After getting food, I went to Salzburg Cathedral.  The thing that immediately grabs you about this church is the stone carvings in the ceiling.  They’re super intricate.  It is also super impressive.  The dome of the cathedral was completely damaged when a bomb fell through it during WWII.  

My last stop for the day was Mozart’s birthplace.  The Mozart family had a decently sized apartment on the 3rd floor of a house right in the middle of the Old Town.  They had a pretty good set of displays in the rooms, talking about the history of the family, and then also about Mozart himself.  Why is it that so many famous people are so bad at money?  Apparently he died with loads of debt.  He should have let his wife control the money.  She was the one that helped get the family out of debt after his death by selling publishing rights and stuff like that.

After leaving Mozart’s birthplace, it was time to relax a bit.  Because I knew I had a limited time in Salzburg, I had done a lot of moving from one place to another rather quickly.  But now there were only a few things left on my list, so I felt like I could sit and relax.  And it was a lovely, warm day, so I joined the loads of people sitting on the banks of the river that cuts the city in two.

I headed back to the hostel to work out plans for the following day; things like figuring out where I was going to stay in Prague and how I was going to get there.  After I had successfully done that and got stuff sorted out, I figured I should actually see at least one of these cities after dark.  So far that is not something I had managed to do because I tend to be exhausted and worn out by like 7.  But I put my shoes back on and wandered back down to the river to take a picture of the castle up on the hill.

After a very restful night of sleep, I got up and headed out.  As I didn’t wake up in time to get up to the convent to hear the nuns singing at mass at 6:45, my main thing for the day was a visit to the Salzburg Museum.  Depending on how long that took, I figured I could wander a bit more.  I ended up buying some good (expensive) cheese to eat on the train and for the next few days.  And I found a watercolor postcard to add to my collection on my wall at home.  

On my way back to the hostel to collect my things, I wandered past Mozart’s house (as an adult), and back through the Mirabell Gardens.  Then I picked up my stuff and headed to the train station.  My route to Prague would have me riding to the town of Linz, and then transferring to a train up to Prague.  And now I’m sitting on a train writing up my post about Salzburg.  It is February 23rd.  I fly home on the 28th, so I’m down to just a few days.

An art display outside a church called "Gherkins"...the art, not the church.

Danube Extravaganza: Why Is the Danube So Far Away? - Days 6 & 7

Hello Days 6 & 7!  

Where did we leave off?  Oh yes, the day where I had things planned out, but then a misreading of a calendar led me to completely rearrange my day.  At the end of my first full day in Vienna, I had sat in my bedroom at the hostel plotting out my next two days.  My plan was to start Day 6 off by seeing the world famous Lipizzaner stallions train.  I had looked at the calendar on their website, confirmed they were not on vacation, so it should all workout.  The thing is, I forgot Europe tends to work on a Monday to Sunday calendar, so when I looked at the calendar on their website I saw that there was no training on the first day of the week, but there was on the following 5 days.  I didn’t actually look at the days of the week.  Turns out that they do training from Tuesday through Saturday, not Monday through Friday.  So I turned up to the ticket counter to find it closed with a sign saying there is no training on Mondays.  Plans changed!  I turned around and headed across the palace to the entrance to the Sisi Museum there at the Hofburg (the Spanish Riding School where the Lipazzaners are is also at the Hofburg).  I still did get to see some of them through the windows of their stalls. Also, funny story...as was walking over there, I was thinking to myself, "I must be close! I've got to be almost there." And then I caught a whiff and said, "that smells like a horse," and it was.

Oh look!  It's a horse!

The first hour or so that I was at the Sisi Museum, I actually wandered through their collection of dining goods.  They had so many different sets of plates, silverware, candelabras (turns out Lumiere from the new live action Beauty and the Beast had some cousins at the Hofburg).  I never thought that I’d be fascinated by this sort of thing, but the audioguide talked about what the different collections were used for, where they came from, and how dining at the palace worked, so it was really more fascinating that it sounds.  No pictures were allowed so I don’t have any pictures from the collection.

