Well Hello and welcome to day 2 of my Vienna Photo Diary. I you haven't read my Day 1 photo diary, I recommend heading over (here) and see what we got up to on day 1. I think you'll start seeing a bit of pattern with these post and that is that I love royal history so when Michael said that we could head just out of the city to Schönbrunn Palace, let's just say I was slightly over the moon. Keep reading to find out more about things to do at Schönbrunn Palace.
Schönbrunn Palace was original the imperial summer residence for the Austria Imperial Family and is located around about 10-15 minutes from the city centre (on the train system). It's the main tourist hotspot so we knew that this was going to be a full day activities so we went for around 11am and spent most of the day there. Along with the tour of the palace itself, the gardens of this palace are HUGE and I could have sat here all day and not moved.
The mass scale of this building is eye opening. I remember just standing with a opened mouth because I don't think I've ever seen anything this big in my life. We decided to do the Grand Tour which was €17,50 and this got you in to the state rooms and private apartments of the palace. Like the Hofburg in my last post (here) you were given a audio speaker to hear all about the history behind the palace. 
The tour can take around 40-50 minutes depending on how interested you are in Austria Imperial history you are. I took in everything, if you know me you will know that I'm a absolutely lover of royal history it doesn't depend on what royal family I'm just fascinated. The tour goes into detail about 40 rooms in the palace and fascinating stories spanning 3 centuries. We headed in the Palace Gardens and like when I first saw the palace, I was amazed by the size and beauty of surrounding I was standing in. We decided in the morning that we would buy lunch in the city and bring it with us to save a couple of euros. We found a little spot and sat and took in the views around us. I think getting to take in the garden was a favourite part of my day and I got to see a squirrel (easily pleased can you tell).
What we learnt after we got our tickets was that if we had bought the classic pass we could have done even more in the grounds of the palace including Crown Prince Garden, Maze & Labyrinth (a part I would have loved to do), The orangery garden and the Gloriette with the viewing terrace. I would definitely recommend getting the Classic pass (€24) instead of the Grand pass as you can get do a lot more within the ground.
We headed around to the Palm House and it reminded me of somewhere similar England with what the outside looking very Victorian and 18th century. Before looking further into the ground we decided to head up to the Gloriette, I was slightly gutted that we couldn't go up to the viewing terrace but the view from the Gloriette was stunning itself.
Here we just sat and took in the view and the beauty of our surroundings, how couldn't we.
The grounds has 32 sculptures and Roman Ruins dotted around including the Neptune Fountian and what was originally known as the Ruin of Carthage.
Roman ruins is not really what you really expect to see in the grounds but it was kind of like a treasure hunt to see how many sculptures and ruins you could find dotted around. You could feel the wealth that the Austria imperial had was known by the mass scale of everything they built.
I definitely think I left a small piece of my heart in Schronbrunn, it was everything I could have expected from a imperial palace, I felt like I was in a movie and was prancing around like a princess for most the day. This is definitely a tourist hot spot but if you go early and take lunch and search the grounds you can definitely get away from the large groups.
We left Schonbrunn around 3pm after spending a good 3 or 4 hours there. Michael had read online about a Ferris wheel that gave you great views of Vienna. We decided to head down straight from Schonbrunn rather then head back to the air bnb.
After a short trip on the train we ended up in Leopoldstadt and headed to the Prater to go on Weiner Reisenrad (€9). Tickets got you a little tour of the history of the Ferris wheel and on to the Ferris wheel.
The carriages can carry about 10 people and you get around 15 minutes inside. I have to say it's nothing like the London Eye and it does shake a bit but it is 120 years old it still gives you great views of Vienna. We had wanted ti di when it was getting dark but we learnt that it didn't get dark till around 10pm so settled with around 4pm.
That was day 2 of our little trip to Vienna and I have to say this day was definitely my favourite day. If you fancy being a princess for the day and if you love a bit of European history I would recommend spending as much time at Schohbrunn as possible. This day made me fall even more in love with Vienna. We had 1 more day left in Vienna, so keep an eye out for that post coming soon.
