Vienna Day 2

We headed out to the Schonbrunn Palace in the morning. It is a large palace that has been compared to the Palace of Versailles in France because of the elaborate rooms and gardens. We didn't get out early enough to miss the crowds so we had to fight through the crowds the whole time inside the palace which made it a little less enjoyable. Pictures are prohibited inside but I snuck this one of Natali's favorite room anyways :-) (Shhh...don't tell).

We then headed out to the gardens. They were nice but we didn't think they were as amazing as we had heard they were, maybe because we have seen some amazing gardens at some of the castles in France or at Versailles. But they had some really great statues and a pretty cool labyrinth that was better than other ones we had been to. We also hiked up the hill behind the palace for some views of Vienna and the palace. We had lunch up there and took some pictures.

We headed to Karlskirche next and it was the best and worst moments of our day. The church is amazing. It has a huge dome and the colors inside are unlike any other church we have seen. The marble was very colorful and the frescos on the ceiling were all painted in light colors that made the whole place seem brighter than it really was. The worst part of it all was seeing this huge, metal scaffolding going up one side of the church all the way to the top that had an elevator on it. People could go up and see the "view" of the city that was through clouded, small windows. Natali and I were so mad about it. They covered up half of the church so that people could go up and get a horrible view of the city. The only good thing is that we were able to see the ceiling up close and get close-up pictures of the frescos.

We walked by the Secession Building. The building got its name because artists seceded from the general rules and created their own gallery for their new art styles. The building has the inscription that says "To every time, its art. To art, its freedom."

We were also able to see a couple of famous apartments designed by a guy named Otto Wagner. He is very famous in Vienna (and seems to have designed like half the city) and here are some of his famous apartments.

That night we went back to Rathaus for some food and entertainment. It is funny that all of the food from every little stand is served on real plates with metal forks and knives. We thought this was very European that they would not want to eat on paper plates or plastic silverware. We still have no idea who did all the dishes at the end of the night.

While leaving Rathaus we noticed that the street was closed and there were a few police cars driving down the road. Right behind them were hundreds of bikers and roller-bladers. They closed down the Main Street and the people were just enjoying their ride on the Main Street of Vienna. Vienna city does all sorts of activities like this, we came across a few street parties and such while we were there. We thought that was pretty interesting.

Then we walked around at night and took some pictures in front of some buildings. The Parliament Building looked great at night so we went there for a while.

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