From the kitchen collection, you move into the actual exhibit about Sisi (Empress Elisabeth).  She has obtained a sort of mythical persona in Austria and Hungary since her death.  During her life she really didn’t enjoy palace life.  She was more of a free spirit.  While her husband, Emperor Franz Joseph, absolutely adored her, she was more ambivalent about the marriage.  She married him at only 16, so that was probably part of it.  But anyways, she suffered from depression from dealing with life and people in the palace, so she basically left for long periods of time.  She would travel Europe, and avoid going back to Austria for as long as she could.  And then to add to the myth, she ended up being assassinated by an Italian (who had wanted to assassinated someone else, but that person changed their plans and wasn’t present that day so Sisi it was instead).  The exhibit talked first about that mythical persona she had, and then laid out the facts.  Then it moved onto the apartments that she and Franz Joseph used while in residence at the Hofburg, which was typically all, but the summer months.  As you can guess, it is elaborate and beautiful, and no pictures allowed.

After leaving the Hofburg, I wandered around a bunch.  The Hofburg is actually quite large and I think many of the buildings I passed were actually still part of it; it is just hard to tell because you’re not getting an aerial view.  The Hofburg is used for a variety of things from museums to government offices, so they get good use out of the old palace these days.  Also across the street is the Austrian Parliament building.  

Austrian Parliament

While wandering around, I wandered across a winter festival.  Mainly they had ice skating and some food places.  But instead of an ice skating rink, they had an ice skating track that was about 10 feet wide and went up and down and around.  It looked more fun than just regular ice skating on a rink.  While there I got some kasespatzle for lunch; that would be cheese spatzle.  Spatzle being a type of noodle.

The ice skating track.  I think this would be a fun Olympic sport.

My Kasespatzle.  It was delicous!

I walked back around the backside of the Hofburg before having a moment of panic.  I thought I had left my camera at the WC I had used before leaving the festival.  It wasn’t in my pocket and I couldn’t find it in my bag.  I jumped on the tram to head back.  About halfway back, I found my camera buried in the very bottom of my bag.  Crisis averted. Whew!

In spring there will be a Trebel Clef of flowers in front of the Mozart statue.

After this moment I headed over to Stadtpark and then to the Belvedere.  Stadtpark is just a nice little park in the city.  I sat for a while watching birds at the pond, while listening to an audiobook.  It is moments like this that I try to find time for on my trip.  It isn’t just go, go, go like some might think.  I learned during my first solo international trip to Spain that I needed to make sure to just stop and take a break sometimes or I would just get too exhausted.  And it’s no wonder, because I’ve been averaging somewhere between 11 and 14 miles a day worth of walking.

Just sitting here watching the birds.

From Stadtpark and the birds, I headed to the Belvedere.  I ended up on the wrong tram, which took me to the side of the park with the (closed) Botanical gardens.  I ended up having to walk all the way around one side of the park to get to the part that was open.  The Belvedere has two sections, Upper and Lower.  They are art museums.  I decided that on this trip I wasn’t really going to do art, so I just went to see the buildings and wander past the fountains and gardens.  

The Upper Belevedere.

Day 6 was my last night staying at the first hostel I booked in Vienna.  After looking at train timetables and ticket prices, as well as what I had going on for my last day in Vienna, I opted to stay one more night in Vienna and then hop an early train out to Salzburg.  I also booked my last night in a different hostel after not being very happy with the one I had been at.  I wish I had booked the new one instead during the first go-around.

At least the sunset from the hostel was amazing!

