June 20^th, 2012

Day 32: Vienna, Austria

Today, I woke up kind of early so I could get an early start to the day- plus I had to be packed up and checked out by 10am. I packed a day bag, checked my luggage and headed out into the city (in the 87 degree weather!).

I walked straight down the street that my hostel was just off of to the city center. The street is actually the main shopping street and it took all of my willpower not to explore the endless new shops and stores that I was passing. My first stop in the city center was Burggarten, a garden that’s right next to the huge Hofburg Palace. The garden was gorgeous and home to the famous Mozart statue of Vienna! It’s got a really nice treble clef planted in flowers right in front of it as well.

After that I went next door to the Hofburg palace and wandered around a bit. This was the place of rule in Austria until early in the twentieth century- the design was incredible and so detailed it was ridiculous!

Right next door on the next side was Volksgarten, a similar garden to Burggarten, but with more manicured sections (and it was a bit bigger). I walked around there for a while and relaxed on a park bench to have some breakfast!

I took a stroll past the Parliament building and then over to some churches around the corner (my apologies for no names- I’m at a loss!). The architecture was just absolutely amazing and so impressive! It’s hard to imagine things like that being built without the technology we have today.

It was off to Stephansdom after that, one of the most famous landmarks in Vienna. It’s a Roman Catholic church with origins that date back to 1137. Its gorgeous inside as well with such ornate carvings, paintings, stained glass and more.

After this I took Nick’s suggestion and headed to the Haus De Musik, and interactive music museum that explores Vienna’s rich musical history as well as explains and lets you experience exactly how we perceive sound. It was a really cool experience and I had a lot of fun playing with the interactive exhibits. Kind of silly to be by myself singing into a microphone that makes my voice sound like a chicken, but hey.. why not.

On the way home after this, I strolled through Museumsquartier briefly. Unfortunately I didn’t have much time to dedicate to this area- only one full day in Vienna! Definintely on my to do list for when I go back to the city.

My final stop for the day was to go to Schloss Schoenbrunn, which was the summer home for the royal family.  The grounds are enormous with so many nooks and crainnies. To get a good glimpse at the whole thing I hopped on a train type thing that did a big circle around the grounds and then went back to a few things afterwards. Here are some photos from the trip around the outskirts:

For dinner I grabbed some schnitzel at a nearby restaurant (when in rome!) and then headed back to the hostel to hang out until my train. There was a slight mix up when I first got on the train but it was sorted shortly thereafter. And so began my first overnight train experience!

Favorite part of the day: I really enjoyed the palace- it was a gorgeous day and the grounds were breathtakingly beautiful, I can only imagine how nice it was as a summer home way back when!