Schonbrunn Palace - The Grounds

Saturday, April 10, 2010 (Part 1)

Franz Joseph's great grandmother was Queen Maria Theresa. She was a very popular ruler, and she ruled for abo

ut 40 years during the middle 1700s. One of her greatest architectural achievements was the construction of Schonbrunn Palace, located about 10 miles east of the city. This is another very large complex, and we spent the better part of the day here.

The Schonbrunn Palace was built to rival Versailles. I have never been to Versailles, but this place is huge. Maria Theresa and her family spent their summers here and that included an entourage and staff of 1,500! Also, Maria Theresa and her husband had 16 children, most of whom were married off to other European rulers for political purposes -- to strengthen the Hapsburgs' power base. Maria Theresa's most famous offspring was Marie Antoinette who was married to France's King Louie XVI and was later executed during the French revolution.

We began our day at Schonbrunn by walking through some of the smaller gardens and working our way through the hedge maze. It was actually a bit more challenging than I expected it to be

but, with Katherine taking the lead, we finally made our way to the central viewing platform. We were rewarded with the start of a heavy rain. And so, we left the maze and walked very quickly, through the progressively more heavy rain, to the palace entrance. By the time we got there, it was truly pouring! Luckily, our timing was good since we arrived at the palace gates just minutes before the admission time on our tickets. This was the perfect place to be while the rain ran its course outside.

A Night at the Opera

Friday, April 9, 2010 (Part 7)

Today was my birthday (and Lisa's birthday, too!). My present to myself (in addition to this great trip with Katherine, of course) was tickets to the opera. The Vienna Opera House is considered one of the best opera houses in the world, and we we able to get tickets to see "The Barber of Seville," by Rossini.

I should mention that we almost missed the beginning of the show. I had misremembered the start time. I thought it started at 8:00 p.m. We showed up at 7:00 p.m., thinking we had a full hour to wander around the beautiful interior of the Opera House. We picked up our tickets at the box office and tried to figure out generally where our seats were. Then, we started wandering around. We found an outside balcony where we enjoyed glasses of champagne. Then we found the "Magic Flute" tapestries. Meanwhile, we started to notice that all

the lounges and common rooms were emptying out, and then we heard some chimes. It was a few minutes before 7:30 p.m.

We both looked at each other and realized that the opera was about to start! We started running - through the tapestry hall, up the grand staircase and up to the loge boxes. We were, literally, some of the very last people to take their seats.

Once again, we had excellent seats. We were in a loge box, in the

second row of loge boxes, and we were just before the bend towards the center section. And we had two of the three front row seats in the box! We were at the rail. We were far enough away that we had a great view of the entire stage, but we were close enough that we could see the details of the performers' faces and dress very clearly.

The Barber of Seville is a comedic opera, and it's a very silly story, but it's a lot of fun. So that we would have some idea of what we were watching, Katherine and I read a few summaries of the story line online using the computer in the lobby of our hotel. Also, in front of each seat, there was a small electronic screen that provided a personalized translation of the libretto. They offered several different languages, including (of course) English. This was greatly appreciated -- very helpful. The lyrics of the arias are as silly as the story, but the singing was truly excellent. The soprano was the most outstanding. And the set and costumes were wonderful. The set was constructed like a life-size dollhouse. All in all, this was very entertaining, and I am really glad we did it!

A Moment (or Several) for Chocolate

Friday, April 9 2010 (Part 6):

We first broke down in Prague. We bought some chocolate in a really nice candy store where they were rolling hard candies. They also had cases full of fanciful chocolates. We had some fun picking out a few each, and then we took our little box of six chocolates back to our room. And

once we got settled, we opened our box and made a first pick. And then we bit in . . ., and we were sorely disappointed. These chocolates were not very good. They were dry and tasteless. We were s

hocked. But there it is. The lesson of the day: do not buy chocolate in Prague!

However, we had not given up on chocolate just yet. We decided that Vienna had to have great chocolate. We found a chocolate store just across from Stephansdom. The chocolates in this shop were named after musical composers - Mozart, Brahms and Shubert. So, once again, we made some careful choices and carried our small package back to our hotel. This time, we had made a very good choice. We had selected a bag of chocolate covered wafers with small nuts included in the outside layer of chocolate. These were really good. In fact, they were so good that we each bought our own bag of these chocolates the next day -- for our respective trip "home."

But the ultimate chocolate experience in Vienna was a trip to the Sacher Hotel to try the world famous Sacher torte. The Sacher Hotel is a very old, very ritzy hotel that sits in a prominent location just behind the Opera House. One side of the Hotel borders on the pedestrian mall and on that side the Hotel has an outdoor cafe. We were lucky to snag a table and thoroughly enjoyed a later afternoon soda with Sacher torte. This torts is a dense chocolate mousse type cake, and it is served with fresh whipped cream. Yum. Yum. I thought it was perfect.

