Eastern Europe in 10 Days Itinerary (Day 1): Vienna, Austria
I love autumn season and it is kinda sad that there is no autumn in South East Asian region. But then again, autumn comes with winter and I don't really like winter so yeah, I suppose if this is how the weather is meant to be for SEA region, then so be it. Hahaha. But one best thing about autumn is that the weather is no longer as hot as summer and yet, not as freezing as winter. Plus the leaves of the trees turn into beautiful yellow/ red before falling to the ground. This imagination of beautiful scenery made me signing up for the tour with Avia to Eastern Europe. The tour covered several countries such as Austria, Slovakia, Budapest, Czech Republic, Poland and Germany in 10 days for the price of IDR 20mil (USD 1,475).
I took the Qatar Airways to reach our first destination, Vienna. The flight from Jakarta to Doha was around 8+ hours and the flight from Doha to Vienna was around 5+ hours. Hamad International Airport in Doha is pretty nice airport to spend time to stretch and relieve butt from soreness after 8+ hours flight. It has a lot of duty free stores ranging from drugstore, chocolate and sweets stores, branded stuff and also, Harrods. Food court and restaurants are available too in the airport if you'd like to have a meal.
I took the Qatar Airways to reach our first destination, Vienna. The flight from Jakarta to Doha was around 8+ hours and the flight from Doha to Vienna was around 5+ hours. Hamad International Airport in Doha is pretty nice airport to spend time to stretch and relieve butt from soreness after 8+ hours flight. It has a lot of duty free stores ranging from drugstore, chocolate and sweets stores, branded stuff and also, Harrods. Food court and restaurants are available too in the airport if you'd like to have a meal.
5+ hours later, we finally arrived at Vienna International Airport. While waiting for our local tour guide, my cousins and I were looking around our surrounding to check out the arrival terminal of the airport. There are liquor store, patisseries store and drugstore. Machines selling train tickets to city are also available at the airport but since we were gonna travel around Europe by bus, we did not check the train at all.
Once the tour guide has arrived, we quickly boarded the bus which immediately brought us to the first destination in our itinerary. We arrived in Vienna in the morning around 9 to 10AM so the tour started immediately the moment we landed in this country. While I don't mind starting the tour immediately, it's kinda difficult to look fresh in the picture when you don't have enough sleep (I can't sleep well in the plane). But, anyway, that's part of adventure situation and it's kinda fun to go through that situation sometimes.
Our first destination is the former imperial summer residence in Austria, Schonbrunn Palace. The palace has been a very popular tourist attraction since 1960s. I believe this fact immediately because there were so many tourists around when we reached the palace ground around 10AM. The palace is so huge and it consists of not only the palace building itself but also the Gloriette, the Sisi Museum, Maze, Privy Garden, Orangery Garden, and Children's Museum. Admission and ticket depends on how extensive you want your visit to Schonbrunn Palace be.
The history of Schonbrunn Palace originated way back to the Middle Ages, from 14th century to be exact. The estate has been handed down from one lessee to another until finally, it was chosen as hunting headquarter by Emperor Ferdinand II and his wife, Eleonora von Gonzaga, who is apparently also keen of hunting just like her husband. The wife was the one who eventually changed the name of the estate to Schonbrunn after the death of her husband.
The palace was not spared from the Turkish invasion and after the war is over, restoration and construction works began to be performed on the palace. Once the palace's audience rooms and residential suites are renovated, Schonbrunn Palace was ready for occupation for the Roman-German Emperor, Franz Stephan and his wife, Maria Theresa.
The current state of the palace and the decoration/ architecture inside the rooms in the palace is actually the work instructed by Maria Theresa. After the sudden death of her husband, Maria Theresa instructed a new phase of refurbishment and reconstruction in the building. This includes the conversion of her husband's study in the East Wing to a memorial room which is fitted with precious Chinese lacquer panels, costly wooden panelling into which paintings by renowned artists were set and magnificent furnitures. The last projects initiated by Maria Theresa were actually happening outside the palace in the gardens which includes the construction of the Gloriette, the Neptune Fountain, the Roman Ruin and the Obelisk Fountain.
The history actually does not stop at Maria Theresa's lifetime and there were many construction works going on until the reign of Franz Joseph. But it was too long for a blog post to cover. Photography is not allowed inside the palace and hence, I suppose the palace is really worth the visit (no other way to see what's inside the palace after all).
Schonbrunn Palace's admission fee:
A single ticket for admission to 3 attractions* - EUR 29.90 (1 hour)
A single ticket for admission to 5 attractions** - EUR 24 (3 - 4 hours)
*3 attractions: Schonbrunn Palace, Imperial Furniture Collection, Vienna Hofburg
**5 attractions: Schonbrunn Palace, Privy Garden, Orangery Garden, Maze and Gloriette
For other type of tickets (e.g. Combined Tickets/ Family Tickets), you can check for further details at their website. You can also pre-book online tickets.
Schonbrunn Palace's opening hours:
1st April - 30th June: 8AM - 5.30PM
1st July - 31st August: 8AM - 6.30PM
1st September - 5th November: 8AM - 5.30PM
1st November - 30th March: 8AM - 5PM
Ticket sale starts at 8AM
Entrance to exhibit area at 8AM
