Welcome to Vienna

Hello Everyone! 

Sorry I fell a bit behind on blogging, but the good news is I’ve been really enjoying myself in Vienna!

This was our final morning in Budapest and I felt like a total princess. If you told anyone today I was a shrinking wallflower during my childhood, they absolutely would not believe you. After only four days at our hotel, I had multiple waiter friends, the omelette guy knew my name and order, and I basically didn’t have to wait in any lines anymore. Mom couldn’t stop cracking up and said I was definitely my father’s daughter. Honestly the staff was absolutely lovely and interesting; so I genuinely was curious about them and their lives. But the best part of this morning send off was that there was cake for breakfast! And not just any cake, a passion fruit cheesecake. It was so light and airy, it hardly tasted like a cheesecake at all. I absolutely am going to miss it being perfectly acceptable to eat desserts for breakfast here.

Then off we went to the train station! It was a bit of a faff trying to figure out if we were on the right train or not because the sign board had the platform but the train itself didn’t have any of the car numbers or seat assignments and the porters spoke absolutely no English. Thankfully I found Spanish tourists and a very kind older German gentleman who helped us try and figure it all out. Turns out they did post a little paper sign on the window that said this was the correct train, but failed to mention that because of technical issues we’d be changing trains in Tatabanya, Hungary. I basically had Google maps open and was using my very rudimentary German to try and figure out if we were even going in the right direction! It did help that everyone else looked equally lost and confused. Thankfully alls well that ends well because we eventually got on a very nice train with the quiet car we requested and successfully made it to Vienna! 

The next morning we woke up early to make our way to Schonbrunn Palace. I immediately struck this pose and mom replied “Yes, yes, welcome to your palace.” It’s almost like she knows that if there’s a palace, I’ll immediately and automatically pretend to be its princess lol. While it would be much too stifling and boring to be a real princess, it’s fun to dream. 

Turns out that’s not the only predictable thing about me. Mom also immediately knew that if there’s horses, I will get very excited and want to take a picture. It was actually really funny because all the other little girls lined up with their parents too. And here I was, a thirty something with her mom just as excited waiting my turn for my picture. I guess some things never change! These horse and carriages are called Fiakers and they have very strict laws in Austria regarding them. That’s why all the horses are so immaculate and well cared for, they even have mandatory rest days! 

The palace itself was the summer home of the Hapsburg rulers and the buildings we see today were built and remodeled in the 1740-50s. Maria Theresa was the empresses who received this estate as her wedding present, and boy did she earn it. She had 12 children and was a strong leader of the empire for almost 40 years. She was also the only woman Hapsburg to lead the empire in her own right. Although we quickly learned that having lots of money doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve got style lol. Some of the rooms were immaculate like this wood and gold one. 

However most of the rooms were like this one, where they picked one print of silk and then used it on every single piece of furniture, wall, bedding, drapes, etc. I guess you can’t argue that anything didn’t match.

I particularly enjoyed all the chandeliers and ornate gold work.  

Not to mention that the ballroom was absolutely beautiful! I can easily imagine all the ladies in their fancy dresses waltzing the night away.

Apparently Maria Theresa had a fondness for Chinese art so you can see multiple rooms like this one that are paneled with gold inlay all with various Chinese drawings and decorated with porcelain. It was so strange how much Asian art there was, sometimes it almost felt like an Asian museum instead of an Austrian one. 

After exploring the palace mom and I decided to try and tackle as much of the 435 acres of gardens as we could, but first we had to fuel up on coffee and pastries. I decided to combine mine this time and ordered and iced coffee with ice cream! This is actually a traditional drink called Wiener Eiskaffee and we already know I’m all about trying the local food, especially when it combines two of my favorite things. 

After our break we began to wander the gardeners. It was  fashionable at the time to have fake Roman ruins, so these were intentionally built as one of the many attractions in the gardens. 

Mom and I quite enjoyed the broderie parterre, which is just a fancy way of saying they planted the flowers to make shapes and designs that could be viewed from above in the palace windows and balconies. 

We also did two of the labyrinths. The first one was pretty easy and mom and I played the various lawn games we passed that were hidden in the alcoves. However the second labyrinth was much harder and even I got panicked for a bit that we wouldn’t find the exit again. After trying twice, mom gave up but I told myself I would try one last time. I mean, you don’t finish law school unless you’re particularly stubborn. And my tenacity paid off! I made it to the center where they had a giant tree walk and you could see below and out as well. Mom is the tiny figure in the first photo in purple waving to me. 

We then headed off the the organerie, which ironically had no oranges (they were in the privy gardens). But it did have this Myrtle tree from 1736 that was a wedding present to Maria Theresa from the Ottoman Sultan Mahmud I, who ruled Constantinople. I can’t believe this tree survived so long! I can’t even keep succulents alive, but I guess that’s the benefit of being a royal, I’m sure they’ve had expert gardeners through the years. 

While this is nothing on the blooming bushes I found in Jersey, I particularly liked this bougainvillea. 

Mom and I wanted to do one final section before we left the palace and we decided to pick the privy gardens. They were supposed to be beautifully manicured, however they were completely wild and overgrown. It did give the shaded tunnel a particular charm though, I loved how the vines hung from the trellis. 

We were quite exhausted by the time we made it back to our hotel so we dined in and had a lovely curry dinner. The best part of the meal was a Herrentorte cake! It was delicious with layers of marzipan and nougat chocolate and paired nicely with homemade raspberry sorbet. 

It was the perfect way to end the day!

Sending you lots of love,

Carolyn