Vienna Day 2- Schonbrunn Palace, Imperial Furniute Collection, Hofburg Palace

We woke up early to take the Ubahn (Vienna's metro system) to Schonbrunn Palace, as it opens at 8:30AM. We had bought the Sisi tickets online, which allows entrance to Schonbrunn, the Imperial Furniture Collection, and the Hofburg Palace on the same day for 22.5 euros each. The Ubahn is pretty funny~ we bought the tickets for 1.8 euros each and validated them on the machine next to the ticket booth. There is no barcode on the ticket, no attendant on duty, and NO GATES to enter the metro! The whole system is based on the honor system! ...which would never work in America or China!
The Schonbrunn Palace started as a hunting lodge for the Imperial family and eventually became their summer residence. Our ticket included an excellent audioguide that took us through 40 of their apartments.


The most famous Imperial couple in Austria was Emperor Franz Joseph and his beloved wife, a Bavarian princess and his 1st cousin on his mother's side, Elisabeth, nicknamed "Sisi." She was famed for her beauty. 15-year-old Sisi had traveled to the Viennese court with her mother and sister from their family seat in Munich. Her mother and Franz Joseph's mother were sisters and wanted Franz Joseph to marry Sisi's sister. But when Franz Joseph first met Sisi, he fell head-over-heels and promptly proposed. When Sisi's mother told her of the proposal, she burst into tears and said that she was fond of the young emperor, but if only he wasn't the emperor, which suggests her preference for an unencumbered lifestyle. Based on the audioguide and looking at Franz Joseph's suites, he was a frugal emperor who called himself "the 1st public servant of the empire." He woke at 3:30AM every day and saw over 100 visitors every morning, from peasants to illustrious diplomats. No one was beneath his notice and he never forgot a name. He worked day to night, taking breakfast and lunch at his work desk, much like Napoleon. His study was surrounded with paintings of his beloved Sisi, as well as many photographs and paintings of his daughters, son, and grandchildren.
His wife, on the other hand, spent 2-3 hours a day maintaining her famed ankle-length hair, a couple hours working out (which was frowned upon at the time for women) and getting massaged to maintain her trim figure. She was 5'8" and weighed herself daily, usually 98-103 pounds. The scale dictated how much she would eat for the rest of the day. She was purported to regularly drink raw meat juice (raw meat pressed in a juice extractor), drank lots of dairy, put raw meat on her face & tried numerous beauty recipes, many of which are commonplace today, like rose. It took a whole day to wash her hair, and she washed it with a mixture of egg yolks and cognac. I want to try that when I get home ^.^ Hide the VSOP guys!
Sisi was assassinated when she was 60 by an Italian anarchist. Luigi Lucheni originally traveled to Geneva to assassinate a prince from the Orleans line, but the prince changed his traveling plans at the last minute. Lucheni was delighted to hear a much bigger target was in the city (Angel's words: "He found he had bigger fish to fry"). Sisi was in Geneva visiting the Baroness Rothschild, and after a stop to her favorite pastry shop, she was on her way to boarding the ship home to Vienna, when Lucheni ran by her and stabbed her with a file (which is displayed at the Sisi museum in Hofburg). Sisi was knocked down, but she got up, dazed, thinking he was only a robber. It wasn't until she boarded the ship that she collapsed. She was immediately transported back to the hotel for treatment, but when they opened her corset, all her blood was let out. She died at the hotel. When Franz Joseph learned of her death in Vienna, he said, "You do not know how much I loved this woman." Because of her tragic death, she became more of a legend and myth, much like Princess Diana. Franz Joseph became even more liked as an emperor, as Austrians took pity on his blows of fate. His only son and designated heir, Rudolph, had shot himself and his 17-year-old mistress a year before Sisi was stabbed. His brother, Emperor Maximillian of Mexico, was captured and executed by a firing squad by the Mexico revolutionaries.
The gardens of Schonbrunn:

Opposite the Schonbrunn is a 'small' building that is part of the estate. The climb is pretty steep and it goes up diagonally instead of directly so it was a pretty looooong climb! Especially when we had a tight schedule to stick to!

