Vienna - Day 1

Early this morning we bid adieu to Salzburg and took the train to Vienna.  For some reason, none of us slept well last night, and in our case (me and Steve), we've been awake since 12:30 am.  So today was a light day because of that.  To add to the mix, we also didn't eat breakfast because we didn't really have time to and then our train was delayed resulting in our hearty lunch of Pringles.  Very odd start to the day.  The reason our lunch was cut short was because we had 1:00 tickets to get into the Schonbrunn Palace - the Hapsburg's "summer home."  We used the Big Bus (two-day ticket) to get to the palace, and tomorrow we plan to take more advantage of the bus and the tour of the city.

Vienna is pretty, don't get me wrong.  It's also a very clean city, which is a bonus.  But it's a city and a big one at that.  Steve and I aren't "city people."  Yes Salzburg is a city, but nowhere near as big and busy as Vienna is.  Plus Salzburg has mountains and my blog followers should know by now that the mountains are where my heart is.  Anyway, we did the Classic tour of the palace which includes 40 rooms, the main garden, plus additional gardens like the Orangerie, the Privy Garden, and the Maze.  We were so exhausted and starving by the time we got out of the house (which only took an hour) that we skipped the Orangerie and the Maze.  We sort of skipped the Gloriette too.  If you saw that hill to climb and were as exhausted as we were, you would have turned around too!  The house itself was what you'd picture the inside of a palace of a super rich family to look like:  ornate.  Unfortunately there were no inside pictures allowed, so that's why this blog is light on photos today too.

Privy garden (looking at the side of the castle)

The Palace

The palace from the back - looking from the fountain that is in front of the Gloriette.

The Gloriette is the set of archways at the top of the hill; the giant fountain is in front.  I'm sure it's a beautiful picture from the top, but that wasn't happening today.  We made it as far as the fountain.

We ended the day by having dinner in the hotel restaurant which turned out to be a little eventful.  Just as we were signing the bill, I had a nose bleed  I haven't had one of those since I was a kid and I have no idea what brought it on!  I had to run out the restaurant and through the lobby to get to the nearest bathroom.  By the time I got in the bathroom and saw myself I thought everyone who saw me must have thought I was beaten up or something, because blood was all over my face and hands!  While I'm okay, I will admit my pride was a little hurt.  Oh well, I'll take a bloody nose over having someone throw up on me during a whale watching tour any day!

As mentioned, we're going to learn a lot more about Vienna tomorrow and then we are on our way to Budapest in the evening.  I can't guarantee I'll blog tomorrow because it will depend how tired I am.  I'm hoping to be able to blog during our cruise, but I'm not sure what the wifi will be like.  I will do my best!