Truth be told Tom is not really a fan of bus tours. He usually enjoys himself once we get to the destination but it's the 6-8 hour-long bus rides going there and coming back that he could really do without. When I was looking through the new USO catalog a couple months ago, I saw tours to two cities that I really wanted to visit. I like the USO tours because they give you quick feel for a particular city and help you decide if you want to go back and spend more time.
I've shared photos of Christmas markets. Turns out that some cities have Easter markets too. The two tours would be visiting the cities when their Easter markets were going on. So, after confirming that Tom was game, we signed up. First traveling to Vienna (Wien) and two weeks later traveling to Prague (Praha).
Let's visit Vienna first.
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| Vienna skyline from Schönbrunn Palace |
The first Easter market we visited was the one at
Schönbrunn Palace, the summer residence used by Empress Maria Theresa, the mother of Marie-Antoinette and 15 other children.
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| The palace with its 1,200 rooms |
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| Opposite view looking towards a fountain and reconstructed Roman ruins |
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| Tree-lined path leading to palace - Spring has sprung! |
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| Statue on the Neptune fountain - I liked the flippers as hooves |
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| The Palm House |
We visited two different Easter markets in Vienna and they were smaller than the Christmas markets but still nice to walk around. We came home with a couple treasures.
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| I think this is the place |
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| Hand-painted eggs - real eggs but drained of their yolks |
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| The palace's Easter market |
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| Tom holding our afternoon libations |
The Palace is outside of the city center and we got there using the public transportation system. Our tour included a day pass. It took us about 20 minutes to get there. If I remember correctly it used to take 2 hours by horse-drawn carriage to get there during Maria Theresa's day.
Back in the city, here are some pictures of the sites.
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| Staatsoper - Opera house inaugurated in 1869 with Mozart's 'Don Juan' |
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| Rathaus - City Hall |
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| St. Stephen's Cathedral - the spire is 450 feet high |
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| Inside the cathedral |
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| Looks like a giant Easter egg to me |
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| Window dressing...everyone's in the spirit |
The Hofburg, serving as the main residence in town, was the imperial palace and favorite residence of the Habsburgs. The grounds now include the Imperial Treasury, the Austrian National Library, and the Spanish Riding School, home of the famous Lippizaner horses.
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| Neue Hofburg - built between 1881 and 1908 |
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| The best picture I could get of one of the horses in its stable. |
Lippizaner horses are born bay or black and get their white coats between four and ten years of age. The breed was brought to Austria in 1920 and was from a stud in Lippiza, thus the name. My guidebook says today's horses are descendants of six great stallions of the end of the 18th century. Today's horses are of Danish, Neapolitan, Arab or pure Lippizaner stock but all are connected with an ancient Iberian line already famous in the days of Julius Caesar.
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| Kunsthistorisches Museum |
The
Kunsthistorisches Museum is one of the largest museums in the world and brings under one roof Austria's imperial collections. The building opened in 1891 and its collections span seven centuries, from the time of ancient Egypt to the end of the 18th century.
Outside the museum is the Theresien-Platz, which is where our day began and ended. In the plaza is a statue Empress Maria Theresa, who ruled from 1740 to 1780. She was the only female ruler of the Habsburg dominion and the last of the House of Habsburg. She was the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI.
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| Maria Theresa statue is behind my shoulder |
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