Today we got up and went to go tour the Schonbrunn Palace, which is where the Habsburgs’ summered. We got the opportunity to view the 40 rooms available to the public and it was gorgeous inside. We also got to go out and explore the garden area and the entire palace and garden area was huge. The area was originally just hunting ground for the Habsburgs but later the palace was expanded to what it is today. Our tour talked a lot about Maria Theresa and her impact on the palace.  

After touring the palace I went and explored the world’s oldest zoo, Tiergarten Schonbrunn. This zoo was opened in 1752! I got to see wolves and pandas along with a lot of other animals. They had an exhibit of bees, which I thought was unusual. Ashley and I spent an entire hour at the zoo walking around looking for a bathroom. We followed all the signs we saw and looked it up on the map but they were nowhere to be found so we ended up having to go all the way back to the front just to find a bathroom. For lunch at the zoo we had a hot dog, which was different from what you would get back in the U.S. The hotdog was completely surrounded by almost a crescent roll filled with ketchup but it tasted good! My favorite part was getting to see the pandas! When we were there we heard a story that back in 2002 a jaguar actually attacked one of the caretakers during feed and killed her in front of zoo visitors! My mouth dropped when I heard this but overall I had a good time at the zoo and it was very cool to see the architecture of all the buildings because it does not look like our zoos back home in the United States.

After the zoo we navigated our way back to the city center and went to Stephensplatz Cathedral. The inside of it was gorgeous and we got to take an elevator to the top to see the view. We also decided to climb some 300 some stairs to the top of the tower. The tower stairs were very narrow so it’s a good thing we aren’t claustrophobic. It was a tight squeeze because you go down the same way you came up so there was traffic going both ways in the tiny stairway. It was definitely a work out; my legs will be sore tomorrow. We then went on a mission to find a Starbucks because at this point in the trip we were dying for an American style coffee.

Tonight the whole group went to a nice dinner! Here in Vienna the restaurants are actually at the same pace as us. Everyone had finished their food after only being there an hour and 15 minutes! I finally got a good steak in Europe and the potatoes that came with it were very delicious as well. Now it is time for bed to rest up for the bank visit tomorrow.

This is the Schonbrunn Palce

This is one of the pandas at the zoo!