One of our days in Vienna was just spent by me and the kids, as Eric was in Mattersburg to coach Day 2 of 4 days of basketball camp.
With a day in one of my favourite cities with my favourite people, a visit to Schönbrun and the amazing zoo in the gardens was high on my list.
The kids and I took the U-bahn to the palace and walked towards the zoo through the beautiful gardens.
It is pretty impressive, since the gardens and grounds are all free to access (just like Versailles and very much unlike the castle at Ludwigsburg) and spectacular.
We wandered over to the Tiergarten, but made lots of stops along the way.
Believe it or not, this was our BEST selfie attempt. There were worse.
The weather wasn't supposed to be great, but the clouds mostly stayed away and there wasn't any rain...so in many ways, it was perfect wander weather.
We finally made it to the zoo and our first stop: some sort of antelope or something...okay, the zoo does a pretty good job of throwing in some English, but it isn't quite the same as a zoo in the States or Canada for education purposes...
But seeing animals is fun in any language. And my kids are happy to sit on any animal statue in any country. How many pictures do I have of them doing this???
Falling off the stationary statue...?
The layout of the zoo was really interesting...there is an older section that is very conventional and organized around a wheel. But the rest of the park is really freeform and you can wander through it and discover small paths and secret corners. There was an awesome rainforest building with a bat cave you walk through with live bats inside flying around you. No barriers. Not my fave, but an experience...
There was a bat trapped in the little entry area of the bat cave and it freaked us all out. We were standing at the entrance trying to get courage to go inside when a lady walked up behind us. We tried to explain to here about the bat, but she totally dismissed us and then put her fingers to her lips and told us to "shhhhhh". Okay, lady.
She walked in, all smug. We stood outside and waited. Within a couple of seconds there was screaming. Loud screaming. And she came back out. I looked at her and put my finger to my lips and said, "shhhhhh". We laughed pretty hard. For the rest of the day.
There was a raised walkway through the forest...
...with gorgeous views over the city.
We ended up in the top of the park, where there's a Tirolean village with traditional buildings you can enter and tour.
The buildings were spectacular. In the downstairs, they had a little store with specialties from Tirol. I made the kids try a sheep's cheese...then I tried the sheep's cheese. I was very proud of the kids gentle and complimentary reaction to the woman offering the sample...because that cheese was DISGUSTING. They even tried "sour milk" (buttermilk, I think)...even the name would be enough to turn me off that.
More things to ride.
Riding a bee...
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| Above the penguin pool |
Molly was the only one brave enough to enter the bird cage...
Molly blowing kisses to the elephants...
Unlike a North American zoo with a random building with a dingy cafe (okay, maybe that's a little harsh), the main cafe in this zoo has a little more sophistication....
Flamingos!
We stopped by another cafe and I had the delicious white wine spritzer in the foreground the kids had their new favourite drinks, raspberry syrup with sparkling water.
Lukey in the panda house with the delicious pretzels we got.
Riding hippos...
They had a display that showed the size of the cage they kept the lions in in the olden days...and to demonstrate the nasty temperament the lion would have had, the kids are showing themselves being attacked. Lukey is especially believable, with his calf trapped in the lion's jaws.
As always, Finny's got a special sensitivity to zoo odours...
And...riding the gorillas...
A wandering peacock...
Back in the gardens of the palace, Molly stands guard.
For some reason, Finny and Lukey decided to pretend to be blind (!) on the busy streets walking home...
A quick schnitzel dinner and some ice cream to finish before walking home to Luki's place to watch some soccer. We caught the end of the exciting Croatia vs. Czech game while we ate dinner. The EuroCup has been a really fun element of our trip...something fun to look forward to each night.
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