****Day 7
ABD - Vienna at its Finest!****
After a wonderful nights sleep in the prettiest hotel room ever, we went down to breakfast at the Ritz. In addition to the regular buffet, you could order French toast and eggs from the kitchen. DD & DH raved over the French toast; I, however, love a Kempenski breakfast the best. (ok, I love champagne. lol)
Today was our immersion into the history of Vienna. As I mentioned before, if you have taken the Germany ABD, and particularly if you had local guide Michael in Munich, you know about Empress Elisabeth of the Austrian-Hungry Empire - daughter of Bavarian Prince Maximilian and wife of Emperor Franz Josef of Austria-Hungry, who was affectionately known as Sisi. She is revered in Hungry and Bavaria. The Austrians seem mixed with their adoration. Could be because Franz’s mother Archduchess Sophie, was such a dominant figure in their history too. (Dominant being the key word!) DD and I were enamored with Sisi’s story after our Germany ABD, so we were really looking forward to this tour of Vienna, to see where she and Franz started their life together!
Our first stop was the Schonbrunn Palace - Franz & Sisi’s “summer place”. The palace is spectacular. The gardens were unbelievable. We had a wonderful visit, both inside and out! Since the city now owns it, to help with the upkeep, you can rent the ballroom for events, at a mere 35,000 euros, just for the room - food and entertainment extra. Of course, DD was planning her wedding. LOL There are also a number of apartments for rent - I missed the price on those!
Our next stop was a private strudel-making demonstration & of course tasting! It was held in a pretty little café in the palace. The baker was extremely handsome, so DD was quite smitten. Our guide Dean teased her that “other guests wanted their pictures taken with him, too!” I think that’s one of the things I like best about Disney ABD’s - the guides really take the time to get to know the guests, and if the guest is receptive, they banter back and forth during the trips. We’ve had such great laughs with all our guides. Some have become very dear friends. BTW - the strudel was delicious!
After filling up on strudel, we were treated to a private marionette show and a peek backstage. It was interesting, but not a tremendous highlight for us.
We said goodbye to Schonbrunn and boarded the coach for a ride around the “Ring”, as our guides pointed out spots of interest. The Ringstrasse circles the city center - Franz Josef had it constructed after the walls and military enforcements were torn down. From the Ringstrasse, you can see the State Opera House, the Austrian Parliament, Museum of Fine Arts, and the beautiful monuments that circle the city. It is very shady and the streets are wide. It reminded me of the Champs-Elysees in Paris, but prettier! The Ritz-Carlton is located on the Ring, so it was very convenient.
As we returned to the Ritz-Carlton, we were told we had the afternoon on our own, and then would meet in the lobby to return to the Schonbrunn for our private "after hours" tour of the Vienna Zoo and dinner at the Emperor’s Pavilion. Now - here was the other possible “disappointment” in the scheduling of the tour. DD LOVES panda bears, but has never seen one in person. She was SO excited to find that the Vienna Zoo was one of the few in the world that had pandas.
During our welcome dinner and “what are you looking forward to on this trip?” DD said the Riding School and seeing a real panda bear. That’s when we discovered we would NOT be going to the Riding School, and then double whammy, we were told the panda exhibit closes early in the evening, so we would not be seeing them in our after hours tour! :-(
So… we debated returning to the Vienna Zoo during our on your own time, just to see the pandas. Dean said it was doable, but he recommended not wasting the time going back and forth and missing out on the rest of the city. He suggested DD make a visit to the zoo in Washington DC some day to see the pandas.
Taking his advice, we decided to have lunch outside at the Grand Hotel, along the Ring. It was beautiful and very tasty. I would highly recommend it! Then we proceeded to the Imperial Palace, the Hofburg, which was Franz Josef and Sisi’s winter palace. Along the way, we stopped at Mozart’s statue and took pictures. At this point, it was really sunny and getting very warm. We passed the butterfly house and various buildings of the Hofburg, stopping for pictures as we went. Then we visited the Sisi Museum and Imperial Apartments, which was a MUCH better decision than heading to the zoo for the pandas, for a various amount of reasons…… ;-)
To be continued……..