Vienna (Wien)

Today I had decided to go to Schönbrunn Palace, and if I had time maybe I'd go to Vienna Prater to check out the Riesenrad (Giant Ferris Wheel) which was in the movie "The Third Man". I'd also been told that Madonna was in town, and the person I was staying with was working at the show. Since it was open air, I could attempt to watch for free from a distance.

I never made it to Vienna Prater because Schönbrunn Palace was quite large and took the entire day.

Before going there, I'd decided I wanted to see the inside of Stephansdom at Stephansplatz. It was a quick trip and I'm glad I went. I played around with the settings, so the lighting in some of these will be very strange. All effects were done with my camera.



And then I took a train and a bus to Schönbrunn. The train usually stops near the palace but they had construction and that stop was closed.



It was very pretty there, inside and out. The gardens were also very extensive with a nearby Zoo. I didn't visit the Zoo, however I did take the Grand Tour of the Palace. Unfortunately pictures weren't allowed on the tour..it was extremely beautiful in there.

So here is the front of the building before entering to buy a ticket.



Going out to the gardens in the back was free. Initially I went out, snapped a few photos, and then went back in to do the tour before fully exploring the rest of the outdoors. Since I couldn't take pictures inside, these pictures are only of the gardens unfortunately. They were still quite beautiful.



More pictures of the back of the palace.



Rundbassin (Round Pool) with Obeliskbrunnen (Obelisk Fountain) in the background, and then a closeup of Obeliskbrunnen.



A view down a path.



Gloriette



The pool before Gloriette with Schönbrunn Palace in the distance, and a closer view of the palace.



Pictures taken from behind the Neptunbrunnen (Neptune Fountain) and of the pool of water in front of the fountain, both facing the palace.



And one last picture of the back of the palace.



Before heading out, I stopped at the cafe and had one of the best sandwiches I've ever eaten. Must've been the bread and the cheese (though I don't eat cheese normally).



I left the palace and took the bus back to the train station. I'd remembered someone telling me to stop at the Spittelau stop because there was an interesting building there.

Here is the Fernwärmewerks Spittelau (District Heating Plant Spittelau) which was designed by Friedensreich Hundertwasser. Unfortunately it was getting dark by then and I didn't want to walk too far from the station since I was getting back on the train soon.



I wasn't sure what to do at this point, so I texted the person I was staying with asking where the Madonna concert was. While waiting for a response, I took a train to a stop that seemed like it'd be fun. There wasn't much there though, so I didn't feel comfortable sticking around for long. I walked around, and then walked back and took a picture of Karlskirche (St. Charles Church) which was right near the station.



In the meantime I received the text, so headed to the open air concert. These didn't come out wonderfully, but here are the pictures I took of Madonna's concert.



I decided to go one train stop up because it looked closer to the concert. I was right. When the concert was nearing it's end, they opened the gates, I arrived just at that time so I walked right through and tried to make my way to the front. I got relatively close, so I lifted my camera up and took a picture just as the music was coming to an end.



I looked at the camera and realized it was the last song when I saw "GAME OVER".

I took one more picture of some of the crowd before attempting to get out of there.



The trains were packed getting home, but I made it at least..