Day 41 – Schönbrunn Palace (Thursday 23rd May 2024)

Even though the Somerset Schönbrunn apartment is about 6kms from the centre of Vienna it’s really well serviced by public transport. The No. 62 tram stops right outside the building every 5-10 minutes and goes straight to Wien Meidling station. The 62A bus travels the same route and 400M in the other direction is the Wien Hetzendorf station. The Wiener Linien transport network is so good one rarely waits for something to come along for more than a few minutes.

 

Today our primary intention was to re-visit the famous Schönbrunn Palace, the summer palace of the Habsburg dynasty for close to 400 years. I say “re-visit” because we first went there on our first ever overseas adventure in January 1987. That was in the depths of winter, the air was freezing, snow covered the ground and the expansive gardens were most certainly off-limits. As the name of our apartment suggests we weren’t very far from the Palace so a walk there was entirely feasible….. but we took public transport anyway via a train into Vienna and then back out again to Schönbrunn’s dedicated station. There was plenty of walking ahead of us on this day. We tossed up whether or not to do one of the many different Palace tours or just pickup where we left off 37 years earlier and do the gardens only. We opted for the “short” Imperial Tour which visits 26 of the Palace’s 1,440 rooms. I think that was probably the same one we did back in the day. Nevertheless, it was really good to be re-acquainted with the fabulous rooms and halls of the Palace.

The opulence is something that is almost indescribable. Austerity has no friends here. The Palace is presented in all its Baroque finery. White and gold are the dominant tones. Plush carpets cover the floors, huge paintings cover the walls. Period furniture fills the rooms, all beautifully restored. It’s not hard to imagine that everything we saw was just as the Habsburg family had had it during the centuries of their reign. Much of our self-guided audio tour reflected upon the periods of rule of Empress Maria Theresa, Emperor Franz Joseph I and his wife Elisabeth (aka Sisi) and Emperor Franz Joseph II. At the end of the tour, the light-filled Great Gallery which measures 43m long and 10m wide, lined with floor to ceiling mirrors on the wall opposite the floor to ceiling windows, is something to behold.

The magnificent gardens of Schönbrunn Palace are equally indescribable. Measuring 1200m east to west and 1000m north to south these expansive, manicured gardens are free to enter and use and are a regular haunt of the Viennese population on a sunny day. Broad, white stone paths, well-established trees and hedges creating long, geometrically laid out avenues of shade, arbours of roses of all colours and large garden beds of annuals planted in intricate patterns all create such a wonderful vista. Towards the rear of the garden lies the grandeur of the Neptune Fountain at the base of a steep climb up to the crowning glory of the garden, the colonnaded, arched and aptly maned Gloriette, a massive monument to Empress Maria Theresa and her husband Emperor Joseph I.

 

 

 

 

We took some time out from all this splendour to have some fun in the garden’s three mazes and then caught the train to central Vienna heading for Stephansplatz where the beautiful St. Stephen’s Cathedral is this being, we figured, more or less the centre of Vienna. Stephansplatz doubles a broad forecourt to the Cathedral which, to my surprise, is open to the public for free. Some additional side tours, like the catacombs, attract a small fee. We were happy just to sit and admire the wonderful Romanesque and Gothic architecture.

 

For this time of day, approaching the late afternoon, the platz and the pedestrian streets that emanate from it were really quite busy. Beautifully restored 19^th century buildings five or six stories high lined every street. Upmarket brands were well represented along with hotels, bars, cafes and the like. We were on the hunt, not for Gucci but for items at the other end of the market like bread, cheese and wine. We found a Bilia small supermarket (Vienna’s “Adli” or ”Lidl”) and got the items for tonight’s dinner at home. We made our way down the lively and attractive Karntenstrasse towards Karlzplatz and its subway station, stopping on the way for an “end of day” drink at a street-side Italian cafe to watch Vienna go by. A little further on Kerry found a wonderful little store run by an elderly couple who knew about service. The gentleman wore a suit and tie and his wife was also very nicely attired. They approached us with a smile and an enthusiasm to help us. All we were after was a corkscrew as I keep picking wine that requires one! From the locked glass cabinet she showed me one that was disguised as a bottle of wine which I loved – a functional souvenir, what could be better! And a bargain at less that €10.00! And all with a smile and attention to my needs. Where have those days and those people gone. Thankfully we found it in this little store.

We were walking down Karntenstrasse heading for Karlsplatz because I knew that’s where the station was and because I knew where the trains that travel through there come from and go to. Thanks to a terrific feature of Maps.Me I can overlay a given city’s subway stations and their routes on the usual street maps. This makes it so easy to find out where to go if you’re relying heavily on public transport to get around the city, as one does when you’ve only got two days there. With a couple of easily orchestrated line changes we soon found ourselves back at our “home” station – Wien Meidling – and took the No. 62 tram back to the hotel.