Got up Friday AM and checked out the fitness center at the hotel. It was up to American standards for a nice hotel. We stopped at a pastry shop for some breakfast on the go as we caught two connecting subway trains out to the palatial Schonbrunn palace grounds. Unfortunately the auto-ticket dispensers weren't working so we had to wait in line quite a while, but got our ticket for a delayed entrance to the palace building just after noon.
Schonbrunn was the "summer residence" for the Habsburg dynasty and is "over the top" in terms of opulence. No picture taking was allowed inside, but I got one. It has 1,500 rooms and was in use until the end of Imperial rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918, in conjunction with the end of WWII. It is located only a few miles from their regular also "over the top" palace in the heart of Vienna.
We spent several hours touring 40 rooms at Schonbrunn and then got back to Vienna city center for lunch and then went to tour three museums that are housed inside buildings which used to be the palace of the Imperial family. The museums toured were the Musical Instrument Museum, Museum of Antiquities - Ephesus, and the Weapons & Armor Museum.
Tired from the day, we went back to the hotel and took a quick nap and then woke up just in time to get ready to go see the Mozart Orchestra performance at Musikverein - Brahms Saal for which we purchased some tickets during the day. They played excerpts from some of Mozart's greatest works, such as The Marriage of Figaro, The Magic Flute, Don Giovanni, The Barber of Seville. They ended the evening of course with Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz.
On Saturday we intend to view the Imperial Treasury where the crown jewels are stored. It is a bit cooler and cloudy today, so that will make for an enjoyable day without further sunburn! We're thinking about taking a day trip to Budapest on Sunday....
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