23 June 2019, Sunday
In my zombie-like state we first went to Tiergarten Schonbrunn, to see the Schlöss (palace), probably the most iconic building that represents Vienna today. It has been around since the 1600’s and has 1,441 rooms. The Habsburgs have held residence here for many years and emperors of Austria have been born in the palace too.
The palace itself is an immense building and designed in a Baroque style with a symmetrical main building that has hundreds of windows and statues on the rooftop.
Inside the palace are an assortment of rooms all fully furnished and decorated in the original style.
We also walked around the gardens at Schonbrunn Palace Complex, which had lush greenery, a maze and labyrinth, fountains, landscaped lawns, etc. I took a picture of the entrance to the Imperial Zoo also known as the Tiergarten Schonbrunn. This is the oldest zoo in the world located within the grounds of the Sconbrunn Palace. Originally it was built as a menagerie.
Then it started to rain! Actually it poured! And I under-estimated Vienna. Most of the other cities in Europe had all of the tourists attractions within walking distance and easily accessible by public transport. But in Vienna, everything was quite far apart so it took us some time to get from one place to another. What with the weather and my sloth-like movements, I was not optimistic of finishing all the touristy stuff by today.
Nevertheless, we soldiered on and went to St Stephen Basilica, which was built in the 12th century. It is the most prominent religious building in Vienna, and just beautiful inside and out. It has the tallest church tower in Austria.
As it was still raining, we decided to go eat instead. I tried what was written in the menu as “typical Austrian noodles with bacon baked with cheese”. It was nice (it was not actually noodles but some kind of pasta and of course, bland for my Indian tongue but overall not bad) and as hungry as I was, I couldn’t finish it and had to pack the rest for tomorrow.
After eating we went to see the Parliament building, but unfortunately it was
under construction. Then the Town Hall or Rathauswhich was constructed in the 1800’s in a Neo-Gothic style to accommodate the offices of the mayor for an ever increasing city population. It has five towers, the middle of which is the largest and is topped by the iconic Rathausman statue. We also managed to see the National Theatre, the Vienna University and the Court House.
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