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Will upload the vids from yesterday after breakfast.It's 8.15 am, Saturday...it was 10 C yesterday & the snow is melting everywhere, but the grass does not get burnt!
It's warm & gusty to-day.
I'm colouring my hair to-day, then finally going to the Schonbrunn Palace!
I only have today & tomorrow to fit it in, as I'm touring Budapest on Monday & leave here at 8am on Tuesday for Prague.
Still heaps to see & do here yet!
Just browsing around to fill in time before the Concert yesterday & found a nice furnished apartment in 3rd district for 700 Euros a month.
That's heaps better than 2,000E plus for the heart of town. It's only 2 underground stops from the city centre too.
It was 70 M2...That's about as big as Paul's upstairs house.
Ok, back from the Palace Schronnbrunn...
A bit of a let down as they don't allow photo taking of any type, so I was a bit out of sorts!
They are also renovating the big room that you see in all the promotional pics.
This one below!
This is the room I thought I'd be dancing in.
I'm so glad the Ball was NOT at this Palace, as it's a very different Palace than their Winter residence.
The Winter Palace, the Hoffburg, was splendid, a real fairy tale come true. People spilling out of every room, ante room, walkway & all, chandeliers everywhere, dainty paneling & lovely light colours..
It was truly magnificent.
This Schonbrunn Palace, the Summer residence, owned originally by the same family...obviously, is more a working home Palace. It was a real home, even tho it had a few quite smallish regal audience rooms, it was very ornate & beautiful, but I don't think it could ever hold the 3 & 4 thousands of people that the Hoffburg (winter) Palace can easily hold. Not from the rooms we saw anyhow.
This room below is quite small really too. It is only 4 wall column chandeliers long & has another bit, like a gathering area in front, where this pic is taken from. This extra area has painted murals on the wall...painted wall chandeliers etc...very unusual...and they had red carpet over the beautiful wooden parquetry floors.
Maybe it's due to the 2.3 million Euro renovations going on throughout the whole Palace. They are painstakingly restoring the gold leaf on the paneling throughout, plus fixing dinged & bumped ornamental plaster work.
They are also replacing the electrical wiring that the real Thomas Edison was called in to install way back, for obvious safety purposes too. They are installing a flickering type of light into all the chandelier light sockets that resembles real candles. I saw some & they are amazing. They look, have a "flame" & flicker like real candles.
Overall, I am very happy with my Ball Palace & would come again in a flash to another Ball there.
I'd probably like to organise Romantic tours to Vienna, as it's sooo under advertised overall.
There are numerous spot tours, but the one that got me interested 10 or so years ago was one by a guy that now does sporting tours only. It was beautiful, but expensive.
Gotta think how to do it. I have the contacts here now to arrange a great tour, as those who matter, now know me, by sight & some by name.
It was magnificent tho...the work the builders originally did...amazing!
We saw the Kings indoor loo too...Pretty amazing for over 100 yrs ago & the marble tiled bathrooms...you'd never know the difference from to-days ultra mod bathrooms.
Anyways...here are the outdoor pics, a few small videos plus the 3 palace interior pics (right near the bottom) I took before they stopped me at the entry! You can take as many outdoors as you like!
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| Heading up the drive way to the Schronnbrunn Palace |
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| Some of the beautifully kept gardens |
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| This was all under snow last week... |
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| The Palace Palm Gardens... |
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| It was blowing a gale to-day! |
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| My first view of the Palace... |
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| I can't believe how straight the trees & avenues of trees are! |
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| The Ornamental lakes are still frozen... |
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| The gardens must look beautiful in spring & summer! |
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| A couple of joggers...one in shorts! Many people jog over here & use the Palace parks for their jogging tracks! |
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| A couple of ducks on the frozen part of another pond... |
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| Then, suddenly, around a corner, is the Palace! |
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| Looking right up the hill into the sun, at the other part of the gardens, a pavilion in the extensive gardens... |
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| Come in for a cuppa, I'm inside mostly! |
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| They have nice big wide steps over here. Not much height & really easy to prance up & down on! |
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| Now, that's a door! It's massive. Most people come up to the top of the interior door shadow in the glass! |
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| The lace inserts were faced on both sides...No back, only 2 fronts. They also throw stones in the snow to stop you slipping, so when the snow melts there's gravel everywhere! |
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| Some nice pavilions in the garden off the pantry of the palace... |
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| The Palace is quite pretty from the back, but it's hidden by these ever twined shrubs. |
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| Some of the Marionette Theatre Puppets |
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| Marie Therese (the person who our old chandeliers in Kenton Cres were named after) & her Husband... |
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| One little Palace tea Room...Didn't drink here |
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| Found another one & settled in here for a coffee, a champers & some very excellent apfel strudel...My first cakey thing in Austria really. I've been sticking to salads, orange & carrot juice, a champers when out & only 4 coffees so far. Starbucks is horrible...warm & yuk! This coffee was really nice, hot & freshly made. Paul's & Louises' are best tho" |
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| My big indulge! |
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| Yes, more crystal! |
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| Everywhere you go! |
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| These are tiles made out of wood. They are hundreds of years old & were used in the Palace inner courtyards to deaden the noise of carriage wheels at night... |
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| I got up the inside stairs of the Palace after buying my ticket & merrily started taking pics... |
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| Merrily taking pics...then I was told all the interiors are copyright & can't be photographed! |
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| But I couldn't resist & tried to sneak one in & got caught as they have Casino type cameras everywhere! |
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| So I came home, put my feet up, had a cuppa tea, ate some rice crackers, cheeses & strawbs & listened to the Waltz music (I bought at the Palace) while I watched the sun set over the distant hills in Vienna! |
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| Those blessed airplanes are determined to mark an X for me to visit at! |
This week there's been 2 girls from Finland, 1 from Turkey, a mum & her daughter from Romania, 1 from Italy, Korea, China, Singapore, South Korea, Belgium, Croatia, Canada & the list goes on!
Total spend to-day...
I was a bit extravagant to-day as I felt such a debt of gratitude to Emperor Franz Joseph & Marie Therese, that I bought a few extra things from the shop to support the Palace, as it is such a wonderful heritage & a true story of some great Emperors & Women Rulers too.
The Govt owns it but it has to support itself.
Franz Joseph was a good ruler. He did so many amazing things for his people.
He used to get up at 4am, wash in cold water & set about the business of ruling at 5 am every day.
It was revealing to see where he ate, wrote his business papers & tended royal matters & where he slept & went to the loo even.
His apartment is about as big as Peter's/Pauls' house. He sat at his desk, doing paperwork etc until late at night.
He said "a person should work until they drop with satisfaction & exhaustion!" ...
He died at age 86 in 1916 in the room we saw. He was born & died in this Palace. A great person for sure.
Tickets to Palace, my royal lunch, 7 gift souvenirs & the Waltz CD...
Total Spend...90 Euro, no regrets...
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