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| Picture by Kolohe |
I had planned to spend a quiet summer at home this year, but Kolohe and the two granddaughters convinced me I needed to join them on one of their wild and crazy adventures.
After leaving Las Vegas, the first stop was Paris Charles de Gaulle International Airport in France, then, after loading up on some pastries, it was on to Vienna, Austria, where we crashed in our hotel room from lack of sleep.
Since Sophia was in the Philippines and Ashley was in Spain, they decided to meet Kolohe and me in Athens later in the week.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| (Arrival - East Entrance) |
From our hotel in Vienna, to reach the U-Bahn, we had to walk past the Stadtgartendirektion (City Garden Office) each day. It was a beautiful building with decorative lawn ornaments next to the sidewalk. According to a sign on the front lawn, the building was constructed in 1907, but no other information was available about the house or the property.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
U-Bahn is the city's rapid transit (subway) system, operated by Wiener Linien. It connects almost every major attraction, neighborhood, and transport hub. There are 5 lines with 84 km (52 miles) of track and 109 stations. Ridership is over 400 million passengers annually. It was very user-friendly, and we had no problems changing lines and finding our way around Vienna.
Our first visit was Schonbrunn Palace because it opened the earliest in the morning. The ticket office was still closed when we arrived, so we found a side gate that was open and went in and photographed the front of the main building before the tourists started arriving.
Schonbrunn Palace and Gardens became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Located in the central foyer are two bronze statues commissioned for Prince Eugene of Savoy between 1714 and 1724. The statues were for the winter palace and are actually hot-air stoves titled Hercules Fighting the Dragon of Hesperides and Hercules Slaying the Nemean Lion. The statues have openings at the backs of their plinths through which cold air flowed into the hollow figures, emerging as hot air from the gaping mouths of the lion and dragon.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
Schonbrunn Palace is the Habsburgs' summer residence and one of Austria's most treasured historical and cultural attractions. The Palace features more than 1.400 rooms with lavish Baroque architecture, so we took the shorter tour.
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| Picture by Kolohe |
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| Picture by Kolohe |
