Day 13

Day 13 – 2008/07/08

Vienna Day 2

Today's adventures begin at Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens (there are supposed to be 2 dots over the O in Schonbrunn but I'm not sure how to get them so you'll just have to imagine it). Schonbrunn is one of those tightarse places that don't let you take pictures inside, so you'll be forced to buy their rubbish postcards to remember what the inside looks like. Nevertheless it was a very nice Palace and Celina was suitably impressed, and could definitely see herself living there.

The gardens are next on the agenda and they are extremely well tended. Whilst we were there I counted around 16 separate garden staff doing different jobs, in the space of an hour, down to basically getting down on their knees with a pair of small cutters pruning some grass. It pays off though as their gardens look spectacular.

Next on the agenda is the Belvedere (come here boy!) which is a similar arrangement to Schonbrunn, i.e. with a palace and gardens, but, well let's not beat around the bush, it's more crap. The gardens are straggly, weeds coming out, and just generally not that well kept. The palace inside was a bit of a disappointment as well, as it wasn't actually set up in the way that palaces are usually set up (i.e. elegant olde worlde furniture etc. that Celina loves so much), but with an art exhibition. The one thing I did take away from this is that some chap called WaldeMuller is quite an impressive artist. I don't know if I've even got his name right but he does good work.

Possibly the most annoying thing about the Belvedere was that they said “no backpacks allowed inside”, then CHARGE YOU FOR THEIR CLOAKROOM. This is very rude in my humble opinion, more on principle than anything else, and is enough for me to recommend you don't bother visiting the Belvedere if ever you find yourself in fair Vienna town.

After the Belvedere we once again set out for the elusive Karlskirche, which turned out to be surprisingly easy to find this time as it was quite close to the Belvedere. You can apparently pay to ride a lift to the top of the church to see the view, but the building is really not that tall, plus they had a plasma just above the ticket booth that showed you all the best bits anyway. It was quite amusing to see how many people would stand there for around 90 seconds, watch the looped video, then walk back out again.

After a few more sight-seeing jaunts, we once again begin the hunt for good schnitzel. Once again we are denied any veal, but make do with pork. One annoying thing about these European cities is that a lot of them still allow smoking in all their areas, indoor and outdoor. I really wish I was able to fart on cue so I could go and drop one on that bloke who keeps wafting his cigarette exhaust away from his own table and over to ours. Must remember to work on this.

Today's moment of humour – in Vienna they have city-provided drinking fountains that spruik the catch-phrase “Wiener Wasser!!!”. Using selective translation I take this to mean “wiener water” ha ha ha. Sorry I'll try to class these up a bit.