Schönbrunn Palace, Vienna, Austria

I have stepped foot in Austria now. Vienna, to be exact. I was ecstatic and it was beautiful!

 We arrived at Schönbrunn Palace around lunch time and got tickets for our tour of the inside (soooooo worth it!!) for later that afternoon. 

Then we began touring the gardens. 

My horticulture heart was freaking out!! It was fantastic - and I would do it again in a heartbeat!! The girls who had been before told us "not to look!!!" as they lead us around the back to keep from spoiling the view. So we just ogled the palace instead and kept walking. When we were to the middle of the back of the palace they said we could look and it was definitely worth it! The view was absolutely fabulous!!

We walked and oohed and ahhed over everything (at least I did). There is a fountain at the end and then up the hill is the Gloriette which offers another gorgeous view. We went halfway up to eat our picnic lunch and then had to go inside for our tour - again, so worth it! The history of those rooms....incredible!!!!! I stood where a 6 year old Mozart performed for the Habsburg family!!

We walked around some more, took some great pictures, and then headed to downtown Vienna to see the Habsburg's winter palace (this was the summer palace...no big deal...)

...don't worry - this is just the side of the palace...

Now, this is the front of the palace. There was also some kind of celebration going on for the people of Kurdistan in the front of the palace, hence all the green/red/white flags with yellow stars.

When we came out on the other side of the palace, there were horses and carriages lined up to take people on rides. If you know me at all, I was very tempted, but the price was way to steep and I didn't try to sweet talk any of the drivers. But it was a neat set up.

We walked a few blocks (at the end of the day we had over 15,000 steps in) and had dinner outside at a cute little Italian restaurant down a side alley. After a scrumptious dinner, we walked a little more to the Basilica and then headed back home. It was a long day, but a wonderful one!