Number ONE was to go to Schloss Schoenbruenn, the Palace of Franz Josef. This is also the palace where Mozart gave his first royal concert at the age of 6. It was a bit rainy still, so we didn't explore much of the grounds outside the Castle, but it was still beautiful. Since we got there right when it opened (8:30am) we still had a full day ahead of us. We stopped in a cafe in town to get some lunch, but were quickly told that lunch was not served at 10am and we disappointedly realized we would have to wait until 11 to find our schnitzel anywhere. So we continued on...
Number TWO was to go to the Central Cemetery, which is where many famous composers are buried. We took the train over to the Cemetery, which, despite its name, is not located very centrally at all. It is the second largest cemetery in the world and we certainly found that out the hard way. The train dropped us off at the opposite corner of the cemetery of the "infopoint", which we luckily found with other smaller infopoints along the way. After a trek through the entire cemetery, we found a very nice guidebook telling us that the composers we sought were right down the center aisle, so we turned around and found the plot including Strauss, Brahms and Beethoven. There is one more famous composer buried in Vienna, and he was next...
Number THREE was Mozart, buried at the St. Marx Cemetery closer to town. This one was much smaller and the map was much more readily available so we found Mozart quite easily. His grave marker stands alone in a large field, which Brandon and I were able to go right up to and touch. Appropriately, as Mozart was a bit of a prankster, there was sap on the gravestone, in the exact place where Brandon and I both placed our hands. That was fun.
Number FOUR was the Freud Museum. You may be thinking, "Didn't they already see the Freud Museum?" The answer to that is yes, however that was the one in London. There is one in London as well as Vienna. London has all of his cool stuff because that was his last home. But he lived the longest in Vienna, and it was also the home he loved and preferred so we decided to go there as well. It was awesome to see the room where patients waited and then were evaluated, and the rooms in which Freud spent so many hours. There were lots of cool pictures too.
So once we got those things done, we just wandered around looking for other things to do in the city. We saw Stephensplatz, a huge, beautiful church whose facade is well recognized as a symbol of Vienna. In that area we found a cute little restaurant called Hinterholz and finally got the Wienerschnitzel we craved! It was exactly what we were looking for. We tried to go see a Crime museum, but upon arriving, saw that they were closed on Mondays (which we would have known if we had read the map better... whoops) But we also got to see the Rathaus (like a city council) and Beethoven's house while just wandering around. Since we had accumulated some souvenirs, we stopped back at the hostel for a bit to drop things off and get ready for the evening, since we had tickets to the opera at 7pm. The Volksoper was playing "Wagners Ring Cycle an einem Abend", which was the whole Ring Cycle (4 different LONG operas) condensed into one night, with a narrator "filling in the blanks". Except everything was in German, so there were actually quite a lot of blanks left unfilled for us. Also, they didn't play the most famous song of all 4 operas, The Ride of the Valkyrie, so that was strange. But overall it was really nice and we always love a night at the opera.
Now we are back for our last night at the hostel in Vienna and tomorrow at 12:45 our flight leaves for ROME! Bis Morgen...
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