Monday, May 21, 2012

3rd and Final Day in Vienna

Although all this sightseeing and walking makes us incredibly tired, we still have yet to have a good sleep! Can't wait till my body gets adjusted.

We started off the day heading via subway to the Schonbrunn palace, the summer residence of the emperors and empresses from the mid 17th century till the 1900s when it became a museum. It was interesting to compare these rooms to the Imperial Apartments we saw earlier.
The rooms decorations were extravagant but very cohesive with each other. It's crazy to think all of these palaces had a room for literally everything...like doing an empress's hair!

We had lunch at a cafe on the top of a hill at the palace which was able to give a panoramic view of Vienna which was quite beautiful. Right as we were talking about how lucky we were with the weather we've been having, we saw threatening clouds heading our way and the wind began to pick up. We headed back to the center of the city and enjoyed pastries and coffees.

The subway was rather easy to understand, reminded me of our family trip to Paris years back when we used the subway every day. It'll be interesting to compare the public transportation of Vienna and Prague.

After our snack, we went back to the Stephsandom church near our hotel to take a tour of the catacombs below the church. It was quite eerie, containing coffins of priests and kardinals and mass graves of various citizens of the city of Vienna (1 grave was from the Black Plague). There was also a coffin dated back to the 7th century! A gravehouse was neatly stacked, reminding me of the catacombs in Paris.

We then walked around the city, visiting random shops and churches, before heading back to the hotel to rest before dinner.

Now we have to pack because we leave for Prague tomorrow via train at 9:30am! It's about a 4 hour train ride.

I'm so thankful to be able to experience Vienna but I'm ready to head to Prague and meet the people in my program!

Sbohem,
Whit


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