Now we had very low expectations when we arrived in Vienna as many people had warned us that it was boring. It may be boring but we are too & we hit it off instantly! The walk took us past all the usual suspects: Museums, Town Hall, Parliament, several sites of Hitler speeches....but I most excited by the Royal Palace...or rather what it contained! The Spanish Riding School....it had been a long held dream of mine to see go to the school & see the stunning Lippizaners Stallions in full flight & I was merely hours from realising that dream.
But first...the twist! At the end of the 3 & 1/2 hour walk we ended up at a small, family run restaurant. It was here that we filled up on the juiciest chicken schnitzel EVER, with chips & salad. Then we all got a free beer & a shot of Franjelico & we were on our way back to the hostel bar...for more free beer. I have to say my favourite beer in the world is free beer!
When we got back to the hostel we met our new flatmate....Keith, the 93 YEAR OLD from Australia. Yes, that is 93....not 39!! He was even a fellow busabout passenger who was only days away from heading home. Now, far be it for me to knock the old fella for getting out there & having a go. In fact, if I had just heard about him, I would be thinking "Wow, I hope I'm still as active as him when I get to his age!". This would have been before the joy of sharing a 4 person room with him. Old Keithy had been on the piss every night for the past 6 weeks.....actually for the last 70-odd years would probably be more accurate! He had gotten a cold a couple of weeks ago that required antibiotics...however, as he wanted to go out drinking with his mates, he had put off taking them for over a week & in doing so had gotten a whole lot worse. So bedtime came & about 20 minutes after lights out, he got out of bed for a wee. Old man bladder ensured that I got to listen to the joy of old Keithy going to the loo about 12 times a night. It wasn't just any old wee-ing either. First of all, the urge to go would wake him with a start & he would wrestle with the blankets for a bit before he managed to get his feet on the floor....then would come the banging of the wall in search of the light...then the fumbling with the door as he tried to close it & finally the relief....ahhh...hhh...ahhh...ah! I completely understand that at his age he can't help it when nature calls BUT he really outdid himself this particular night.
Every one of Keithy's stories ended with "..& you'll be back in time for happy hour!". Unfortunately he had over indulged somewhat during happy hour in the hostel bar & ended up throwing up all over the bathroom. So now I was enduring interrupted sleep, spew smells & the sound of him choking on God knows what...ALL NIGHT!! To top it off, Keith refused to address me personally...instead he would say to Andrew "Just get the good housewife to run dowstairs & do the laundry...." etc...all the while I would be standing right in front of him! The joys of backpacking are never ending....but I never expected our most feral flatmate to be a pensioner!
Next morning......horsey time!! The only catch is that bizarrely, for 8 weeks during Summer, the stallions are sent out to the stud farm in the Austrian countryside for a little holiday....just when the city is full to capacity with overseas visitors...hmmmmm?? The one good thing with not seeing the "real thing" was that our tickets were only 10 Euros whereas the tickets for the standard show start at 100 Euros!! This meant that we were instead treated to a perfomance named "Piber meets Vienna". A 1 hour show featuring the next batch of horses to be trained at the school....the future superstars. We also got to see some of the mares from the stud (incidentally the stud is called Piber) with their 8 week old babies & a short display of carriage driving. As I said it has been a dream of mine to see these magnificent creatures for over 20 years & I'm guessing this explains my surprising reaction to seeing the horses for the first time....yes, I burst in to tears....& continued to cry through the entire perfomance. It was magnificent.
After I pulled myself together, we headed off to discover the wonders of some of the magnificent palaces littered around the place. First up was the Belevedere Palace....by far the most spectacular building we had seen so far in Europe (excluding Sacre Cour, which we have only seen from a distance but which I suspect will probably be my favourite once we get back to Paris at the end of September!). Belevedere is set on massive grounds, amidst gorgeous gardens & rolling lawns. There was a plaque at the entrance that explained that the Palace was built in 1721 by a fella called Prince Eugene. I loved the section on the plaque that read "without undue burdening of his purse" the Prince had Belevedere built. Luckily for the prince, he was in charge of a battalion of Hungarian troups (?) who were more than "happy" to help out with the construction!
From Belevedere we headed to Schonnbrunn Palace, the most famous palace complex in Vienna. The first thing we noticed about Schonnbrunn was how chaotic it was compared to Belevedere. It is fairly close to the centre of town & it seemed that every tourist in Vienna converged at the entrance gate just as we arrived. Still, we got in with no problems & were struck by one thing....how yellow the palace is. Belevedere was crisp & white but Schonnbrunn is a strong mustardy colour. In fact, I found if I stared at it for too long, it started to look like a Disneyland attraction.....kinda fake!
We ventured past the slightly off-putting front facade to the gardens around the back. The thing about Schonnbrunn is that is is not just a palace complex, it is also a zoo, a maze, a restaurant & the most breathtaking part...a giant Romanesque, sunhouse on top of the hill. Beautiful! Sadly, the clouds were rolling in & the sky was very threatening so we raced around the grounds & ran for the metro. We made it just in time, before a huge downpour...pheew!
We are heading off to Budapest for the Hungarian F1 GP in the morning but we do have one more night in Vienna next week.....I'm sure I can fit in another visit to the horses........
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