I decided to spend all of today in Schönbrunn, where I went early in the morning from the Swedenplatz metro station. Nine stops along the green branch U4, and now I am already in one of the most beautiful palace and park ensembles in Europe - the summer residence of the Habsburgs.
Monday morning is a wonderful time to visit this popular attraction of the Austrian capital. There were five people in line, and after fifteen minutes I (on time on a ticket) went on a tour of the palace. It is forbidden to take pictures there, and, as a law-abiding tourist, I clenched my teeth and delved into the descriptions coming from the audio guide. The overall impression of the tour is very positive - beautiful and informative. In addition to the large "Versailles" gallery, for some reason I was especially impressed by the mirror hall, where little Mozart performed for the first time.
Suddenly she realized that it was here that a little boy once stood, and the yard first heard his ingenious game ... Strange, in Salzburg this did not touch me at all, but in Schönbrunn it suddenly covered ...
After the palace, I walked a bit along the next rose gardens and went through the park towards the oldest zoo in the world.
I am not a big specialist in zoos, but I was lucky to visit some very famous and large ones. I went to this zoo for a very specific purpose - to see a panda, an orangutan, a koala and a polar bear swimming underwater. I thought I could meet two hours, but it wasn’t there. Firstly, on the way all the time I came across either penguins or capybaras, and secondly, all the animals from my list were clearly not waiting for me. The sleeping big panda was a huge wool ball, the bear did not dive, only ears protruded from the koala, and the cage with orangutans seemed completely empty. Hippos helped out. They posed, dived and staged water battles. It was a lot of fun!
After the hippos, I finally saw a swimming bear and funny penguins ... a koala, a large panda and her two cubs were soundly sleeping ... I went to look for an orangutary.
Beyond the elephants, the old pavilions dating back to the time of Maria Theresa, and the pavilion with birds, I gradually reached the orangutarium, where the orangutans should have happily met me ... but apart from the empty cage, I saw no one.
The time was approaching at noon, and the temperature was at 32. It was time to drink ice coffee.
After the cafe, I decided to try my luck again, and, lo and behold! nevertheless, a big red-haired and very pretty orangutan came to me. He sat, read the book "Vienna Zoo", gathered all four bell peppers in four paws and left!
It was time to visit the koala and panda. Scrolling past the cages with giraffes (for some reason, they were also not visible, although it is not clear where the huge giraffe could hide), I again saw the ears of the koala, but the big panda woke up and decided to eat the reed !!! It is a pity that all this action was happening behind the glare.
The plan for visiting the zoo was 75% complete, but I could no longer wait for the koala to wake up.
After the zoo, I looked into the old greenhouses and the desert pavilion (although I could not have done it calmly), waited for the Panoramic train and, dying from the heat, went to Glorietta to look at the palace from the highest point of the park.
After Glorietta, on the same train, I returned to the palace building and hurried to the Residenz cafe-restaurant for the strudel show ... If the big panda woke up 15 minutes earlier, I would definitely have time there! I had to be content with the photo of the cooks and go to a restaurant to drink another ice coffee with a dessert of unprecedented beauty.
Having cooled to an acceptable temperature, I decided to take a walk around the park a little more - wandered through the maze, examined the Neptune Fountain and walked past beautiful statues, fountains and trees to the exit and metro. Unfortunately, the memory in the phone was already full, so the last hour of the walk was almost without photos ...