The Royal Living Quarters

Friday, April 9, 2010 (Part 5):

The imperial china exhibit was followed by a temporary exhibit called "Sisi - the Legend & the Reality." Through a collection of photos, paintings, clothing and personal belongings, this exhibit explored the unhappy life of Empress (or Queen) Elizabeth from her marriage to Franz Joseph at age 16 to her death (murder) at age 63.

Following this exhibit, we entered a series of rooms that were the royal apartments of Franz Joseph and Sisi and their children. These rooms were very interesting because they are still furnished and decorated exactly as they were when occupied by the royal family. We learned all about the daily routines of

the king and his queen. Once again, however, no pictures were allowed!

Following our tour of the royal apartments, we had a very nice lunch at an outdoor cafe in the central courtyard of the Hofburg Palace. It was another lovely day, and we enjoyed being in the sun.

Franz Joseph and His Queen, Sisi

Friday, April 9, 2010 (Part 4):

Franz Joseph was one of the last of the Hapsburg rulers, and he ruled for a very long time -- from 1850 to 1916. (The Hapsburgs gave up their reign two years later in 1918.) Elizabeth, or "Sisi," was Franz Joseph's wife and queen and, although it is said that he loved her very much, she may have not entirely returned his affections. Additionally, she very much disliked being queen and shunned her royal duties as much as she could.

Sisi did a lot of traveling and was rarely in Vienna. She was not much liked by the citizens of the state because of her aloofness, but she became something of a national heroine following her tragic death. In the summer of 1898, while traveling, she was assassinated by an Italian anarchist who stabbed her in the chest as she was boarding a boat. She died within hours.

China Servings for Several Hundreds!

Friday, April 9, 2010 (Part 3):

Our next stop within the Hofburg Palace complex was the ticket counter to purchase tickets to see (i) the imperial china exhibit, (ii) the "Sisi" exhibit, and (iii) the living quarters of Franz Joseph and his queen, Sisi.

The china and silver collection of the palace turned out to be much more interesting than it might have sounded at first. Different sets of dinnerware were commissioned by each royal family, and they commissioned multiple sets - one for each palace where they spent time.

Prior to the 18th century, all of the dinnerware was made of silver. Over the years, however, due to the financial drain of successive wars, the silverware was lost because it had to be melted down and the silver converted to currency to fund the war efforts. Beginning in the late 18th century and early 19th century, all of the royal silverware was replaced by less costly, but equally beautiful, porcelain.

Much of the porcelain was commissioned with particular purposes and designs in mind. My two favorite sets were (i) one set that featured drawings of monarchs and the castles they owned and (ii) another set with three panoramic views featured along the edges.

In a 60 plate set of these plates, with three views per plate, there were no repetitions.

In the china collection, there were also hundreds of candelabras and centerpieces for floral and fruit arrangements, and long mirrored stands to display them all. All I could think of as we walked through the dozen or more rooms that housed all this dinnerware was the huge number of staff who must have been employed for the purpose of cleaning and polishing all of these hundreds of pieces.

The Spanish Riding School

Friday, April 9, 2010 (Part 2):

We started our time at the Hofburg Palace at the Spanish Riding School, which is the 450+ year-old home of the world famous Lipizzaner Stallions. They are beautiful, all white horses (all male) who are trained to perform intricate steps and jumps in formation. They are born and bred for this purpose at a farm several hundred miles from Vienna. The maneuvers they perform were originally highly valued as effective on the battlefields of Europe.

We began the morning by observing a one-hour training session. The practice session was rather tame, but were we able to see a wide variety of horses at various stages of their training process, and that was interesting. All of this took place in a beautiful indoor riding arena built specifically for these horses 450 years ago. It has to be the most beautiful show ring in the world -- with its great columns and three huge crystal chandeliers. Unfortunately, as was the case almost everywhere we went in Vienna, no photos were allowed!

We returned to the Spanish Riding School later in the day for a guided tour of the stables and arena. Through this tour we learned about the breeding and training of the horses. We also learned how riders are chosen and trained as well. These horses are incredibly well kept, but I do not envy their lives. They spend their days going from their stalls to the show ring and back again. They rarely are allowed to run free - but for a couple months in the summer when they are sent to another facility for that purpose in the country.

Everything about the Spanish Riding School is highly structured and highly organized. It is immaculately well kept, and the people who were there are totally dedicated. The riders are chosen through a rigorous process, and if they survive the years-long training process, they are riders of these stallions for life. Each rider typically has 6-8 horses, at various stages of training, under their charge. Riders are matched with horses for the life of the horse.