Täglich Wiederkehrendes Abenteuer

By now you’ve read Vienna (Day 1), right? Well, you better have!

We started the morning trying to decide on breakfast. We eventually just went to the store and grabbed a few things to munch on while we walked. Since we had barely scratched the surface of the palace grounds, we headed back over there. On the way, we went back through a park that we had gone through the night before. The light of day brings many things, line INSANE PLAYGROUND!!!!!

Seriously, this dang this is more like an obstacle course than a playground. It’s got a tightrope with handle and a bi-directional zip line.

In the middle of it all is a crow’s nest. The pole it’s on has notches to climb up, but then you need to swing out over the edge of it to get in; there’s no hole in the bottom.

On the other side of the path is a more normal playground, including a variation of the sand crane on the Viking ship playground here in Linz.

After we made our way through the park, we finally got to the palace. Well, we had a few roads to cross. There was a bit of waiting.

Then we got to go.

I’m not sure why, but the little bike man on the cross walk signs amuses me.

The palace looks a little less amazing in the day.

We pretty much skipped past the palace and wandered back into the grounds. We were after something special. On the way in though, we saw this and thought it was pretty.

The path leads up to the second half of the grounds. In real life the light in the clouds was much more defined. Still neat though… just not as neat.

So, what were we after you ask? Well, Schönbrunn Palace is home to one of the largest and THE oldest zoo in the world. That’s right, we went to the world’s oldest zoo. Heck and yes. We started by ogling some ducks.

Of course we see ducks all the time, so we made it a point to take a picture of this, even though it’s not the most photogenic thing in the world.

Rhino butt! He wasn’t doing much… the butt was all we could see. Oh well. We figured we’d get another chance somewhere else in the zoo, so we moved on to the large bird cages. They were quite pretty.

Some were a little too serious about the whole experience though.

Next to the owl cage I saw a squirrel. Those are actually kinda rare to see in Linz. Not sure why this one was just running around the zoo.

Right after I took this picture, the dang thing hopped down to the ground and ran right past us. Like, within 6 inches of Mary Jo’s foot. It obviously isn’t shy. Mary Jo thought for a second that it was going to run up her leg and pull a Willy Wonka. It wasn’t interested in us though.

We moved on and soon came to a building labeled as “rain forest”. Well, being interested, we went in. It was humid and warm like you would expect a rain forest to be. As soon as we got inside, we noticed something on the ceiling. On closer inspection, we found several things on the ceiling.

Yep, bats. About 8 of em hanging out. All we could think was “Boy, mom would be freaking out right now.” They weren’t your normal little mouse-bats though, they were more like dogs with wings.

After the shock wore off, they were actually kind of cute. The one in the tree was trying to get at an apple the zoo people had stuck on a feeding stick.

It was having a tough time, so Mary Jo decided to help it out.

With that little help, it managed to get a good grip and have at it.

Of course the other bats felt a little slighted. See how unhappy this one is?

Once the bats were thoroughly gawked at, we found that we were kind of at the end of a one way path, so we went downstairs. Right off the elevator, the one way path signed us to the left into a cave. We went over and saw something dart out and flutter about. Yep, we had found the little flighty mouse bats. A whole cave of them in fact. Mary Jo briefly peeked her head in, confirmed that it was full of bats flying around, and we retreated back down the one way.

No pictures from this one. We didn’t risk it.

Back down the path we found some cute animals to take our minds of the bats. These things gave the cutest little squeaks, but there was a sign warning us that they bite. Huh.

Moving back out the building, we found the red panda pen. Mary Jo reads a lot of Cute Overload, so she was pretty interested to see this. I guess it appears on there a lot or something? Anyway, this guy was a jerk to get a picture.

Gah! Stop walking around you stupid ($#*(@! HA! That’s right, stop to pee on that rock.

Little jerk. These were the best two, and we spent 5 minutes there trying to get a good picture. That thing wouldn’t stay still! Finally getting fed up, we went down a little hill to the arctic building. Bout time we found something cute and cooperative.

Some looked a little bored though.

Still others were really bored, but super cute!

We went back outside and found the sea lions chilling. Literally.

That guy wasn’t happy about something. Or maybe he was. All I know is that this noise isn’t natural. Nor is my stunning commentary.

Across the path from the sea lion we found some more penguins, but these guys were absolutely going nuts. They were all crammed against the glass just going crazy. There was such a turmoil that the water was getting a little frothy. The sign next to the tank explained why: feeding in 10 minutes. Well then. We decided to stick around. The penguins sure enjoyed their feeding.

Actually, just watch this.

Stupid psycho ice chickens.

We doubled back toward the entrance, but on a lower level. We decided to skip and entire section because it looked very closed for the winter. There were a bunch of moose and wolves and bears up in that area. Doubling back we got to see some rather scary birds.

They looked really ornery. I was content to not get too close.

