Vienna on a rainy day

I slept in this morning and didn't head out until 11ish.  I decided to walk through Prater - the oldest amusement park in Europe to see what they had to offer. On a nicer day, I'll come back and ride the ferris wheel.

Is this the capitalist pig? (note ATM inside)

 I went to the Naschmarkt for lunch. While I ate a warm and toasty spinach and cheese pastry, my eyes feasted on the assortment of food and spices they sold.  The place was large and very packed (likely due to it being Saturday and the protection from the rain.  I would have bought tons of stuff had I not planned to continue touring the city afterwards.

fruits

spices

a large barrel of sauerkraut

I thought all churches were free - but not the Karlskirche.

It was mostly a rainy and cold day so my real touristy thing was visiting the Schloss Schonbrunn - the palace of Franz Joseph I and Elizabeth (Sisi) and later Maria Teresia (Austria' only female ruler).  It's also where Napoleon stayed when he was in Austria and where JFK and Khrushchev met. Please search google for better pictures as it was quite deary when I took mine.  Hopefully, I'll be able to go back on a better day and take a more picturesque stroll around the gardens.

I took the Grand Tour - which was 3 euros more than the Imperial Tour but included 20 more rooms.  The tour comes with an audio guide which I found a bit lacking.  They could have included a bit more history or cultural stories.  The rooms were nice and grand but not quite so luxurious as Versaille.  I guess it's due to the austere Austrians.  In fact, when Franz Joseph I ruled, he worked from 5am until evening.  I liked the bit about his wife who was touted as being the most beautiful woman in Austria of her time, which her tiny little waist and her long hair. Apparently, he adored her but she merely tolerated him saying that marriage was like being bound by a contract for life at age 15 and having no idea what it meant. She however married off each of her 11 girls, save one, for political alliances.  Maria Teresia was the only female ruler because her father amended the law so that females could inherit.  I don't understand how she ruled the empire fighting wars on all fronts and still managed to have 16 children (including Marie Antoinette who married Louis XVI of France).  

The gardens were huge and well maintained, similar to Versailles.  Unfortunately, it was too cold to walk the entire area.

 

all Austrian palaces need horse-drawn carriage rides

how tree only grow on one side

fake Roman ruins

I ended my day about going to Cafe Schwartzenberg where I enjoyed a Schwartzenburg coffee (cappuccino with chocolate) and a Klimt torte - white chocolate cake with a print of Klimt on one piece of chocolate.  The draw for this place was that it had live music to accompany my food.

On the way out of the cafe, I saw a bunch of legalize marijuana people parading by...