After our experience in the Hofburg Palace, we decided not to actually go inside the Schonbrunn Palace. It was the summer palace for the Hapsburgs. It's pretty from the outside, and there is plenty to do on the grounds!
We ended up walking around the gardens for a while. I really enjoyed it and the weather. It was a little grey and a little chilly (but not too chilly). It reminded me of the way that mornings like that smell like in spring.
For lunch, we also sampled some more apple strudel--just for comparison purposes, you know. This time it was served hot--which made it taste divine! The only thing that could have made it better was vanilla ice cream...
After, we ended up going back to the Schonbrunn Palace in order to go to the zoo. It's officially called the Tiergarten Schonbrunn, and it's actually the world's oldest zoo. It was founded as a royal menagerie in 1752.
It was a blast! It was fun to see something that wasn't a museum. Due to the design of the zoo, we were able to see the animals up close and experience the zoo in a different way.
The zoo has an Amazonian Rainforest--similar to the one at the Omaha Zoo--but here there are interactive parts. At one point, you actually walk through the part of the exhibit with bats! It was terrifying! I fully expected the bats to be behind glass or a mesh net, but they were just flying around their cave. I have to confess that I was almost too scared to walk through!
We also got the chance to see pandas! Apparently, this zoo is one of only 5 zoos in Europe that has giant pandas. One of the others is the Madrid Zoo--which I actually visited two years ago!
After the zoo, we once again made our way back to the city center to go to the opera. It was really neat, and very different from the ballet from the night before. It was easier for me to pay attention because there was a storyline to follow--though I did have to figure out how best to divide my time between looking down at the subtitles and watching the show!
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