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AUS.2

Since I just came back from Brazil, I figure maybe I should finish blogging about Spring Break travels...

Thursday morning, we got up early and took the U-Bahn to Schonbrunn Palace, on the outskirts of Vienna. The gardens open at 6am, but the palace itself does not open until 8:30. When we arrived around 8, after a quick breakfast at what seemed like the Viennese version of Dunkin' Donuts (but tastier!), there were more runners enjoying the park's quiet than there were tourists. As an early riser, having no need to see another baroque palace, this was definitely the best way to enjoy such a place! We saw the Roman "ruins," capped off by the construction wheelbarrow, and climbed the hill to the Gloriette, which provides a fabulous view of Vienna. We dawdled and explored the Easter Market until about 10, when the place began to overflow with tour buses.

From there, we headed to the Hofburg Palace Complex and went in the Butterfly Haus, where a butterfly landed on Kate's shoulder, to her delighted chagrin. Everywhere we went were men dressed as Mozart, Beethoven, and the like, soliciting tourists to buy tickets to that evening's musical performance. One gentleman thoroughly enjoyed his job, and, upon learned we were Americans, asked that we teach him an American idiom. I believe we chose "By the skin of your teeth." Maybe we should've chosen one that we had some understanding of... He was standing out front of a gorgeous park. Basically, spring happened the day we were in Vienna. As the day progressed, it seemed to grow greener and greener, with more and more flowers blooming.We skipped all of the other exhibits and buildings, but walked out of one building in the complex where I saw what may be the most beautiful building I've ever seen, City Hall.We crossed the street to a complex of art museums and decided to visit the Kunsthistoriches. At the time we had no idea what "kunst" meant, in spite of having visited the Kunst Hundertwasser the day before and all the other art museums in the complex having "kunst" in their names. On Friday, Garrett cleared it up for us that "kunst" means "art." I'm not entirely sure why we chose this museum (I would say it's the Austrian equivalent of the Louvre in terms of time periods and collections), as they are neither of our favorite periods of art. Kate had just taught about Egypt and Rome and thoroughly enjoyed those exhibits. The building itself was beautiful and we saw some pretty famous works.We walked around the volksgarden and happened upon another Easter Market, before heading to Stephansplatz for our 3:30 tour of St. Stephans. Because we were part of the tour, we got to go behind the chains that normally block tourists from the main altar. Our tour guide had a very ingenuous love of his country and the Catholic faith, which made the tour extra-enjoyable. He was very knowledgeable and explained lots of the symbolism in the architecture and artistry of the cathedral.At last, we headed to find a cafe before hopping back on our bus bound for Prague.

Labels: travel

posted by CP @ 8:02 PM 0 thoughts