Summer '16 Trip: Day 10

The main plan for Day 10 was to head to Schönbrunn Palace, the lovely summer residence of the Hapsburgs.

We got breakfast at Aldi (which we would've done the day before, but it was Sunday and virtually everything closes on Sunday), and then walked to the Opera House to get on the yellow line of the hop on-hop off bus. Later, we realized that this was kind of stupid, because the yellow line actually makes a stop at the Naschmarkt, basically right across the street from our hostel...but oh well. We got a little more walking in. 

A large pink bunny statue by the Opera House

The palace was so pretty. It took a long time to get our tickets (which were, of course, free with the Vienna Pass), and then we had to wait 45 minutes to get into the palace, but it was okay. We got to explore the gardens a bit in the meantime.

You couldn't take pictures inside the palace, but it really was beautiful. And the audio guide tour was well-done. There were a ton of obnoxious people in there, but I still enjoyed it.

Our Vienna Passes also allowed us entry into the hedge maze and the zoo at the palace. The maze was kind of stressful, but fun, I guess. And the zoo was much bigger than I would've thought! We didn't even see everything. However, we got pretty hot and tired and hungry by the end of it, so we didn't stay there all that long.

Mongooses (mongeese?)

Adorable otters

We took the bus back to the city center, and then had lunch at a nice cafe. On the bus, neither one of us could stay awake, and I felt pretty awful when I got off. I was tired and dehydrated, and I'm also sick (or having allergy problems...I can't really tell which it is. But all I have is allergy meds, so that's what I've been taking), so I felt like I was going to die if I didn't get some food and water ASAP. After lunch, though, I felt quite a bit better.

There were two museums on our Vienna Pass list that we wanted to check out: the Haus der Musik and the Natural History Museum.

The Haus der Musik was extremely weird, but enjoyable nonetheless. It was very...European. It's kind of hard to explain. But it was interactive and informative, and I definitely liked it. I even got to virtually conduct the Vienna Philharmonic in Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (and obviously I used both hands, being a former drum major).

We got to the Natural History Museum about an hour before it was going to close, so we just went to see all the stuff we wanted to see. Of course, we started with gems and minerals, saw some dinosaur skeletons, and then went to go look at the stuffed animals (I always feel weird calling them that...but that is technically what they are).

Unlike museums in the US, this one was not even remotely air conditioned, so the animal exhibits kind of had a weird smell. It was tolerable enough until we got to the bird room, where it absolutely reeked of formaldehyde. We practically ran out of there; it was so nasty. It was basically closing time anyway, so it all worked out.

For a little bit, we sat on the steps of the museum and people-watched, but then we relocated to a patch of grass at the Burggarten. Unfortunately, the horses don't come out to graze on Sundays and Mondays (so thank God we accidentally caught them on Saturday)! Eventually, we went searching for a place to have dinner. Kayla kind of wanted traditional Viennese cuisine, but we actually ended up picking an Australian pub. I guess if you can't have Austrian, you might as well have Australian! It worked out well because we'd both been wanting fish and chips since Berlin, and now we could finally have some.

We went to a cute little all-pink place called Aida for dessert. I knew I had to have a piece of Sacher Torte before leaving Vienna. It was amazing! Kayla, who doesn't really like chocolate all that much, had a piece of blueberry vanilla cake, which she also really liked.

Made a lightning trip to Vienna, eating chocolate cake in a bag...

After cake, we went back to the hostel and went to bed. We knew we'd have to get up nice and early to catch our train to Zurich.

I can't believe I'm finally going to Switzerland!