Below is us in the backyard of our future home....
This is the "backyard" of the Schonnbrunn Palace in Vienna. The palace was used as the summer palace of the Austrian emperors, but Cameron and I didn't understand why they would have a summer residence less than 30 minutes from their winter residence. The grounds are perfectly groomed, and cover more area than we could see in just one visit. There are over 300 statues, multiple gardens in different styles, and there is even a zoo! We did not have enough time to tour the interior, so we wandered the gardens and peeked at the animals in the zoo.
I will definitely be returning to the Schonbrunn Palace in the spring or summer when the gardens are in bloom!!
This lioness was eyeing us as we walked the perimeter of the zoo. We also saw a rhino, panda, and some deer without paying admission- just by walking around the walls.
This is a view of Vienna from the top of St. Stephen's Cathedral (aka Stephensdom), a church originally built in the 12th century- but destroyed multiple times and rebuilt. We climbed the narrow, winding staircase 445 feet up for the view- and were disappointed when we reached the top and there was a gift shop!! As if I climbed hundreds of stairs and battled vertigo to buy a keychain...
And, of course, as Vienna is famous for its coffee and pastries, we overindulged as often as possible. The coffee was delicious, but I had mixed feelings about the pastries. Cameron was sporting a froth mustache, like the one above, most of the weekend. The fruit/mousse cake combinations and frosting were delicious, but I thought the cake itself had a tendency to be dry. I personally prefer Mummy's chocolate cake to Vienna's!
We spent our time in Salzburg tasting pastries and coffee, and singing songs from The Sound of Music. We also checked out the Festung Hohensalzburg (translated to High Fortress Salzburg). It was a long walk up the hill to reach the mountain, and left Cameron thankful for the invention of tanks and strykers- any attacking foot soldiers would be too tired to fight after the hike up!
We took a guided tour around the inside of the fortress, where we went up to the top and took this photo of the town, Alps, and river Salz. My favorite part of the fortress was an exhibit showing the Archbishops and the gradual changes they made to the castle over the years- increased fortifications as technology developed.
In Zell am See we stayed in a gorgeous hotel situated on the side of a mountain. It was somewhat treacherous driving up winding, narrow roads in the dark, but the view from the hotel (and heated bathroom floor) was worth it. The photo above was taken from the balcony of our room- the white area is a lake at the base of the Alps. It must be fantastic to live somewhere so beautiful all year round!
