The day started out with a lot of
dragging feet. The hours of walking and the late nights are starting to catch
up with the group. Many of us either skipped breakfast or grabbed some to go,
leaving us with even less energy for the day. We left the hotel with our guide Manuela
around 10 am and we traveled to Schonbrunn Palace, this palace was the summer
home where Emperor Maximilian II would go to hunt. The back yard, which is now
a garden, was filled with animals and was large enough for the men to hunt
during the summer. The backyard is now a garden. There are many fountains, a
maze and even a zoo. The sight of the castle was breath taking, and the inside
was even more beautiful. We got to go on a tour of 40 rooms on the first floor
of the palace. There were no cameras allowed, but we had an auto guide leading
us through each room. We learned about each person that lived there and many small
bits of their history. The rooms were so beautiful, and each one had a unique
element to them. My favorite room was (of course) the most expensive room in
the palace. It was a quaint sized room, not much bigger than my bed room at
home. The walls were a rare type of wood and were covered in gold lining around
many paintings of the palace’s history. The room itself was a sort of collage,
and it was very beautiful.
Once we
were finished with the palace tour, we were free to roam the gardens. There
were so many ways to go, but as a group we decided to go to the zoo. The zoo
itself wasn’t too large, but it had a lot of new animals there that I’ve never
seen before. The two most exciting animals to see were the Koalas and the
Pandas. There are only three zoos in the United States that have Pandas, and
only 15 other zoos in the world that have pandas. One of those zoos is the one
we went to today. We enjoyed our walk around the zoo and ate lunch in the
garden. Everything was so beautiful; it made me feel like I never wanted to
leave.
In Vienna,
shops are closed on Sundays. We tried to do most of our shopping yesterday, and
we will do more tomorrow. Since the shops were closed, we didn’t have much else
to do with our day. There were some options to go see some museums around the
city, but a lot of those were planned for tomorrow. There are some spots around
the city that are available to swim in, and since it was a really hot day, a
lot of us decided that that would be a great idea.
After a
dipping our feet in, we went our separate ways and most of us went back to the
hotel to take naps. The group met up again for dinner at 8 pm at a restaurant/bar/café/lounge,
it was a really adorable place that had delicious food. It seems like most of
us are really feeling how expensive it is in Vienna. Hopefully we can make it
one more day and still get to experience the
city.
Stephanie Robinson
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