Day 27

Whewwww. Another long day in Vienna. We got to sleep in a little yesterday, 7 am. That was a nice treat. After we rolled out of bed and got ready, we hit the town nice and early. It wasn't as cold as some of the other days, but it was by no means warm. Our first stop was Schonbrunn Palace. When Adam planned this all out, he had given us 3 hours to see the palace and the gardens. I thought that it would be way too much time. I was mistaking. We spent over an hour in the gardens alone! They were so huge and there were so many picture opportunities. There was even a Greek/Roman looking building up on top of a hill in the distance, so we had to climb it. The view of the palace was even nicer from up there. On our way back down we encountered some very friendly,l but hungry squirrels. They kept coming right up to our feet, begging for food, but we didn't have any. They were disappointed. After we made it back down, it was time to tour the palace. The inside was incredibly huge. Even though we only visited 20 rooms, I imagine that there are over 100. The palace was built by Empress Maria Theresa and her family lived there for several centuries. There was an audio guide that went with it and gave descriptions of each room. There was original furniture and artwork all throughout the palace, so it was almost the same as being there in the early 1900s. We spent a good bit of time in the palace and then left to go grab some breakfast. I had a nice pastry filled with something delicious, and Adam had a ham sandwich. We continued walking until we reached St. Stephan's Cathedral. It was very impressive on the outside, but we were sad to learn that the only way you could get a good view of the inside was to pay for a guided tour, which was pretty expensive. So instead of that, we opted for a ride up one of the tours to get a good view of the city. We went up the Nordturm (North Tower) and saw for miles. We even got a closer look at the roof of the church which appeared to be covered in colorful tiles. After St. Stephan's we went on a quest to find the Jesuit Church. It was a good thing that we had done our research because the inside of the Jesuit Church was much nicer than St. Stephan's, and it wasn't as crowded because not many tourists know about it. We spent some time in there and then left to find Reprechtkirche, the oldest church in Vienna. It wasn't super exciting on the inside, but it was very cool to see a church that was built in 1490. We left the church feeling accomplished, and rather hungry. Our of the corner of my eye I saw a sign that said fresh soup, salad and curry. Well, we had to check it out at least. We went inside and tried to understand the menu. We were successfully able to order some beef chicken noodle vegetable soup which was pretty good. They even provided us with free water! That's a novel concept in Europe. After our lunch we went in search of the Old town hall and St. Peter's Church. We found both pretty quickly. St. Peter's Church was also really nice inside, but they were just about to start a service so we only spent a few minutes inside. We were right next to the Plague Column, so we stopped there for a few minutes to take some pictures and enjoy the sunlight. After we were done, we started heading towards Sigmund Freud House and Museum. As a psychology major and a studier of Freud, it was very interesting to see where his practice started and how he evolved over the years. Some of the rooms were left intact and there were hundreds of pictures and documents put on display. There were even some personal belongings of his donated by his family to the exhibit. It was pretty cool to see everything. We left the house and started heading over to the Beethoven House. We made a pit stop at the Votifkirche and the surrounding park. Once we started walking again, Adam realized he was a bit hungry, so we made another stop inside McD's to get a snack. I knew I was going to be having some special cake later, so I opted not to get anything. Once we arrived at the Beethoven House we were very disappointed to learn that it was closed. Maybe if we have enough time after Bratislava we can see it. We started heading back in the direction of our U-Bahn Station, stopping by several streets along the way. We finally made it to our place of destination, the Sacher Cafe. Now, I don't know if you've ever heard of Sacher Torte, but it is only produced in Vienna (and then shipped all over the world). So of course, I had to try some. And for 4.90, it better be pretty darn good. I was not disappointed. It's chocolate cake with a dark chocolate frosting/coating and then a layer of apricot filling in the middle. And it was gone in about 2 minutes. It was amazing! After my tummy was full of cake, we left feeling exhausted. But first, a quick stop in at our favorite ice cream shop. After our ice cream stop visit, we went to the store in hopes of finding some tortillas so we could make fajitas, but sadly, they don't sell tortillas in Vienna. So I had to settle for some spinach and cheese ravioli, which was actually pretty good. Once we got back to the hostel, it was time to relax, cook dinner, and watch some Dexter. But, neither of us made it past the first 15 minutes of the show, so we called it an early night at 9. Day 28 is here and we're heading off to Salzburg tonight!