It was a super cold cold day really. If it'd been spring, we'd be less distracted by the discomfort from e cold. But winter truly has its own beauty... =) I'm appreciating that beauty.
This is just a street in Wien; it's opposite the railway station & 2 min from our hostel. What's the beauty of it you ask? hehe Apart from it being the normal kind of life we were seeking to capture on this trip, it's also where we found all e cheaper groceries that kept us energised on e trip. hahaha I think twin & I spend more time grocery shopping than clothes shopping.
Wowee! Bread that's 15 cents each(All prices in Euros), cheese that kept us going for e next 2 days, yogurt at around 30 cents if I'm not wrong... hm biscuits, Mars bars & muffins as our provisions on our trip =P We were frankly quite quite happy w our shopping.
Beginning our day at the Schloß Schönbrunn (palace where little Mozart was taken to perform - and was recognized as a child prodigy)... We took a tram there from our hostel. =) Wasn't very far away. In fact, in Wien, everything's very accessible by metro/tram/bus. We bought a 24 hr transport card that covers all transport on day 1. heh But we didn't know we had to validate it till e nxt day.. grin lucky us didn't get caught... so we have legitimate transport cards for e whole of day 2 in Wien =P
You'll see this when you alight at the tram stop. Reminds me a lil of the istana... cuz of the guard house, the gates and the boundless space before you hit a building. Yeps this is Schloß Schönbrunn. The Schönbrunn Palace was put on the list of UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Sites in December 1996 (much celebrated). And when I say Palace, I mean the gardens too... cuz together, the palace & gardens form the Baroque notion of the princely palace (fusion of architecture & Nature).
Isn't that a long way to walk to your own home? hmm Prob that's why such designs are only for royalty who travels around in horse carriages. lalala
A close up of the sculpture that greets you as you enter the palace: Hercules fighting the Dragon! Apparently, practicality can be aesthetically pleasing as well. Cuz this work of art was actually also a hot-air stove that keeps the place warm.
This is e pictorial overview of the place... heh Yeah that's my reflection you see faintly in the picture. But that doesn't overshadow the vastness of e place.
To give you some quick background, the beginnings of the place lay largely in the modifications made by Emperor Maximilian II, whose passions are in pleasure gardens & game preserves for hunting; interests shared by many in the Habsburg dynasty. Parts of this place were destroyed a couple of times in various conflicts (Hungarians 1605, Turks 1683) and restored in various ways. Schönbrunn changed hands countless times. What we saw on our trip was the work of Emperor Charles VI's daughter, Maria Theresa (1740s). She made Schönbrunn the centre of imperial court and political life and added to the Imperial Palace.
Secret Passage! haha We don't know... there's no storyboard for this...
Anyway, entrance into the Imperial palace cost quite a bit. And we didn't feel like we had sufficient interest in the palace (given that we'd be visiting another later in the day) so we skipped it and walked into the gardens which is free... And still superbly beautiful...
See? I wasn't lying. This was the path we took - into the gardens... (Most of the pictures taken here will show a certain level of mist - cuz it's really cold... We kept deciding to leave the gardens and head towards a warmer place, but each time, some thing would catch our eyes and keep us roaming about...
Like the photo next to the 1st, which shows a little shelter like thing. But it's locked and all and we couldn't really see what's inside... Still, it's pretty isn't it? No wonder poets had so much to write about...
Maria Theresa's consort, Emperor Franz I Stephan of Lorraine applied himself to the designing of the gardens. The park was extended and articulated by a new, star-shaped system of avenues with intersecting walks and vistas, as well as two main diagonal avenues which meet at the dominant central axis of the palace. If we're not wrong, this seems to be the centre of the star... check out the paths in various directions. This is half of it. The other half is symmetrical to what you see in this picture.
Flanking each side of the paths were formal clipped walls of trees. Twin & I spent some time being amazed by how neatly clipped the trees were. Maybe that's where all the revenue from palace entrance fees are going to...
Yeah... I too wonder if the royalty ever found time to roam their humongous painstakingly designed gardens. And here, I leave you with photos... No where near the magnificence of its tamed wildness, but it should be sufficient to make you itch to see this place for yourself.
Mushroom shaped tree! =P
Spot the little fellow?
Here he is!
Couldn't resist snapping a shot of this as well =)
The originally elaborate plans for this area was simplified by the widowed Maria Theresa (1765). I don't blame her... Who has mood for elaborate gardens with the demise of a loved one... Anyhow, this is the Neptune Fountain at the foot of the hill (that was shrouded in mist).
That's the Gloriette that crowns the hill. Today, there's a restaurant at the place (tourism & its consequences). Well, budget travellers don't usually dine at restaurants. So we made our ways back down to head for some cheaper food.
More pictures on our way back... e last of e palace.
NaschMarkt:
Okay we really stumbled upon this. Cuz we were looking for food. Food we did find, though not the budget sort we expected.
Actually, we were kinda cheated into getting this. Pastries of this sort (honey, sesame & nuts)filled e display case, and prices were stated by 100grams. All we asked was: Can we get a mix of pastries? The guy promptly picked out a box of almost all the varieties available. This costs 11.sth Euros - discounted: 10 Euros. Which backpacker spends so lavishly on sweets! haha ok.. these were undeniably delicious however. But never again, will we give in to such hasty sales.
The giant kebab! 2.50 Euros. Twin & I shared this. And we were both stuffed when we're through with it. But nothing quite matched up to it after that. Haha we were quite quite spoilt and would settle for nothing less. =P
Our next location had no pictures however... it's the Hofburg - where the Sissi Museum was housed. And I really loved that place and its story... We visited both the imperial silver collection (huge wastage in terms of meals/ cutlery but wow, what an eye-opener!)and the Sissi Apartments rather hastily. That place... please set aside at least 3 to 4 hours to it... We gave it around 2 to 3 hrs and it wasn't enough. I could blog an entire entry on Sissi and Franz Joseph, their love and her obsession.
When love and duty clashes, perhaps it's better to let the free spirit soar, than to cage it and cast it with mystery & grief.
Guess I'll end this post on Wien with our concert @ the Figaro Hall (where Mozart once performed).
Snippets of the concert scenes with a repertoire from opera/ballet. It's a little production. Wien (and Salzburg for a matter of fact) has such little concerts almost nightly.
The musicians taking a bow. =)
Thus ends our little stay in Wien.. We train off to Innsbruck in the night.. and well that's another post. My faithful Cybershot T10 that had captured all e precious moments above is sitting on e table next to my Globalization textbook at e moment... Must do readings later. Apparently my prof has quite a profile... you could check it out here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grzegorz_Ko%C5%82odko
Okies... can't believe this entry took me 2.5 good hrs... Gosh. 4 more days to go! grin hopefully we do finish it betw our coursework before we leave for Germany. =)
Auf Wiedersehen!
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