Day 7 started how Day 6 was supposed to.  With horses!  I headed out to the Spanish Riding School and they were open this time!  I got tickets to watch their morning training session.  I’m not a huge horse fan, but they are super well known, and I remember watching the segment on them when Samantha Brown went to Vienna on her Passport to Europe show (my favorite show in high school).  I decided to splurge and spend a whole 2 Euros extra so I could get a seat, instead of standing room only spots.  During training, 5 riders were out there at a time on their Lipazzaners, with 2 training sessions happening for a total of 10 horses.  They said that some of the horses we would see were already professionals, while others were just starting their training, or still working their way up to professional level.  A similar thing happens for the riders.  During the 2nd half of training there was an apprentice rider out there.  She wore a different uniform than the official riders.  It was interesting watching the horses prance and hop and skip.  There was one guy during the first half of training who had a horse that was being very ornery and didn’t really seem like he wanted to be there.

After I was done seeing the horses, I headed up to the Anker Clock.  It is supposed to be an entertaining watch at noon, but unfortunately it didn’t go off.  Only at about 12:02, did someone see a sign saying they were repairing the clock so it wasn’t working.  Bummer.  

Next I decided it was time to actually see the Danube, since this is my Danube Extravaganza.  Unlike in Budapest, where the city is pretty much built up along the river, Vienna was built along a channel of the Danube.  The good news is upon my arrival in Vienna, I had bought a week-long all-transit pass, so I literally rode the U-Bahn out to the river, got off, took a look at it for about 2 minutes, and then got back on the next train.  I then rode back to the Prater.  The Prater is a large park in Vienna.  A small section of it is an amusement park, with a ferris wheel, smaller roller coasters, and other rides.  I took my time zigzagging through the park.  Every 20 minutes or so I would sit down and listen to the audiobook I have downloaded on my phone for about 20 minutes.  I sat and watched birds at the pond, kids skipping rocks on another pond, and a family flying a kite in a bigger area.  Finding time to do stuff like this is relaxing.  I do a lot walking on vacation, but I also make sure I take some time to rest.  Especially because my feet start hurting after a while.

Mistletoe in some of the trees of the Prater.

When I felt like I had done the Prater, I headed to St. Stephen’s Cathedral to take a look at it.  This cathedral is more gothic in nature than the other churches I’ve been in so far.  It looked more like pictures I’ve seen of Notre Dame.  This church was saved from destruction during WWII, when a Wehrmacht captain disregarded orders to smash it to smithereens.  It did end up losing its roof though, due to fire.  They are currently doing some work on the towers on the outside of the church.  And in the plaza outside the church, they were in the process of setting up a 1-Year memorial for the war in Ukraine.

After this, I felt I had pretty much done Vienna.  I definitely liked Budapest more.  While I’d consider returning to Budapest some day, I don’t think I’ll return to Vienna.

Danube Extravaganza: Signs for Strudel - Day 5

What is it with me and train station issues?  I had so much trouble trying to figure out how to get out of the one train station in Vienna and to a different one which was next to the hostel I booked.  I wandered around a bit, then managed to find an information booth.  The guy there told me what line I needed to take to get there, but then after getting down there, couldn’t find a place to buy a ticket.  I wandered around a bit more before finding one.  In hindsight, there was a ticket booth in the area where I was, but I hadn’t realized it.  Anyways…eventually I got on a tram that took me from one train station to the other.

My Vienna hostel is basically located right on top of the Westbanhof Station, on top of an IKEA.  The good news is this means it is easy to get places.  Unlike in Budapest, there were no hostels in the vicinity of the majority of the places I wanted to visit, so being next to a major station with trains, trams, and U-bahn (their Subway) is rather useful.  So overall, there will likely be less walking in Vienna, than in Budapest.  In Budapest I was averaging around 12 miles a day, while on Day 1 of Vienna, I only did 10.

After 24 hrs in my Vienna hostel I will say I’m not impressed.  It has a 9.2 rating on HostelWorld, so I expected better.  The beds aren’t comfortable and my pillow flattens down to nothing.  The “kitchen” is a small microwave and a fridge.  Most hostels have a large kitchen space with at the very least, a stove.  I’m booked here for 3 nights.  If I decide I need a little more time in Vienna, I might move to a different hostel.  We’ll see what happens, I guess.