But we made it and the view is gorgeous! You can see all of Vienna from up here.

We walked from Schonbrunn to the Imperial Furniture Collection Museum via Mariahilferstrasse. This is one of Vienna's biggest shopping streets, and also where many Billa supermarkets are located. There's practically one on every corner!
The most famous confection to come out of Austria in recent years is the MozartKugeln, which has 4 layers of praline, pistachio, nougat creme, and chocolate.

I had bought Angel some before when I was flying overseas and she loved it, so we bought some... well, a LOT. She's going thru them like Ferrero Rochers (see her holding an OPENED one and yet another one on her other hand? Greedy!)! On the other hand, Jen polished off an entire bag of milk and hazelnut candies by herself, so who's the heifer now? =P
The Furniture Collection houses much of the traveling furniture for the Imperial Court.

It used to be the norm that retreats and summer houses were not furnished until the owner decided to go there, and once the decision was made, preparations are made to move all the furniture there before the owner arrives. Extensive preparations had to be made, as there was a whole procession of carriages to transport Imperial silverware, furniture, etc. for the usual 1000 guests of the Court. For the coronation of Emperor Franz Joseph and Sisi to the Hungarian throne, it took 1 year to prepare and transport everything to Hungary!
The throne room:

This is the famous painting of Sisi, with her now famous signature crystal stars in her hair:

This is the bed where Rudolph, Franz Joseph's heir and only son, shot his 17-year-old mistress and then himself. The description read that he 'found someone willing to die with him.' He was subjected to a stern upbringing when he was a child, and it was only when Sisi argued for her right to personally raise him that he received a less strict upbringing. Rudolph disagreed with many of his father's policies.

This is a copy, as the original is in the Hofburg palace. We later learned that photography in the Hofburg is verboten! Lucky I took this shot! We had to rush and cut our visit short here ;( because Hofburg closes at 5:30PM. I would have loved another hour or two here!
Hofburg Palace was the official Imperial Palace.

The silverware collection at Hofburg is amazing, even though much of their original precious metal collection was melted down for currency during the war against France.


There were many formalities to court life, and this is one of the more obnoxious ones. The napkin had to be folded just so, so that a different bread could go on each side in the holes. The secret to this technique is only entrusted to 2 people, and the technique is guarded closely and handed down generation to generation. Think of how long those 2 people would take to fold napkins for a banquet of 1000!

Hofburg also houses the Sisi Museum, which is devoted to Sisi's life, emotions, and passions.
She complained bitterly about her marriage and how restrained she felt by Viennese court life, becoming increasingly melancholic as the years went by. She engaged more and more in dangerous activities, almost as if she was seeking death, or trying to experiment with her own boundaries. Angel and I agree that Sisi seems like a pouty spoiled child, after consenting to marry the emperor, was always discontent with what she had and neglected her children and her role as Empress. For heaven's sake, the Emperor had to ring a doorbell in order to be admitted into her chamber! Austrians criticized her as 'peculiar' when she was alive, but because of her tragic death and the Austrian movie trilogy, she has been immortalized as a beloved beautiful creature.
We went to Julius Meinl, a gourmet food store, where we bought this Viennese pastry

A BIG hunk of bread hunh? It is stuffed with poppyseed paste, almond paste and marzipan. It's really delicious! Although it could use more marzipan, and the poppyseed paste could be a little sweeter... So that's where Austrians get their opium fix from!
Dinner was cold cuts of meat, courtesy of TrenItalia, along with leftovers of Figlmuller. We bought a cheese with herb seasoning that had won an award at the 2010 World Cheese Championships. We melted pretty much the whole slab of cheese onto the leftovers.

Yum!