The monkeys, on the other hand, were just chillin’ with their goat pals taking care of little bugs.

Your guess is as good as mine here. Two things to point out: first, why is that monkey checking the goat’s butt? And second, look how disinterested and content the goat looks. We should all be so happy.

We moved down the path a bit and saw a group of turkeys from afar.

We expected them to run when we got closer, but another group came over from a side path and walked right into the group. The turkeys seemed content enough.

In fact, they were so content they decided to charge a guy and a girl. The girl screamed a bit.

The other group tried to leave, but the turkeys would have none of that.

We used this opportunity to slip by and hop into the rhino building. There were several in there. They were just hanging out doing a little grazing.

We came back outside and ran into the turkey pack again. We tried to make friends. We succeeded. I posed for a picture, but apparently turkeys don’t understand personal space. It required a little shooing.

Turkeys like backpack straps apparently. Mary Jo caught one trying to get at hers.

We decided to run away from the turkeys. We found a little playground that would normally be crowded, but being winter, it was empty. How do I know it’s normally crowded? Easy. They have this:

Is that?! Really? Yeah. That’s a hydraulic digger. Seriously zoo? That’s perhaps the single most amazing/cool/wanted thing I’ve ever seen. It even had a little cab with control levers.

This would have been about the 6th best day of my life, if it weren’t for one thing. They were shut off for the winter. Instead of happy Will, there was

It’s OK though. There’s another playground on the grounds Mary Jo wants to play in. It was locked up for winter, so we’ll be back. Oh yes, we will be back.

Continuing on we found a bunny hill. It’s basically a big hill of dirt that rabbits live in. There’s even a sign up saying that you can hold them if you want. There weren’t any out, but we went into a tunnel through the middle and saw some bunnies in a little viewing window. There was also a window of guinea pigs.

Nearby we saw this guy.

We didn’t hassle him, but he seemed tame enough. We moved on to the center of the zoo and found the craziest thing.

It’s like a dear crossed with a horse with a little yak thrown in for good measure. I guess it’s some kind of antelope, but man I think it’s freaky. Mary Jo didn’t care.

We walked around the center a bit and saw where the zebras and ostriches would be, but they were in their little houses. The main section is a big circle divided into slices. We walked around at the tip of each slice. The outer edge of each slice features an almost mansion looking house for the animals. Most were in there where it was warm.

We made it a point to go see the pandas. They’re like fluffy bears. It’s weird. As a testament to their cuteness, we forgot to take pictures. The hippos weren’t so lucky.

Look at how big that head is! It’s like a full fifth of the body!

Satisfied with the hippos, we checked out some koalas. They were sleeping, little jerks. Then we walked over to the orangutan house. There was some sort of event setting up, so we just got a quick peek from across the room of an orangutan. We took a quick swing past the lemurs and meerkats. Meerkats are really squat when on all fours, then turn into this super long thin thing when they stand up. It’s weird.

We also went past a cage with a family of monkeys. There was a young one and two parents. The young one was swinging all over the place. It was fun to see.

We moved on to the aviaries. Well, two of them. The first building was just a big metal cage with birds in it. Not sure what kind of birds they were. I think I got pooped on, but I can’t be sure. Not sure which is worse, being pooped on or not being sure about being pooped on.

The other aviary was just a normal building with birds in it. Nothing remarkable. This guy was neat though:

We then saw the elephants. They have a gigantic building with 4-5 elephants in it. They were just letting them out, so we followed them outside and looked a bit. Again, forgot to take pictures. I’m sure you can imagine what an elephant looks like though.

By this point we were really hungry, so we went to one of the few restaurants that was open for the winter and had some nice lunch. We had the Vienna classic, Wiener Schnitzel. It also came with a plate full of salad, potato salad, tomatoes, and cole slaw. Oddly enough, I’m not a fan of potato salad, but the Austrian version is delicious. I need to find a recipe…

After lunch we quickly hit the reptile house on the way out of the zoo. They had the usual fare: lizards, snakes, some big turtles, and fish. Didn’t know fish count as reptiles, but whatever.

With the day quickly coming to a close, we hopped back over to the palace to take the tour. Once inside, we found a nativity scene exhibition, so we checked that out. It was interesting, but maybe a little on the small side for 3 Euro per person.

We walked through the palace looking at the rooms, furniture, and art. They forbid photography, so no pictures. It was your standard old stuff though, so nothing of great note. We finished that up in about 45 minutes, checked out the gift shop, and headed out. We walked back to the train station, grabbed a train to Linz, napped most of the way, got back to the room, and promptly collapsed. That was three days ago and I’m still not fully recovered!

So there’s our big Vienna trip. We’ll have to go back to cover the rest of the palace and check out the other sites. They have a big church and a very large cemetery with a few famous people… like Beethoven. I tell ya, there’s too much to see in Europe!