So on Day 5 on my Danube Extravaganza, I headed out to Schonbrunn Palace.  This was the summer home for the Habsburgs from the 1700s until the death of the Austrian empire at the conclusion of WWI.  Schonbrunn consists of the palace and then the palace grounds, which are now a giant park.  As I saw runners jogging through the palace grounds, a part of me wondered what Empress Maria Theresa or Emperor Franz Joseph would have thought about seeing women (or men) running through their back garden in leggings and a tight fitting workout shirt.  

I bought the Sisi Ticket, which got me into the Schonbrunn Palace with a Grand Audio Tour which took you room-by-room through the private apartments where Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Elisabeth lived, as well as the rooms where Maria Theresa resided a century earlier, and will get me into the Hofburg Palace later.  As you can expect, they were grand.  The rooms had fantastic walls ranging from a very fine walnut paneled room (Franz Joseph’s receiving room) to a beautiful blue papered room with white flowers in Elisabeth’s apartments, to a room with waist-high to ceiling paneled frames with sketches done on them in blue and white to mimic porcelain (Maria Theresa’s apartments).  There was a room that, while nowhere near as grand, was somewhat similar in plan to the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles, minus the floor to ceiling mirrors, and really just using a few mirrors along the wall to make it brighter and more open.  They didn’t allow pictures inside, so I have nothing to show you in there.

Gloriette is situtated up on top of the hill.

After leaving the inside portion of the palace, I wandered the palace grounds.  I bet they’re absolutely lovely when there are leaves on the trees and flowers are in bloom.  In some places you could see flowers starting to sprout.  I’m assuming those were something like tulips or daffodils.  I zigzagged my way around, looking at the fountains along the way, before heading up the hill to a place known as Gloriette.  It is a building up on the hill out back of the palace.  From up there you have a great view of the city.  It is crazy to think that when the palace was built, it was outside of town. As I started to make my way down from Gloriette, it started to sprinkle.  Really just small drops that didn’t really get you too wet.  As I made my way further around the gardens on the long way back to the palace, it stopped, so I took a seat for a little while and just enjoyed being there.  In nearly 2 hours, I wandered around 3.65 miles around the gardens (I wanted a GPS map of my wanderings…it’s as fun as I expected).  If I wasn’t worried about more rain coming (which I could see was on its way), I would have done some more ins and outs around the grounds.  

The Palm House on the Schonbrunn grounds.  It has 3 zones inside for plants from different climates.

But since I knew rain was coming and heading down to the Belvedere or Stadtpark seemed like poor decisions, since they would involve a lot of walking around outside, I headed in to Karlskirche, or St. Charles Church.  It was a unique church with two large pillars sticking straight up from the building that were elaborately carved from top to bottom with scenes.  Unlike many Catholic churches, this church didn’t have a cross shape really, when looking at the worship space.  I was more oval instead.  My favorite part of the church, besides the tall pillars outside, was the large oval dome.  You see a lot of round domes, but not a lot of oval domes.  And it had frescos painted all over it, so high up that the painter certainly couldn’t have any fear of heights.

Part of one of the pillars on Karlskirche.

When I came out of the church it was raining again, but a bit harder this time.  My feet were hurting and as it was nearing 4, I decided it seemed like a good time to be done for the day.  I headed back to the hostel, bought a frozen dinner, and then ate an early supper.  I’m hoping for an early bedtime tonight because I didn’t sleep well last night.  And I’m thinking tomorrow night, supper might just be something from the food court in the train station next door since I can’t exactly make something for myself.  I’ll try to avoid the McDonald’s; we’ll see if I can find anything more Austrian there instead.  Since I didn’t do a ton of wandering around besides at the palace, I didn’t find any Austrian sweets to try today.  They don’t do chimney cakes, but maybe I can find something else delicious.  I’ve seen signs for strudel.