So we only had time to see one thing since we only had the morning there before we headed out to Budapest. Did I tell you how much I LOVE being in Germany and how easy it is to travel from country to country?!? Vienna was the capital of the enormous Austrian Empire (AKA the Austro-Hungarian Empire) for 640 years. Stretching from the Alps of northern Italy to Carpathians of Romania, and from the banks of the Danube to Dubrovink. It was also home to many famous people including Beethoven, Mozart, Brahms, Strauss, and Freud among others.
Since we only had one morning there, we could only choose one thing to see. We decided to head to the Schonbrunn Palace. The gang in front of the gates..
Joey, AJ and Michael in front of the summer palace. Yes only a summer palace. Among Europe's palaces, they say only Schonbrunn rivals Versailles in Paris. It has 1,441 rooms!! Luckily during WWII it didn't get destroyed. One bomb crashed through 3 floors, but luckily it was a dud.
One of the many, many fountains on the property.
All my boys in front of the palace!!!!!
This is Hercules slaying the Nemean Lion. It is actually a hot-air stove, so it is not only decorative, but also practical.
This is the bed that Franz Josef died in. He was actually born in this palace as well. His 67 year reign is the third longest in European history.
This shows the bridal procession and wedding. Mozart was later included into the painting of the wedding even though he wasn't there.
This is the ballroom. There are 70 candles in each of the chandeliers. They put in special lights that flicker like real candles.
You can see that the furnishings are simple, but elegant. They had family dinners where everybody, grand-kids and all, came and ate together. The dinners consisted of 3-6 course meals.
This is the mirror room. Here in 1762, 6 year old Mozart had his first concert. After he finished he jumped into the empress' lap and gave her a kiss. It is crazy he started his career here.
This is the other side of the mirror room.
One thing that was really interesting about Franz Josef is that he was very frugal and he wanted to have paintings of his family around the whole palace. Almost every room that we went into had pictures of his family. He also loved to have things that his grandchildren made in his office. He had 16 kids in total and 11 of them made it to adulthood. Of all his daughters, they only let one of them marry for love. The rest they married off for politics. Also another fun fact about this palace is that Napoleon stayed here in 1805 and 1809 and his only son died here in 1821 at the age of 21.
One of two columns guarding the front gate.
One thing that we didn't know is that the Christmas market here was still open. It was a wonderful surprise!!!
We decided to do a little bit of shopping while we were there!
And what is a Christmas market without a hot drink?!? They had some yummy different kinds at this one!
Michael showing off his monkey skills!
Enjoying some yummy pancakes!
They had a cute frame you could take pictures in! The Warner's and the Stankovich's looking good!!!
The Vandeway's enjoying the market!! Well at least the parents!! :-)
All the kids - did you notice we all have boys?!?
We saw this vendor and we all decided that we must have one!
Michael was super excited about the pretzels!!!
Look how HUGE the pretzels are!!!! I am in heaven!!!
Kellee playing peek a boo with her pretzel!!
Nate decided that he wanted to pose like one of the royals. He looks very royal! :-)
Michael thought it was a great idea, so he took a picture as well!
A look back at the palace. There were over 1500 people living in there at one time. Another interesting fact about the palace is that it was heated with stoves that were stoked from behind. During the 19th century they switched to steam instead of wood.
The boys begging to be done with the Christmas market. :-) Or they were just having some fun with their mom.
There is now a road between the front statues and the front gate.
David and the boys especially liked the lion!!
After that we headed to Budapest. Luckily this drive wasn't as long as the first one. We only had about 2 1/2 hours to go.
As we were heading to pick up the key to our apartment, we came through this tunnel and we all thought that we were coming out of the mouth of a shark.
We came out to this beautiful bridge, the chain bridge!!!
The main street was lit up so beautiful!!!
The kids were so excited to be there and to be able to relax and play a little bit of electronics!
David and Billy relaxing as well. I think we all were very glad to be there and be able to get settled for the next few days. We relaxed, had some dinner and enjoyed each others' company.
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