Vienna; Monday, 21 November, 2005

You would have though that with a stunning (and rambling) palace in the very centre of Vienna, and another palace in sumptuous grounds in the then outskirts of the city (Belvedere) the Habsburgs would be content. Sadly, No. To get away from it all in those long summer months (and you thought global warming was a 21st century problem!) they built themselves an even bigger, even more impressive, even more sumptuous palace out of the city in Schönbrunn (now part of the city itself!).

The palace itself is larger than any of their other residences, with the audio guided tour of just the first floor taking nearly 1 hour to complete (and there are four floors to this place). The tour itself is very interesting and gives you a glimpse into how the people who ran Europe (of course, at this point the Brits were content in just running the rest of the world!) lived.

As with any self-respecting royal dynasty the palace is set in acres of land with a spectacular sloping garden that leads from the back of the palace to a Gloriette on a hill above it over half a mile away that looks down over stunning vistas of the palace and the city.

The grounds also contain several Mazes, one in the real impossible to see through, get lost for 20 minutes hedge type, and two mazes that follow a singe path winding to the middle. After spending nearly an hours in the mazes I wandered next door to the Tiergarten and the Zoo. Originally, the menagerie that accompanied the palace of any self respecting emperor, this was turned into a zoo at an early stage and claims to be the world oldest zoo.

Next door to the zoo is the palm house, and opposite that the desert house that effectively act as the zoos botanical gardens.

After spending quite some time in the zoo and greenhouses I walked back through the parkland and climb the path to the top of the Gloriette to view not only the palace and city, but also the bank of snow that was heading directly towards me fast!

Having staggered back through a blizzard (OK it was a bit windy and the snow lasted for about 3 minutes, but why spoil a good story!) to the palace, and resisted the temptation of a mug of Glühwein at another Christmas market that had sprung up in front of the palace, I caught the U-Bahn back into town and went to the Habsburgs town house come offices in the Hofburg.

With less than an hour until the state apartments closed for the evening, I decided just to visit the Treasury (which was bizarrely open an hour later than the rest of the complex.) As befits the family that once ran most of central and eastern Europe they had a significant collection of "precious things" that are most definitely not for the touching. After having coughed up the €8 to get in and the €2 for the Audio guide (and the €0.50 per item for the cloakroom!) I felt that there better be some good stuff to warrant the cost. I wasn't disappointed. Even if you are not a fan of jewellery or fine robes, or gold and precious metals you cannot help but be impressed by the sheer quantity of the stuff on display (and this is only the stuff that was left to the state, when the Habsburgs renounced the throne and allowed Austria to become a republic in 1918 they had already shipped most of their personal stuff to Switzerland (so it's them who started that little trick!) so that they could continue to support themselves in the lifestyle that being the Austro-Hungarian empire allows you). In the end I had to run around the ecclesiastical section (no great loss in my mind as once you've see one chalice and a set of robes, you've seen them all!) just so I didn’t get locked in.

With a serious (and possibly fatal) case of museum legs setting in I headed off in hunt of somewhere to eat. Unfortunately, as I wasn't particularly hungry and felt like a wander it took over an hour and about two laps of the city centre before I decided on a restaurant.

With a good meal inside me, and the metro station just feet away I staggered back to the train and back to the hotel to see if I had remembered to pack a spare set of legs and two spare hips.