Day 18 - Vienna (40 rooms in 40 minutes)

Ok began our day with another nice free breakfast and then headed off on the U3 and 4 to the Austrian royal family's summer palace and gardens. This palace contained 40 rooms and dad and I reckon we did them in about 40 minutes (we're a bit palaced out after yesterday). Anyway this palace was much more interesting than the last one the best thing being a large waltzing hall that dad and I had a nice pretend waltz in. The gardens of the palace were very pretty and there was a nice forest where we had lunch. Also we saw what we though to be a woodpecker which was very cool. As a treat for me we payed for all of us to go into the maze section which was great fun!! Daddy won the first maze (just). I won the second! The third wasn't really a maze but there was stepping stones that had sensors on them so when you stepped on them you got sprayed with water. :D woo so fun!!!

 Anyway once we left the gardens (oh we also had a nice chat with a kiwi couple) we went to the national history museum that we found out wasn't open on Tuesday which was a bit disappointing but instead we walked to the Vienna opera house and spontaneously decided to go on a tour. 

The tour was really fantastic and very interesting. We found out that the opera company here always has an emergency opera, Tosca available if they need it. Also the backstage area was huge and they had heaps of set change mechanisms like they could sink one set down 11 meters and roll another over the top covering it. Epic!!! We found out that the opera house was 3/4 destroyed by a bomb in WWII. 

So yeah after we had finished the tour we took a train to the Danube to see it and then went for a very big "stroll" along the edge and eventually took an above ground tram back to the city centre where we went home for a nice rest. Went out to dinner (same place as the last 2 nights) and bought a vegi curry, a plate of chips and a serve if very garlicky pesto pasta. Also had the same drinks as last night. While we drank our drinks we watched an old homeless person and the people who got stuck with him. Anyway that's all for today off to a new country tomorrow. 

Talk to ya soon 

Alastair