Vienna - little princesses

Schloss Schonbrunn (or Schonbrunn palace) was the destination today. We took the train out to the palace and after queuing for what seemed like hours, I got out tickets and we were off to explore.

On the U Bahn......






















The palace and its grounds are pretty enormous...."Puts Canberra and the Parliament house to shame, said Shane....there are a lot of areas to look at - but the top of our list was the children's museum and the gardens. I feared that we may be kicked out of the palace if we tried to attempt the guided tour with our 2 noisy kids in tow so we didn't bother with that - it was spectacular enough on the outside.

The palace from the front....

From the back....

Looking up from the back of the palace looking up to the "Gloriette"

Looking to the back of the palace from the gardens.









After a brief look at the gardens, we were off to the children's museum. This museum was all about the palace and the imperial family and what it was like to live in those times....

First stop was the craft area where we made some medallions...

Shane getting stuck into it

The finished products.











It was then off to the dress-up area, where Neve got right into character....

Her royal highness....princess Neve

Eloise was uncharacteristically less enthusiastic about the dress-up....refusing to wear the wigs!






















Inside the children's museum they had several rooms set up with different scenes from the imperial era, with different activities for the kids to do. We could have spent all day in here going over everything.....

Once outside we found our way to the maze (or labyrinth)......as well as the labyrinth they also had a few more activities for the kids.

Eloise successfully guided us through the maze...thankfully...

The girls tried to reproduce Michelangelo's "David" in stone but ran out of time....and stone

Eloise got her hips into the swing of it with the hoola hoops

Neve discovered a new skill - plate balancing....so long as she doesn't try it at home!!!!!



















We then decided to tackle the hill up to the gloriette....it looked like there would be a great view from the top.

The fountain at the bottom of the hill.....

The gloriette....I love the name of this....I want one in my backyard!

The view from the very top of the roof - was totally worth the effort getting up the hill.










We made our way back down and headed back to the train for home.....Shane and I had a little laugh at one of the signs on the train...

Apparently you need to vacate the seat for:
- perky pregnant ladies in gloves
- colonel sanders holding a baby
- ladies with extremely large bandaids on their arms
- old ladies in pearl necklaces






Once back in town we stopped for afternoon tea and decided we 'had' to try the traditional Austrian food of Sachetorte (like chocolate cake) and Apfelstrudel (apple strudel).....both were delicious (and entirely fattening - why aren't all Austrians enormously fat??)

All the shops were closed today (even the supermarkets) so we did a bit of window shopping before heading home. So ended another day...not sure what awaits for us tomorrow.....depends on the weather - possibly a ride along the Danube....(to work off the cake!).

Vienna - festivals R us

Not sure how we do it...but we seem to stumble upon festivals....

Shane finished up his course today at lunchtime and so we took a stroll through the streets of Vienna to see what was happening.

We wandered and firstly came across a marketplace type thingy...with local meats and cheeses for sale.

And as we walked I saw a beautiful big building in the distance...with some sort of music going on..."Ohhh - a classic music concert", I thought.

What a lovely old building.























Anyway, it turns out, as we got closer, that there was some sort of horse festival on....Neve was excited because she thought she would get another pony ride.

No pony rides, but a big grandstand in front of this beautiful building - where the music was playing. I looked to see if you needed tickets - which were 50 euro each - but Shane spoke the the guy at the gate and we were in FOR FREE!!!

It was the international horse masters. We managed to see some of the olympic and para-olympic horse riders performing with their horses. Not sure exactly what the horse event was called but it was a bit like 'horse aerobics'....the horses seemed to be dancing in time to the music which looked really amazing.

What a backdrop for a horse show!!!

The dancing horses....

It was great! We got to see about half an hour of the show before it finished. Good timing!

After that we walked a bit further down the road and heard some more noise and commotion coming from a park. "More horses", shouted Neve.

No horses, but it was the para-olympics welcome-home festival. There were heaps of sporting communities out with displays and games for the kids to play....from rock-climbing to wrestling, and weightlifting to grass skiing!!

Another festival...another beautiful backdrop!

Kids sports galore.

Neve had a go at some sort of kids hockey thingy...she even got a goal!!




















Once we had finished looking around, we realised we were a bit lost. We did see the Mozart statue outside some special building (will google it later to find out what it was)......but then realised we had actually walked pretty far and so we caught the U-bahn (train) back home.

Mozart statue...


















Tomorrow the plan is to go out to the Schoebrunn palace - apparently there is ANOTHER festival there...some sort of kids museum birthday or something from what I can make out from the German language posters....will go and check it out.

Vienna - the big wheel

Today Shane was at his work course all day...so it was 'girls adventure day'.

We walked the few km along the Danube canal - I have learnt that the main river that runs beside the old town in Vienna isn't actually the Danube, but a small canal running off from the Danube, which they call the "Danaukanal" - we have yet to really see the 'real' Danube.

