1) Austria was one of the first countries in the European Union to legalize same sex activity and their traffic lights (or robots according to Tanya) reflect this.
2) Mistletoe is essentially an invasive species. Once it takes root in a tree, it takes over and may even kill the host tree. Here we thought it had some sort of romantic origins...
3) Emperors really knew how to woo the ladies. Emperor Franz Joseph had this gloriette erected in the Shoenbrunn Palace Gardens as a breakfast room for his Empress, Maria Theresa. This was also a pit stop during Amazing Race 23.
4) There is a royal pigeon cage (Columbary) in the Schoenbrunn Palace garden, complete with a bath and a concrete garden design of its own. Tanya said she'd been there a bunch of times before and had never found it.
5) The palace is home to the oldest still working toilet in Vienna.
6) The Schoenbrunn Palace grounds are massive, covering the same area as the Kingdom of Monaco. It contains a zoo, a Palm House, a Desert House, numerous fountains and courtyards.
6) Not everyone poses with the statues apparently....
7) You are now allowed to toboggan down the hill from the Gloriette to the Palace Gardens.
8) You are allowed to drink beer and wine at the age of 14 in Austria and other alcohol at 16. It is completely normal to see people drinking in parks and public places. Lots of people were picnicking on the palace hill with beer and wine in hand.
9) This ice cream shop has been in operation since 1886. The ice cream was fantastic!
10) The architecture is stunning in Vienna but the personalities of the Viennese leaves a little something to be desired. They don't smile a lot, never say excuse me and frequently push and shove. I thought maybe Tanya was exaggerating until some man pushed me so hard out of his way in the grocery store tonight that I almost fell down. I wasn't too impressed. And in spite of my attempts to speak German, I wasn't able to speak enough German to request the required token to enter the washroom at the ice cream shop (apparently you have to be very specific in your requests or the staff will just point you in the direction of the toiletten rather than providing you with the requisite entry token).
11) There is quite a bit of graffiti on buildings and walls in Vienna but there is a place along the Danube where artists are permitted to paint graffiti.
12) The signs on the trains are fairly gender neutral. Notice how it is a man holding the child.
13) Apparently the palace wasn't big enough to host guests of the Emperor so they had a guest house built across the street. It is now a hotel.
The guard house
This building was built as a meeting place for hunting parties but apparently was also a meeting place for lovers' trysts.
This was a private train station built for the Emperor that is no longer in use. Apparently it was only ever used by the Emperor once and that was for the grand opening.
14) There are a million and one photographic opportunities in Vienna.
We had lunch at the palace. It was fantastic.
This is apparently a private residence.
This was my lunch - spaetzle with egg
Robert had the palace snack tower.
Another thing I found interesting and rather touching is that Markus brought home a newspaper today and asked us about the Humboldt hockey team as that tragic accident made the front page of a newspaper here. Of course I couldn't understand what the article said but the picture of the flowers surrounding the team logo on the ice was universal.
Not to rub it in to anyone back home with yet another snowstorm in April but the temperature today hit 25 degrees Celsius! And it was sunny! It is supposed to cool down to 17 tomorrow with the possibility of rain, though, so we will see what happens.
Awesome post, as always!
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