What an absolutely wonderful crazy day! Last night we decided that we wanted to go to Schönbrunn Palace today. For those of you that don't know, the most famous period for the Schönbrunn Palace was when it used to be the palace for Franz Joseph, the longest-reigning emperor in Austria. The Austrians absolutely adore Franz Joseph for the way he led and just for who was. He was also married to the famous Empress Elizabeth (Sissi). They had 16 kids, but only 11 made it to adulthood.
We had the opportunity to walk through some of the palace and listen to an audio guided tour about each room that we visited. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed but I was able to get some a picture or two off of Google Images so you could see. All of the rooms are absolutely beautiful, it was so cool to be able to walk in the same house that so many famous people had walked in, such as: Franz Joseph, Mozart, and JFK. They have done an incredible job at making the palace come to life for the people that visit it today. You can feel the love that Austria had for the Emperor and respect they have for his life.
One thing that really surprised me was how hard being emperor was. He lost his wife and most of his kids to murder, and had to deal with eventually losing most of his family. Elizabeth, his wife, was so obsessed with beauty that she would hardly join the family for dinner because she didn't want to eat to maintain her figure. Between the murders and self starvation, I think I'll take my house in Rexburg and a slice of cake instead of becoming an empress. But overall, it was an incredible experience!
There was a zoo on the grounds of the Palace, it's called Tiergarten Schönbrunn (or translated: Schönbrunn Zoo). It's not only the oldest zoo in Europe, but it's the oldest zoo in the world! It opened in 1752 and the property is over 42,000 acres (yes, my feet hurt). We decided that we definitely wanted to go eventually, and since we were already here we might as well!
It was the most incredible zoo I have ever been to, and definitely one of the biggest. It had all sorts of animals from reindeers to pandas to mongoose to waterbufflo to cows. And don't worry... they had bees as well... Just in case we don't see enough bees normally. But in all seriousness, the animals were incredible. They had different kinds of habitats for each of the animals and some of them you walked right into their habitat!
For example, they had a rainforest that you got to walk/climb through and they had sorts of creatures in there. The craziest one earned the title for this post. We went down this one way path and found this sign informing us about bats. In front of us was a walkway that was covered in black ropes and black plastic sheeting with another sign telling us to "Please be quiet" in German. I turned to my two friends and said, "This isn't a legit bat cave is it?" We decided to let the family behind us go first. (Because we're kind like that... we wanted to make sure that they would live to know that we would). A younger boy in the group gave a few terrified noises but eventually went inside. So we decided that it was probably safe. As Lizzy moved some ropes aside, a squeaking bat came flying towards her. She let out a quick scream as she dropped the ropes as fast as she could. We all looked at each other for a moment, and realized that it was ... in fact... a LEGIT bat cave.
I decided that since we had come here might as well just do it. I ducked my head as much as I could and went inside. I honestly don't know how much I can tell you about what it looked like because between the hand waving around my head and frantically looking for the exit, I didn't stay in there very long. But I will say that there were DOZENS of bats freely flying around in this cave. Multiple of them hit me in the head as I made my way to the exit. It was an insane experience, but I knew that no zoo in the USA would probably ever attempt that, so it definitely made for an awesome memory.
It was probably the classiest zoo I've been to just because of the food. They had amazing food options! We ended up getting more of american meals, but they were definitely done better because of the delicious Austrian meat. I got sausage wrapped in bacon (heart attack anyone?) But I'm not even sorry, because it was so good!
We ended up being in the zoo for about three hours then we made our way back to the underground. We got some ice cream at a dessert cafe in Karlsplatz and then called it a day.
Even though my feet hurt, I'm exhausted, and I got attacked by bats today, I have loved today. Thankfully, we get to have the Sabbath tomorrow and get to go to church and feel even more at home tomorrow. :)
Auf Wiedersehen!
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