Travelling Adventures with Duncan and Danica : Empresses and Chocolatiers

What an amazing day we had! First of all, the sun was shining and the temperature hit 19 degrees Celsius today! Robert actually had shorts on for the first half of the day.

Secondly, we visited the best sights ever and had so many laughs. We started off with a typical Viennese breakfast before we headed over to the Lainzer Tiergarten. It is a wildlife preserve that was created in 1561 by Ferdinand I of Austria as a fenced in hunting ground for his family to use. It has been open to the public since 1919 and is apparently a very popular walking spot for individuals and families. In the middle of the garden is Hermesvilla, which was a rural getaway palace created in 1886 by Franz Joseph I of Austria for his wife, Empress Sisi, in the hopes that she would stay closer to his court and stop her frequent travels. Hermesvilla is now a museum, with much of it decorated with original artworks and furniture, and was so fascinating.

We also had a beverage and snack in the Hermesvilla cafe. I had an elderflower water drink and Robert chose a sparkling elderflower drink. Markus also ordered us palatchinken to try (a thin pancake filled with apricot).

Afterwards, we went home for a quick lunch and a little rest, except that we spent way longer in Hermesvilla than expected so didn't have as much of a rest time as planned before Robert, Tanya and I headed to the Prater, which is the oldest amusement park in the world. Upon our arrival, we headed straight to the Chocolate Museum where we arrived just in time to partake in the chocolate workshop. Of course we had to participate! We ended up with such a fun group of people. Robert ended up breaking the machine but it made for lots of laughs, mainly at his expense (apparently he was only the 2nd person to break the machine since their opening). After making 3 large bars of chocolate each, we also made a traditional hot chocolate with cocoa, chili, cinnamon, chocolate pieces, and sugar. It was delicious!

Although the workshop was the highlight of the museum, we enjoyed our visit to the exhibits as well.

This was Marie Antoinette in chocolate!

Wouldn't the kids have loved to have received these chocolate bunnies in their Easter baskets!

We then took a little train ride around the park before taking a little walk. Robert and I tried Langos, which is essentially a deep-fried dough smothered in butter and garlic. Tanya and I waltzed along with the music from one of the rides. We had a few more laughs and another type of Viennese sausage/hot dog before heading back to Tanya and Markus' apartment.