April 12, 2019, Friday.
We got up before 7 am. We quickly took showers. Meredith contacted us and said they would be here before we left at 9 am for our tour. They wanted to use our washing machine. They got here around 8:30 am. It was really good to see both of them. They are doing well. We talked only briefly. We were trying to figure out the washing machine. We thought it was a washer/dryer but it is only a washer they found out later. We wished them well and we met our driver and tour guide, Jasmin at 9 am downstairs. We were in a new 2019 Mercedes car, very nicely appointed.
We were taken for a tour of the area, to the “new city” built after World War II, saw from the car the Danube and three other branches of the Danube, the cultural district and the Museums Quarter, the State Opera House, Museum of Fine Arts, Parliament (which is closed now for reconstruction and refurbishing to update the technology), City Hall and other buildings.
We were taken to the Schonbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Habsburg Dynasty. It was enlarged by Empress Maria Theresa. There were having a market at the entrance celebrating the coming of Easter. Many school children were present enjoying the market area and getting ready for a tour.
The inner walls of the Schonbrunn Palace contains an area larger than the country/city of Monaco. The palace is huge. It has a very large garden behind it. The gardens are free and open every day. The palace has a charge. This is the most visited building in Austria. Thousands of people see it every day. The busiest time is in June.
Justin let us walk around in the market and then took us on a private tour of 40 rooms in the palace on the first floor. The second floor is rented out to people to spend the night or week or month. People can rent out areas of the first floor after hours for weddings, special events and concerts.
Justin did a great job and was very informative. She made the history very interesting. Emperor Fran Joseph died here in 1916 after serving as Emperor for 68 years. He was 86 years old at the time of his death. His son was Emperor only two years before the monarchy was dissolved after World War I. The government assumed control of all the property of the Emperor not listed as privately owned. There are descendants still alive who control many properties that were privately owned then and still are.
The rooms are decorated with gold leaf and are very elaborate. Only one part of the palace was severely damaged in World War II and was refurbished within a few years after the war. Empress Maria Theresa enlarged the palace from a hunting “cabin” to what is is today. Her father had five daughters and no sons. He ordered that his first born would be the next holder of the Crown. She was challenged by the rulers of Bohemia (present day Czech Republic and Prague). She led the military to a significant victory and it is recorded in multiple pictures with her on a white horse with a sword. She established the Lipizzan horse school or the Spanish Riding School which is still very famous.
She had 16 children, 4 boys and 12 girls. Austria perfected the diplomatic means of marring off children to their allies or enemies to make them allies. One of her younger daughters was Marie Antoinette.
Many of the original furnishings of the palace still exist and are displayed very well. The workings of how the royal family lived day to day was well explained by Justin. In between the rooms, the multiple drawing rooms were many passages for the servants to enter and leave with little interference to the royals yet keep them taken care of with luxury.
No pictures are allowed to be taken within the palace, outside you can take all you want. We bought a book about the inside of the palace on our way out.
Justin took us to the garden area. It is massive. It was bitterly cold (at least to us) with temperature of 48 and a very hard blowing wind. I had on my L. L. Bean down jacket and Sandy was wearing hers. It kept us warm. We did not venture very long in the gardens. It was midday now and Sandy just missed the extra heat and sun that she had gotten used to at the other countries.
We left the palace about 1 pm and went into the old city, the inner city and where the Opera House is located, the St. Stephens church, the Imperial Palace and the oldest part of the original city. The original city was occupied and developed by the Romans. When King Richard of England was on the way back from the Crusades, he was imprisoned in Vienna. The huge ransom of 150,000 silver coins lead to the city expanding and developing outward from the original city walled area.
In the times of Emperor Fran Joseph, the population of the city was around 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 million people. It is now 1.9 million people. The two wars decreased the overall population. The Vienna area has about 25% of the current population of Austria.
We walked around the inner area of the city with Justin showing us major landmarks. When expanding the subway system and area of Roman construction was found and preserved. It is right next to the Imperial Palace. The original slums and area where coal was stored near the palace “in olden times” is now the most expensive real estate in the city with many of the famous luxury brands and stores know throughout the world located here.
It was about 2:30 pm and I realized I had not eaten. Justin took us to Tresniewski’s for an egg salad sandwich with choices of various center toppings. I got ham and then salmon. The salmon had just a little horseradish in it and was excellent.
She gave us recommendations on a restaurant near us. She recommended the market area for tomorrow. She said most things were closed on Sunday except for restaurants, parks and many of the museums.
We got back to the apartment around 3pm. Jesse and Meredith had gone. We decided to find a local market. Our driver was able to obtain some distilled water for Sandy during the day. The supermarket was just a block or so away. We got food for tonight and the next several days plus milk, bread, butter and cereal.
Sandy made a great salad, baked some frozen lasagna and we had dinner at the apartment. Meredith called and they went to a laundromat to finish their clothes. We thought we had a dryer built into the machine like we did in Wellington but it is only a washing machine. We will try to catch up with them tomorrow.
We had an interesting day. We are still a little tired after yesterday.