Schonbrunn Palace

Hello hello,

Today was a much better day for us after taking it easy yesterday. We headed off to Billa, the grocery store, for breakfast and picked up some yogurt (Jeff didn't get the smarties yogurt like yesterday, lol), some cookie cereal, fruit and a sandwich for lunch. We had trouble looking at all the yogurt because there were a few people filming something and they kept doing different shots and interviews. They eventually asked me if I wanted to be interviewed for Chinese t.v. and I said, sure, why not? lol. They asked me two questions about my views on organic food and I gave them my honest answer - if it wasn't so expensive we'd buy more of it. Jeff said I did a good job. Too bad they didn't ask my name and now I'll be some random person they interviewed... A Canadian in Austria being interviewed for Chinese television... Too funny.

Then we headed off to Schonbrunn Palace. It took about half an hour or so to get there (walking) and we took some back alleyway that kind of creeped us out a little bit. It was definitely off the beaten path and so we took different route on the way back.

The palace was so busy! Who knew it would be jammed with people at noon on a Thursday? We made it through though and picked up our English audio pieces - similar to the ones in The Fascination and Horror exhibit in Germany where you hold it to your ear. We went through 20+ rooms of the palace which was pretty neat! Quite elaborate stuff for sure. I still don't quite understand who all lived there and when (I'm hopeless) but I do remember that the last person who was born there died at 86 years old in 1916. It was a neat experience to see part of a palace and the place was so huge!

We spent a couple of hours afterward wandering through the gardens, where we had lunch, and to some other sights on the palace property. Jeff wanted to go to the zoo but due to time constraints and the price we decided not too. Oh well. We wandered through a labrynth (maze) instead that was terribly overpriced, but we didn't know that until we got in. We entertained ourselves though.

It was pretty chilly out all day and only in the late afternoon did the sun begin to shine. I'm sick of the cold, wet and dreary weather!

We grabbed some more groceries from Billa for dinner, which turned out great - spicy sausage, mushrooms, green pepper, tomato and Uncle Ben's mediterranean 2-minute rice. It was really good and we were really glad to have some vegetables!

We've nearly figured out the rest of our trip as well, which feels really good. I feel more relaxed now that we have more of a plan and some places are booked. I'm excited!

We're heading to Innsbruck tomorrow to a nice hotel for three nights, then spending an extra night in a hostel.
Then we'll be heading to Venice for three nights before heading to the Cinque Terre for three nights.
After that it shoud be a week in Rome, the last hostel we have to book :) I feel more energized and enthused knowing that we're still on budget and may even have a little bit more to play with. Our planning has really helped that way.

Tomorrow is a long ride to Innsbruck but Jeff and I are just so excited to see the Alps! We have some hiking in mind over the weekend and seeing as it's supposed to be sunny and 19 for the next few days, our hopes are high.

I'll update from the mountains,

Amanda