Vienna, Schloss Schönbrunn

It has been a bit quiet on the blog, as I was busy first organizing and then traveling to Vienna and Bratislava. As Gaby won a two months internship at the IST Austria, it was only logical to choose Vienna for our next self-organized trip to an European city. We spent four full days in Vienna - the weekend with Gaby at her place, so that we could go around together more easily and spent some time with her and then on Monday we moved to an airbnb flat right at the heart of the city for our next two days.

For 10th year running Vienna has been ranked the best city to live in the world and I couldn't agree more. I'm in love with this city! It's beautiful, the public transport is excellent and easy to use, there are plenty of exquisite parks and gardens to roam through, shops and stores, places to eat and drink, everything is made easy and comfortable for the locals and the guests of the city. The people are very friendly, open and polite, there was something very positive and joyful in the very air of the city, despite the swarms of tourists everywhere.

As we are hikers, we love to walk and for our five days abroad (four in Vienna and one in Bratislava) we walked almost 100 km!, averaging about 20 km a day. To me this is the best way to get to know a city and to feel the atmosphere of the place.

I'm starting my visual story with our second day, which we spent with Gaby entirely at the Schonbrunn castle and its big and beautiful park.

:At the entrance of the castle

: The green areas to the right of the castle

: Around the greenhouse

:At the fountain

: The gardens in front of the castle are magnificent

: At the Gloriette - a pavilion, built on a hill facing the castle and providing an overview to the grounds and the city.

: The "Roman" ruins

: The layout of the castle. We took the audio guided imperial tour of the main 22 rooms of the castle - it was interesting and informative and quite worth it.

Cesky Krumlov and Hluboka Castle

Almost a month after we returned from our journey to the Check Republic I'm finally finding the time to go through the hundreds (thousands?) of pictures we took there and select a few for the blog. One of the most interesting days of our trip was the excursion to Cesky Krumlov - a medieval fortress and town to the south, near the border with Austria and to Hluboka castle, one of the most beautiful castles in the country.
The thing I like most about organized journeys is that one not only goes around sightseeing, but due to the lectures of the professional guides one gets to experience personally the geography and the history of the place.
I loved Cesky Krumlov - the castle, the towers, the narrow cobbled streets and the beautiful houses. We were in luck - there was a medieval festival held in the central square of the town and we were able to look at (and buy) articles of artisan crafts and taste traditional meals, sweets and of course, beer. You haven't been to the Check republic if you haven't drank lots of local beer :))

After visiting Krumlov, we traveled to Hluboka castle - a Gothic castle, built in the 13th century, later extended and reconstructed throughout the centuries into Renaissance and Baroque styles. It's truly magnificent and worth visiting.

Linderhof Castle, Germany

This is perhaps my most favourite castle of all - it's very heavily ornate in neo-Rococo style that nowadays would be considered kitsch, but correlated to its time it is stunning and exquisite. It is also the only one of Ludwig II's castles, that was actually finished.

The grounds of the castle - lush green grass and 

of course a pond with swans (which Gaby fed with grass :)

 The hunting lodge

The tunnel which leads to the cave of Venus

Venus Grotto - an artificial cave with a golden boat, stalagmites, stalactites and even
a waterfall. It was inspired by the story about Tannhäuser and Wagner's opera

The Moroccan House

The Moorish Pavilion

The view from the top alcove

The two gardens on the sides of the castle

The Venus Temple

A few snaps of the postcards showing the inside of the castle:

The bed chamber with crystal candelabra

 The music room with tapestries

 The hall of mirrors

 The dining room with another self-serving table as in Herrenchiemsee

 The audience hall

 The tapestry room

 Venus Grotto

Inside the Moroccan House