Schönbrunn Palace

Following the previous day's wine-fueled escapades, Haji and I were in a fairly delicate state on Sunday morning. Given our raging hangovers, we reasoned the best course of action would be to catch the metro to the other side of Vienna, stagger over to an 18th century palace, and immerse ourselves in some Habsburg history!

The Schönbrunn Palace was built as the Habsburgs' summer residence ☀️, as opposed to the Hofburg which they lived in during the winter months ❄️. I visited the Hofburg last time I was in Vienna in the winter of 2023, so it seemed very fitting to visit the summer palace on a sunny Sunday in May.

The scale of Schönbrunn is simply enormous! Putting aside the mammoth building itself, the over 1 km² of grounds are filled with huge, incredibly ornate structures including a fountain of Neptune, an obelisk depicting key moments in Habsburg history, and an immense gloriette on top of the hill overlooking the estate.

The whole grounds were very impressive, and demonstrated vividly the might of the Habsburgs at the pinnacle of their power.

We also visited inside the palace, learning particularly about how the palace was used by Empress Maria Theresa and by Emperor Franz Joseph and Empress Sisi.

On top of being an interesting and impressive place to visit, the trip to Schönbrunn also completely alleviated our hangovers!Read more