Schönbrunn Palace
Originally posted on September 22nd, 2017I am super excited about this post, as it's about one of my favorite places that I visited here in Vienna! The Shönbrunn Palace was the summer palace of the Habsburg family. The palace itself is huge and has a garden that's even bigger. Our journey took us on a road along the Danube that was pocketed with picturesque towns and green mountains. It was all post-card perfect! Our first stop was at the bird show and castle in Leobendorf. The show featured birds of prey, so that's one reason I didn't take any pictures: I didn't want to attract their attention. But! I did take plenty of photos of the castle itself.
If you want to visit this place, I recommend you set aside several hours. You need to do a tour of the inside to see all the lavishly (sometimes over the top) decorated rooms, as well as walk around the garden. There's always something new to discover, and everything has a story and a meaning behind it. That's one of the things I love the most about this place and Vienna in general. Everything is a metaphor about something else, and trying to figure out what the metaphor is makes it that much more fun and interesting of a city. But! Enough of my explaining of the palace and the city. Let me just show you.
When coming to the palace, I recommend you do the tour inside. There are several types of tours that allow you to see a varying number of rooms inside the palace. I did the entire thing, but honestly save yourself the money and buy the cheaper package. You still get to see more than enough! I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the palace, but yo girl broke the rules when she could. Here are the few pictures I have:
It's quite lavish isn't it? The whole time I was inside the palace, all I could think about was that there were people who lived here like it was no big deal. Ballrooms, imported art, gold everywhere. Normal, right?? Some of the rooms were overwhelming because they were decorated top to bottom with flower motifs and matching furniture, so I thought I'd save you the strain on your eyes and didn't post them above.
Now onto my favorite part of the palace: the gardens! It's exactly what you'd see in the movies: mazes, fountains, statues of naked people. I loved it. The gardens lead to ultimately this building at the top of a hill that overlooks Vienna. It was so marvelous and magnificent it took my breath away.
I hope y'all can now see why I loved going to this place and strongly recommend you do, too, if you ever get the chance! I've already come here a few times, and I'll definitely be coming back. Also, stay on the look out for my post on Salzburg. I'll be going there tomorrow, and I can't wait to show you what I am up to! Until next time.