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Danube Reflections Eastbound - Sep 6 - 17, 2018 Guests Forum
We are on the 9/6-17/18 Danube Reflections Eastbound. We're from Phoenix. Where are you coming from? Arriving day early and looking for restaurant recommendations. Thanks in advance for your info.
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We are on the late September tour out of Vienna. On our Day 3 we go to the Vienna Woods. How did you like that experience and how was the lunch and entertainment?
We did not have a bad meal during the whole trip and my scales reflect that. The lunch at the Winter Riding School and the dinner at Palais Pallavicini were particularly memorable.
Thanks for the info.
To each their own. I'm glad you were happy with your choice. We chose Schönbrunn and were happy with our choice. Schönbrunn is a little bit out from the city center, so not easily seen on your own (although the Hop On Hop Off buses go there). Schönbrunn is a mini Versailles with large, beautiful gardens. The guide for the palace tour was entertaining and informative. The is a fair amount of free time, so you can stroll through gardens. You can also visit the carriage museum, the small zoo, take a carriage ride around the grounds, or wander through the hedge maze (all of these have extra charges involved). The only negative is that the Schönbrunn is the most visited tourist sight in Vienna, so expect crowds.
We also went to the Prater park and rode the Vienna Giant Wheel (Wiener Riesenrad). This is oldest large ferris wheel still operating (1897 - 212 ft. tall). For many years it was the largest ferris wheel in the world. It was really fun and I recommend it for people who like that sort of thing. They also have special cars that are outfitted for meals or a formal tea, if you make advance reservations. Good views of Vienna. It's surrounded by an old fashioned amusement park. We had fun walking around and seeing the kids of Vienna at play. It is a long walk from the hotel, but you can take the U Bahn (Vienna's subway), if you prefer.
So much to see and do in Vienna. We had an extra day and still felt that we could have seen a lot more.
Sorry you missed Schönbrunn. At least it gives you a reason to visit on another tour. We'll probably go back to Vienna ourselves on a different tour in a few years.
Our one regret was that we didn't do Cerveny Kamen Castle in Bratislava. That sounded really good. We did the Bratislava "active" walking tour instead. While our local guide was great, I think we could have walked around on our own in the afternoon (we had copies of guidebook pages) and been satisfied that we had seen the old town.
One last thing. I'm not sure if I was clear in the previous post. We did the Ferris Wheel on our own time.
We made it up to the crest of the hill, but not to the Gloriette itself. It started to sprinkle and we rushed back down to avoid getting caught at the top (no umbrella or plastic bag for my camera that day - it wasn't supposed to rain). As it happens, it stopped raining as soon as we got to the bottom.
As to the view, it was good, but not so much of the city. Nice perspective on the palace and gardens, but the city is just a jumble of gray buildings and red tile roofs in the background with one church standing out (St. Steven's ?). You can't see it from below, but there is a second reflecting pool in front of the Gloriette. Makes for some nice shots of the Gloriette.
If you do an image search on "Gloriette" you'll find some shots that show the reflecting pool. A image search for "Schonbrunn Palace" will yield in the results some pictures from the top of the hill.
Wikipedia has a shot from the top of the hill here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schönbrunn_Palace#/media/File:Schloss_Schönbrunn_Wien_2014_(Zuschnitt_2).jpg
My wife and I were just at Schonbrunn in late May (2018). To say the crowds of tourists were overwhelming couldn't be stated strongly enough. If you don't like crowds, this isn't going to be fun for you. To characterize it as a mini Versailles is completely accurate - it's beautiful. My only disappointment was that you really don't see that much of the interior of the palace - which is admittedly HUGE.
The other consideration for touring the interior of the palace is the lack of air movement. As I previously wrote, my wife and I were there in May, with outside temps in the upper 80's and lower 90s F. I could see people on our tour who were just about to faint from the temps within the palace and the lack of air movement. If it's hot outside, you need to take this into consideration.
Back to the grounds... it's stunning.