I spent a whole day on the immense grounds of the Hofburg Palace. The Habsburgs were all about the absurd opulence -- recall their treasury from the last post. Accordingly, the palace grounds are pretty spectacular.
Some sort of ornamental sculptural building thing. Who knows. This is what happens when you have emperors with more money than they know what to do with.
Enormous fountain sculpture, with ducks.
The palace itself, with ornamental rose garden. (I should emphasize that this shows maybe 5% of the castle grounds. Really, they were immense. Multiple orchards, huge green areas, jogging trails.)
For a small admission, you could wander through a selection of labyrinths (some featuring mathematical puzzles, no less). Children's admissions in Vienna go up through age 19, so I got to have some fun dialogues when I bought my tickets.
[In German:]
Clerk: What can I do for you?
Me [offering credit card]: One children's ticket, please.
Clerk [bewildered]: Sorry, what?
Me: One children's ticket.
Clerk [incredulous]: How old are you?
Me: Eighteen.
Clerk [skeptical]: ID, please?
Me [handing him my passport]: Here you are.
Clerk [reluctantly]: Huh. One children's ticket. Here you are.
[Repeat every time I bought a ticket to anything.]
If you made it to the center of the hedge maze, there was a treehouse from which you could see the whole labyrinth. And take pictures, of course.
Another hedge maze had various traps (e.g., weight-sensitive stepping stones that squirted water at you when you stood on them), and a set of mirrors in the middle.
Which, of course, made for something of a maze of their own.
There was also a playground, with various cool equipment. My favorite was an enormous Habsburg eagle: you could climb a rope ladder to get inside, and it would move its wings if you bounced it. (I managed to refrain from trying this myself. Barely.)
I'm sure Maeve and Bibi will be delighted to hear that there was in fact a doocot. Although I don't think they call them that in Austria.
I stopped by the grocery store for lunch. They were selling Christmas chocolates, for both good and bad children. I approve of this custom.
Lunch in the rose gardens.
The last stop for the day was the marionette museum. They display the marionettes that they use to perform operas, and show videos of how they're made. I really wanted to stay to see the marionette production of the Magic Flute, but unfortunately that would have kept me after the last train left to Budapest. Which would have been bad.
A marionette together with its concept sketch and partially-sewn outfits, showing the design process.
I managed to catch the last train home, with help reading the timetable from a young man who turned out to be a railroad engineer. He spent most of the three-hour trip home explaining errors he'd found in the timetable, problems with the ticket machines, and how the couplings between the train cars work. Apparently his version of a fall vacation is to take trains across Europe, not to see cities like Vienna and Budapest, but to see the trains and train stations. I've never seen someone quite so enthusiastic about trains; it was great. The people you meet, I guess.
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