Anyway - we wandered along the Danaukanal and then found the Prater, which is like a giant park that houses a planetarium, a big amusement centre and other things as well as park grounds....

Autumn officially starts tomorrow in the northern hemisphere (they go by the phases of the moon/sun rather than just the months like we do) and already you could see that the leaves had started changing colour.

We also saw a few of these incredibly hard nuts that were falling from the trees - could cause quite a headache if it landed on your head!!
















The highlight of the Prater park has to be the ferris wheel....this is the worlds oldest ferris wheel and also the only one with wooden carriages. So of course we had to give it a go.

The "Wiener Riesenrad" (or Vienna Ferris Wheel)

The wooden carriages. They look like little houses!























Before you go on the ferris wheel, there is a little display room which houses some of the cabins that were previously used on the ferris wheel ( I think in the past they had twice as many cabins as they do now)....the cabins were now filled with small dioramas that show the history of Vienna and the ferris wheel.

You can see in this one how there were far more cabins on the wheel then there is today.

This one is about the war and how in world war II the park was basically destroyed, but the ferris wheel was almost immediately rebuilt to symbolise the reconstruction of Vienna.






















Once we had looked at all the displays we jumped into one of the cabins and had our turn on the real thing. We were very lucky because today the entire place was practically deserted and we walked straight on the ferris wheel with no queue at all!

On the trip over, we got a great view of the whole of Vienna, along with the amusement park that lay below us.

Approaching the top of the wheel....

The amusement park



















After we got off the ferris wheel, we took a walk around the amusement park....although half of the rides were closed and most of them were too big for the girls to go on....they did find one ride they liked........

My girls the 'thrill-seekers'.......











After the excitement, we walked back along the Danaukanal to our apartment. On the canal, they have 'beaches' set up, complete with sand and beach chairs......but it just isn't Sardinia really!!!

The Viennese 'beach'

Our apartment block (the one in the middle above the blue truck).....told you it was the ugliest building in Vienna!!!!




















After a rest, we were out again strolling through the shops of the old town, where we met up with Shane (who had finished for the day) and enjoyed a drink in the setting sun by the side of St Stephens church.

A pretty great adventure day I must say.

Vienna - end of summer

Well....with one month until we arrive back home....I think our northern hemisphere 'summer' has come to an end. 

Whilst Vienna today was bathed in glorious sunshine - the chill of the wind held the prelude to what is ahead for all of europe.....winter.

We took a stroll through the 'old city' this morning, which is literally just outside our front door. Our accommodation in Vienna is in a prime position for all things (shopping, site seeing, Shane's course) however it has to be the ugliest building in Vienna....it does have a bit of a 'housing commission' tone to it.....although you wouldn't think it once you got in the front door of the apartment....

Anyway - we wandered out the front door, crossed the bridge and were in the old town. Poor Eloise struggled with the cold wind (I think it was about 10 degrees at this point) so our first stop was to find a beanie for Eloise's cold head.

Neve got in the spirit of things and tried this ensemble on....very chic I say.

Eloise's new hat - pink of course

With matching gloves....

To celebrate Eloise's warm head and hands, we stopped off for a coffee and hot chocolate - this time I made sure we got some without the mountain of cream on top - you can have too much of a good thing!

Looking so pleased...and warm!

Vienna is lovely...the old town has beautiful streets that seem custom made for strolling...with beautiful buildings everywhere you turn.

St Stephen's church...one of the most famous in Vienna. I think they have only gotten around to cleaning the front side of the church.

Notice this statue has a net draped over it....I assume it's to stop all the pigeons pooing all over it....

Michaeler Platz (or square)

State apartments and treasuries building....

At lunchtime, Shane had to leave to start his course (we are here to work after all!) so the girls and I had a lazy afternoon in the apartment, watching TV (mostly in German) and playing games. 

In the evening when Shane came back, we took another walk into the old town...getting our first bratwurst for the trip. This was Neve's second bratwurst experience (her first being when she was in Switzerland when she was 18 months old..so not sure that counts) and Eloise's first...I have to say they enjoyed it much more than the usual sausage sandwiches that we get outside Bunnings on a weekend!!

Bratwurst buddies

Eloise trying to get her mouth around the bratwurst!!

Just like in the daylight, Vienna is lovely to walk around in the night...we found a shop that sells traditional clothing for children....and another pink scooter (this time a true vespa - Shane has promised Neve she can have one for her 21st if she can actually learn to ride one!).

The moon over the streets of Vienna

St Stephens church at night

Traditional children's costumes...

Neve with her future mode of transport....

After the walk it was time for bed for the kids. It is a novelty to be in a place where the sunset isn't so late that you can't go out of a night with the children.....I can finally get to see a city all lit up of an evening.

Tomorrow Shane is working all day so we will see what adventures us girls can come up with - probably shopping for a pink scarf for Eloise!!!