We are onto our last country for field period of Europe. We all packed our things onto the bus and we were off around 10 am. Within about 15 minutes of leaving our hotel we were crossing the bridge from Slovakia to Austria. In Austria there was beautiful open fields with wind turbines to create electricity for the country (obviously they are going more green then the US because there was not one or 2 windmills there were fields of them). Another thing we saw on our bus ride were grape fields... which reminded me a little of Keuka and the finger lakes region.
We arrived for our destination, Schönbrunn Palace. When you arrive it looks like something from the movies! The grounds of the Palace have a strong history going back to the Middle Ages, but it was in 1569 that the Hapsburg royal family took control of the estate. For the first 200 years each Emperor tinkered with the ground but no one really finished building "true" Palace. By the early 1700's, Emperor Charles VI was using it as a Summer hunting lodge.He did this because the grounds of the estate were at the time heavily wooded and only 4 miles from central Vienna. It wasn't until the mid 1700s when Emperor Charles VI gifted the residence to his daughter Maria Theresa that the estate started to blossom. Maria Theresa decided to finish the grounds as a "true" Palace and added many fascinating features such as: a huge garden, the mighty Neptune Fountain, a theater, a festive zoo, beautiful galleries, opulent fixtures from Chinese lacquer panels, murals, colorful wall papers. As we walked through the rooms of the palace I was amazed to hear of the history each room had. I would have gone the tour again if I had time. My favorite room of the palace was the ballroom, I would have loved to have a birthday party in there! After completing the tour inside a number of us decided to explore the grounds..I wish I could have stayed here all day because there was so much to see.
After leaving the palace, we arrived at our hotel got settled into our rooms and relaxed for a little. Some went swimming and others slept. Then we were off to get dinner at the mall across the street; however, when we got there at 6:30 pm they told us they were closing. This made me upset because I was famished ...guess its just some trail mix for dinner since everyone in Europe turns in early. In actuality we ate the dinner of champions ... ice cream.
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