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City Views.151

All my remaining photos of the grounds and building of Schönbrunn Palace. Just above, the west wing of the palace as seen from the west gardens, and above that, a greenhouse we didn’t enter, on the west side of the grounds. Immediately below, two photos I snuck while touring the rooms inside that wing and the rest of the palace: the photo out the window is looking out towards the Gloriette, built at the highest point in the park and from which (or of which) came most of the photos in the larger gallery further below. Just below the two circular indoor photos is one of my total favorite elements: a fake Roman Ruin! Yes, the Habsurgs must have suffered from imposter syndrome because they seem at some point in the 18th century or so to have decided it would enhance their prestige to have a “Roman Ruin” on the grounds of their summer palace. Umm, ok…. :-).

 

Small Wonders.151

We were at the Hofburg on a rather wet, cold and drizzly afternoon, so the idea of the butterfly house appealed. Not big enough and too crowded to be really worth the price of admission, IMHO, but still lovely to see these butterflies.
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Urban Entrances.51

Urban Garden.121

This is Girardi Park (or so says Google Maps), next to the Secession Building, close to St Charles’s Church (two of the reasons we found ourselves in this corner of the city), and across the street from where we had our mandatory mid-afternoon cafe stop, Vienna being a city long loved for its cafe culture, after all :-).

Urban Canals.111

From roughly the same spot along the Amstel, while exploring the city with different friends on different days in late September. A thing I keep meaning to do is sign up for rowing lessons, which I think are offered from this pier; though, if I do it, I’ll likely end up doing it on the Nieuwe Meer a bit closer to where I’m living.

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Urban Garden.120

These are all from a lovely morning walk in the Wiener Stadtpark (Vienna City Park) before setting out on our longer exploration of the whole Schönbrunn complex. Our hotel was just next to this park, which is smack in the heart of the city. Seeing how many monuments with sculptures of Vienna’s great composers (including Schubert, below), or other artistic flourishes such as the other sculpture below — entitled “freeing the spring” (more or less) and apparently depicting two men working to remove a stone that’s blocking a well or spring — reminded me that quite aside from being for centuries an important center of power in Europe, Vienna was also / has also long been a leading center of culture for centuries. In that “spa” building shown above are frequent waltz events, the waltz being probably the form of music and dancing most closely associated with Vienna.

City Views.150

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Urban Entrances.50

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City Views.149

A (rainy) daytime view of Vienna’s Stephansdom (of you’ve seen the nighttime view in an earlier post), along with a few scenes from the plaza and adjoining streets around it on that particular afternoon.

Small Wonders.149

Urban Garden.119

That’s the actual Schönbrunn Palace at the bottom of the  hill — and we will show more of it in future posts, I promise – but since the stroll through the grounds with autumnal foliage everywhere was so lovely, that’s the focus today :-).