Beautiful Vienna - The Hapsburg dynasty

What better place to start a visit to Vienna than at the Schonbruun. Buildings have stood on this site since the Middle Ages. In 1569 the estate came into the possession of the Hapsburgs, the start of a dynasty.

The grounds are of course extensive and beautifully maintained.




The fountains are spectacular.



Inside (no photography allowed) is a magnificent display of the life of the Hapsburg's including period costume and settings. Well worth a visit.

We returned that evening to attend a concert by the Schonbruun orchestra in the orangery - we listen to wonderful program of Mozart and Viennese waltzs, complete with tenor, soprano, and dancers.

Like Strasbourg (and less like Paris which has places to visit all over) there is so much to see in the very centre of the city - all within walking distance from our conveniently located hotel. In the centre is the Stephansplatz cathedral.







In the main plaza area are many interesting buildings.

And some signs that made me wonder whether I was supposed to be here!
But other signs seemed to be more welcoming.

Lovely plaza with lots of outdoor cafes.
Very historic buildings.



One building had an amazing stone facade - maybe marble.
The entrance to the Hapsburg palace is very imposing. A number of other museums are here. We visited the Kaiserappartments and the Sisi (his wife) museum palace which had a lot of table ware etc. from the time of Franz Joseph. Dozens of rooms full of silverware, porcelain, the royal folded napkins; the imperial apratments - you could literally spend days there.




This building looked like a cathedral and caught the eye of Allison and so we went by trolleybus to get there. It was probably the Rathaus, opposite the Burgtheater.
On the way, a lovely curved building housing a museum.


Lovely tree lined streets abound.

and large walkways with quite functional buildings - they were being used, but amazing architecture none-the-less. Muna was more cold than wet.
The statues were everywhere and fortunately there was no graffiti or destruction of monuments - indeed there was a degree of civilisation in terms of the politeness of the people that was refreshing.
Grosse has quite a different meaning in Australia, or well rather, among the youth I grew up with.
From our hotel it was a 10-15 minute walk down a shop laden street past a few other streets to the old city.

Coffee time and why not while in Vienna. This place looked promising - more then 30 types of coffees and hot chocolates - Allison and I also decided that this was the right place to try apple strudel - we could not have decided a better place - it was absolutely amazing.

This flowering tree was everywhere.

We also visited the state opera theatre where Mozart and many other composers conducted.

It was the biggest queue we had the wait for - and well worth the wait. Only a limited number of tours each day.







Even though the weather turned cold and rainy that afternoon, ALli and Allan decided that Belvedere (palace) was well worth the trip out - and it was.



we took some photos of other buildings along the way.
our last stop was Parliament house.



A fabulous visit, far surpassing our expectations.