Austrian culture – NO time for boredom today

The only unfortunate part of my visit was that the palace is getting the site ready for the annual Christmas markets so the front area looked like it was partially under construction. That said, this is an amazing place to visit. My husband and I were totally enchanted. We have both visited many palaces, including Versailles, Buckingham and Windsor, this one really excited both of us.

The name of the palace translates to beautiful spring. Its location was chosen for access to fresh water when there were health concerns about the water near the winter palace. Both the location and look of the palace are impressive. This was the Habsburgs summer palace. When it was originally built, the location was in the remote countryside away from the city of Vienna and winter palace. Over the years, Vienna has expanded and the palace is in the city.

The Schonbrunn is Austria’s number one tourist destination and I understand why. It has something for everyone. It is popular with both Austrians and foreign visitors.

The palace itself is huge. In its heyday, it accommodated over 2,000 people. The royal apartment rooms are impressive. The palace even has the bed where Empress Maria Theresa delivered all of her 16 children. The Empress Elizabeth, known as Sisi, lived there, too. Lately, between recent books and the mini series about Sisi, there is a renewed interest in the Hapsburg dynasty.

Interestingly, the Austrian government actually rents out some of the apartments to people. Our tour guide knows someone who rents one of the apartments. In addition, we spotted a bride and groom with a photographer taking their wedding photos. As we were wrapping up our visit, people were getting one of the larger reception rooms ready for a music concert.

In addition to the extensive gardens, there is even a zoo on the palace grounds that dates back to 1752 and is the world’s oldest.

We spent several hours at the palace and were able to see everything we wanted to. The only thing we missed was enjoying coffee and cake at the cafe on site.

I just attended my first Viking River cruise cooking demonstration. The chef and his assistant chef taught us to make apple strudel from scratch! Based on what I saw, I think I can do this at home.

Naturally, the staff served us Mozart coffee while we waited for the demonstration to begin.

The two big takeaways from our chef:

Use vinegar when combining the dry ingredients to make the dough elastic.
Place a cloth towel underneath the dough to keep it from sticking to the counter or other surface.

The best part was enjoying freshly baked apple strudel which the staff served with a delicious vanilla sauce.