A palace, the Prater and pork

Brad and I had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and met Geraldine and Thomas mid morning. The plan was to walk over to the subway and head to Schönbrunn Palace, the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers and a UNESCO World Heritage site. We would have lunch there and then take public transit to the Prater, a large public park and amusement area which was the site of the 1873 Vienna World's Fair.

Schönbrunn Palace is a huge property complete with gardens, reminiscent of Versailles. We chose to visit The Imperial Carriage Museum and learned all about a fascinating woman, Empress Elisabeth of Austria, better known as Sisi. Learn more about her here:
https://www.austria.info/en/culture/sisi-empres…
The parallels of Sisi’s life with that of Princess Diana struck us as rather eerie.

It got hotter as the day progressed and by the time we finished touring the carriage museum it was around 30 degrees. Thankfully, Thomas had made reservations at a garden restaurant on the palace grounds which was shady and cool.

From there, we grabbed a bus and a subway to the Prater. We decided to ride the iconic Riesenrad, a 64.75-metre tall Ferris wheel, to enjoy views of Vienna. Classic.

We strolled through the grounds, making our way to a legendary beer garden on the site, Schweizerhaus. It’s been owned and run by the same family for more than 100 years. When our friend Thomas was a boy, he would play with one of the current-day owners and run around the Prater going on the various rides. We were fortunate that she was there this evening and came to say hello to us. The specialties here are beer, of course, as well as roast pork with crackling. 😋

We were happy to have a walk back to the subway in order to work off our dinner.Read more