Day 48 - Friday 17th June 2005

Our first stop today was Schonbrunn Palace.  Walked through the Statd-Park, snapping obligatory picture of Strauss on the way to the station. We caught the train and a short walk had us in the palace grounds.  We took the classic tour, which is an audio guided tour of 40 rooms in the palace.  What a great place, the decoration in the rooms and the furniture was beautiful (for a palace, bit over the top for our lounge room).   After the palace tour we walked round the huge palace gardens.  The sun was beating down and we were glad of the shade in tunnels formed from trees sculptured into arches over pathways.  The roses and other flowers were brilliant. We took a ride in a horse drawn vehicle around the boundary of the garden, it took about 30 minutes.  The maze was somewhat difficult to navigate.  We ended our stay at Schonbrunn with a demonstration of strudel making in the palace bakery.  The young, and very talented, girl demonstrating for us was hysterical, she really threw herself into the job, alternating through, I think, at least 3 languages, one of them, I think, English.  We caught the train over to Prater and rode the huge old Ferris Wheel to gave a panoramic view of Vienna.  I kept expecting Orson Wells to turn up.  Some of the cars on the wheel were set up with tables and chairs for evening dinners.  Came back via a walk past St. Stephan's Cathedral,  not as many "statue people" today, but quite a few other oddballs and entertainers. Some of the buildings have interesting painted decorations on their walls.  Had a bit of a rest then caught the tram out to Grinzing for the Heurigen, which are wine taverns selling "new" wine produced on the premises and local food.  We sat in the garden and had a mug of wine each and some pork and sauerkraut.