Vienna

On my first day in Bratislava, I left Bratislava to go visit Vienna. My friend Lisa that I met in Ghent lives there, so she showed me around.

The first stop was the Schönbrunn Palace (summer home of the old royals). In front of the palace was a Christmas market, and I bought a tree ornament there. It is ridiculously large for a summer home or even a full-time home for that matter. There was a massive amount of gardens and trees with walking paths everywhere. Directly opposite of the palace was another home like structure.

This second ‘home’ was built for the specific purpose to give the royal family something to look at. There was only a hill there before, so it was boring to look at. At that second home, there was a lot of beautiful statues and two small ponds. The view from it was also very nice since it is on top of a hill.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/Schloss_Sch%C3%B6nbrunn_Wien_2014_%28Zuschnitt_2%29.jpg
Thomas Wolf, www.foto-tw.de [CC BY-SA 3.0 de (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en)]

 Neptune Fountain in a pond by the "House"

 Statue outside the "House"

 "House" opposite of the Palace next to the Palace

 Garden behind the castle

  After the summer home, we went into the city center and saw the Karlskirche. It is a beautiful domed church. There was a Christmas market in front of it as well, but this one had a petting zoo and a lot of hay. There are some photos below with the church and the hay.

The Karlskirche with hay and animals in front

  Lisa and I had lunch at a restaurant close to the church. I had a schnitzel with cranberry sauce. At the start, I was eating it wrong, but Lisa told me I was supposed to dip the schnitzel into the cranberry sauce. I also had some Gluwien to drink.

  After lunch, we started walking in the city center to go see some of the sites there. The first one we saw was the Vienna State Opera. It was part of the buildings that were built around Vienna's "ring road" to make the city look rich and beautiful. A photo taken by myself and another that I found on Wikipedia are included below. 

The picture taken by me.

The picture from Wikipedia

The author of the above photo is © Bwag/Wikimedia

A link to where to find the photo is https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wien_-_Staatsoper_(1).JPG

  After walking by the opera, we went to see the St. Stephens cathedral. It was a beautiful cathedral. There is a fantastic coloured roof, which is shown below, made into a beautiful pattern. The rest of the exterior was also very intricate with small decorative patterns of a sort going all the way up to the top. The interior of the church has a lot of shock value. It is easy for the entire main part of the cathedral to be seen as soon as you walk in, and this gives a lasting impression on the visitor. The columns also have decoration in the form of small statues.

A few Pictures from the outside of St. Stephens

A photo from the inside of St. Stephens

  Then we went to see the monument to the Great Plague of Vienna. It is called the Plague Column. It was built in after a plague epidemic in 1679 hit Vienna. This was one of the last waves of the plague.

  Then we walked around the actual former Royal Palace (The Hofburg). It is now being used to hold the offices of influential politicians, such as the President and the Chancellor. It has over 1600 rooms and is bigger than the summer palace, but does not have as large of grounds. I would not want to live in either of them since they seem to fancy and large, but I'd prefer the summer home. 

Roman Ruins

Some of the statues

Inner Dome

Another part of the Palace

  In the palace grounds, temporary offices of the parliamentarians are set up. This is because the current parliament is undergoing renovations since its roof has become incapable of keeping out the rain. Also in front of the palace is twin museums. They are called twin museums since they are built identically and directly across from each other.

  

  After the palace and everything around it, we started walking towards the town hall. On the way to the town hall, we passed by the parliament, and I took a photo of a statue of a Greek goddess in front of it. Then we approached the town hall. 

  In front of the town hall, there was another Christmas market. Lisa explained to me why there is a statue at the top of the town hall. It is because the people who commissioned the building of the town hall said it cannot be higher than the church, but the architect wanted it to be taller. To accomplish both buildings it higher and not higher the architect built it really close, but still shorter, to the height of the church. Then the architect put a statue on top of it and including the statue the town hall is higher. 

  Close to the Christmas market and the town hall, there was an exhibition showing Christmas scenes in old buildings of Vienna. Some of the scenes had music that would play if you hit the button beside it. I have included a few of them below.

  We also saw the monument to the Jewish people who died during WW2. There was also a clock that had a scene in it, and the scene moved a bit each time a minute passed. 

  I had a great time in Vienna and will have to go back sometime to explore all the places in greater detail. Thank you, Lisa, for showing me around!