Vienna Day Four - Prater

Given Sophie's late night, Michael and I decided to head to the Hofburg to look round the exhibition that Sophie had already seen twice, giving her time for a lie-in, hehe. The Hofburg houses an exhibitions split into three - the first is all the old silverware and table decorations (not the most thrilling thing in the world, but pretty grand nevertheless). Following on from that is an exhibition all about the old empress Elisabeth of Bavaria, or more commonly known as Sisi. She was a pretty interesting character, inspiring films and such which exaggerated her biography and made her an icon. Check out her wiki page if your interested. After this was a chance to wonder round the old apartments of the Emperor and Empress, where you could see their studies, bedrooms etc. Was a well done exhibition, where rather than having to read, every person is given a little hand-held headset, where to hear about a particular item, you simply type in the number next to it, click play et voila, someone tells you all about it in your language. Makes a lot of sense, and I'm sure many museums use this these days, but was the first time I'd come across it.

After that we met up with Sophie and headed to Prater - an old hunting ground of the Emperor, that has since had a fair ground added to the edge of the grounds alongside the old London-eye-like Ferris Wheel. This giant Ferris Wheel was first constructed back in 1897, and apparently survived the war to continue turning today. The cabins and exposed metal structure do seem very traditional, with the cabins rocking from side-to-side as people moved around in side (unlike the steady London Eye), making it a lot more fun in my opinion, although Sophie and Michael clung to the sides the whole time.


From even just half-way round the views of Vienna were fantastic. On both sides there were landmarks to be spotted. Also the nature around the city was marvellous. Miles of the wooded parts of Prater could be seen to one side, with the hills/mountains visible in the distance on the other side. I'd highly recommend having a go round on this.


Sophie pointed out the point on one of the hills where she had planned to take us that night to see the Viennese sky-line at night. Unfortunately the beautiful weather was not to last, and we made it back to the hotel in time for a huge thunder storm (with hale and all-sorts!). So, we waited it out for a while, before deciding we really needed to eat, so made a run to the bus stop where we got a bus to Sophie's. We ended up at the pub round the corner from her halls for more Schnitzel (this time Chicken, with cheese and ham in the middle, like a kiev). So sadly we didn't make it to the view-point, but the Ferris Wheel was good enough to be honest.