Aufwiedersehn Austria

On our last day in charming Vienna we decided to tackle their U-Bahn (subway) system and found it easy to understand.   It whisked us to Schönbrunn Palace (summer residence of the Habsburg's.   With a huge menu to choose from we opted for the grand tour which allowed us into 40 of the 1,441 rooms of the imperial apartments.  Compared to Versailles Schönbrunn is much more elegant and not so garish.  The wealth involved in these places is staggering.  Photography is not allowed anywhere inside the Palace.  I thought this was a ploy to get you to buy the book but soon realized allowing photography would turn the tour into a giant brawl.  After our interior tour we wandered the sprawling gardens.   These gardens are so large that your eyes play tricks on you.  You do not realize how far away things are by just looking at them.  These gardens include the amazing and iconic Neptune Fountain.

We climbed Schönbrunn hill to the Gloriette and a bird's eye view of the French gardens and the Palace

Leaving the Palace we boarded the U-Bahn and were greeted by a young girl and her Australian Shepherd dog.   We tried to imagine how Zöe would react to all of these people and the subway.

Arriving back in the old town we settled in at a side walk café for a session of people watching and a cold one.  We proceeded to window shop and wander through the wonderful backstreets of Vienna.  On the whole, Vienna's architecture rivals or even surpasses that of Paris.   We discovered the Viennese institutions called "beisl" (a pub which serves food or a casual restaurant).   We scouted out 2 and settled on Reinthaler's Beisl.   It's just 100 meters off the busy tourist shopping street, Graben, but a thousand miles away from tourist crowds.   We found a cozy corner and had our most authentic Austrian meal.   It was also the best and cheapest.   If you come to Vienna, don't miss this place.  It's mostly filled with native Viennese but the host could not have been more welcoming. 

Home for an early sleep because we leave first thing in the morning for the Czech Republic.