Our last full day in Vienna has crept up on us. I think we’ve managed to fit in quite a lot but there are still a few things I wanted to see and do so we set off nice and early to get to the Spanish Riding School. This Viennese institution began in 1562 when the first Lipizzaner stallions were imported from Iberia. The horses are born dark but turn snow white at around four years of age and this is when their training begins. They train for 6-7 years before they even perform the intricate equine ballet that they’re famous for. Unfortunately there weren’t any performance on during our trip but we decided to watch the morning exercises anyway. Every thirty minutes a new group of horses come in with their riders and exercise. They don’t do anything too strenuous but you can still see the impressive footwork. For anyone wanting to come see the exercise I would say arrive at around 11am, an hour after they begin the exercises, by then most people have gotten bored and more seats are available. I’m glad we went and it was definitely memorable but if you’re after a full on performance I wouldn’t bother. I’m not sure Rory was enthralled by the performance, about ten minutes in he asked me “when do they start jumping and fighting?”. I don’t think he quite understands the idea of equine ballet...
From here we headed to the Naschmarkt, Viennas most popular market. I thought it would be an assortment of stalls and small vendors but it’s mainly permanent buildings, many of which are restaurants. We did my favourite investigation lap where we sussed out potential eateries and then on the second lap, the victory lap, we decided on a Thai restaurant. After ordering our mains we were given some complimentary sushi. Having never tried sushi before I though I’d be brave. Turns out there’s a reason why I haven’t tried raw fish wrapped up in rice. Rory assured me that it was delicious but I just couldn’t deal with the smell. Thankfully the main was much nicer and we even got some sort of sweet coconut milk dessert for free!
Despite the weather forecast indicating that today would be dull and raining it was absolutely baking. We had shed our coats minutes after leaving the apartment and we decided to finish the day with a trip to the Belevedere Palace and Gardens. Imagine our luck when we found the bus we needed to take from the main station, ready and waiting for us to hop on. Fast forward thirty minutes and several miles later and we finally realised that maybe this wasn’t the right bus... With sighs of discontent we got off the bus, caught another one back to the main station and then bumped in to a lovely Austrian lady who asked where we were going and insisted on taking us to the correct stop and putting us on the tram. Turns out that the palace was about thirty seconds away from the station!
Thankfully it was worth the hassle. Construction of the Baroque Palace began in 1717 and while Prince Eugene of Savoy commissioned it, it eventually became the home of Franz Ferdinand, not the band but the chap whose assassination kicked off the First World War. It was also one of the first public museums in the world but today it was just a nice place for Rory and I to enjoy the warm weather!
The rest of the day was very relaxed, including dinner which was a hot dog from a street vendor! Our last full day in Vienna was made even better by the beautiful weather and I know that I’ll come back, hopefully in the summer, preferably to the mountains, purely so I can run around like Maria Von Trapp!
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