August 19 ….Seeing the sights in Vienna

We had decided to purchase three day passes for the Hop on Hop off bus and one of the stops was in front of the Schonbrunn Palace, that was within walking distance from the apartment . So, after Rod and Priscilla came over and we ate breakfast, we headed over to the Schonbrunn. Rod and Priscilla wanted to do the grand tour of the Palace and they had bought tickets for a concert that evening so were on their own for dinner. The rest of us opted to visit the Albertina Museum and head back to the Schonbrunn in the afternoon.

Located in the heart of Vienna, Albertina, the largest of the former private Habsburg residences, houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world, with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints. In addition, there are exhibits of more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings a well as two, recently acquired, significant collections of Impressionist and early 20^thcentury art. None of us were that taken with the modern works, particularly Bill who isn't a fan in the least of modern art and didn’t even go into that exhibit. I’ve included one of the modern painting in the photos that I’m sure Bill would have loved……not!!!

My personal favorites were some of the old photographs and a few of the Impressionist works. In addition to the art, Albertina has 21 authentically restored rooms of the state apartments with period furnishings, dramatic chandeliers and quite a few small drawings of some of the masters. One thing of note about Albertina, is the stairway leading up to the gallery . The steps are cleverly painted, announcing…Albertina…a well as some of what is currently on display.

After finishing at the Albertina, we hopped on the Hop on Hop off and headed back over to the UNESCO Heritage Site, the imperial summer residence of Schonbrunn. With 1,441 rooms, this magnificent Baroque palace is one of the most important architectural, cultural and historical monument in the country. The history of the palace and its vast gardens spans over 300 years and, since the mid 1950’s has been a major tourist attraction. We decided to pass on the grand tour and, instead, spent some time walking the spectacular gardens that reminded me a little of Versailles. The flowers, fountains, statuary and impeccably manicured tunnels of trees were a delight to wander through and, eventually, led us to the entrance of the zoo, located on the grounds of the Palace.

And what a zoo it is.   Founded in 1752 as a menagerie, the Tiergarten Schonbrunn or Vienna Zoo, is the oldest zoo in the world . Housing some 750 animals of all shapes and sizes, Schonbrunn Zoo regards itself as a scientifically administered zoo with its main purpose being a center for species and nature conservation as well as the fulfillment of the education mandate given to it by the legislation.

Although the baroque era buildings have been complemented in the last year by elements of modern zoo architecture, it was still possible to get a sense of the 18^th century menagerie-buildings that were modeled after the menagerie in Versailles.

We spent the afternoon exploring this unique zoo and seeing so many exotic animals, including armadillos, koalas, a baby Serbian tiger, and lemurs, just to name a few.   Of particular delight was their most recent acquisition of the giant pandas. The female pandas had just delivered babies the previous week and they had a screen outside the enclosure showing a live video of the mama and her babies. While we were inside the enclosure, they brought out the papa panda to eat and I shot a little video of that .   The other area that was fantastic was a walkway that was a viewing spot, like an aquarium, for this magnificent white polar bear who delighted the audience with his somersaults and lunges above the water. I think my favorite, however, was the area with the penguins. There were many varieties, some very different than the ones we saw in South America (didn’t finish the blogs on that part of our trip, two years ago) and I loved watching them waddle and slide into the water.

What a fun afternoon! After we had seen the better part of the zoo, we walked back to the apartment for a rest, then went back to the wonderful neighborhood Greek Restaurant for dinner. Rod and Priscilla came over after their concert and dinner, both of which, they reported, were terrific. We all played some card games, accompanied by popcorn before we all retired for the evening.