Our morning started with a little glitch in that the elevators were shut down when apparently the fire alarm must have gone off. Some in our group were therefore late coming to the bus because the stairwell doors coming down were also locked.

Our guide got a little nervous since we had a timed group ticket for Schonbrunn Palace. You see, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site and as such, they have to restrict the number of visitors.

At precisely 8:58 am we were allowed to enter the interior but were not able to take any photos inside. Even though we were at the front of the line a few minutes before, we had to just stand there and stare at the clock.

So I found this short video by Rick Steves (who happens to be a Lutheran, by the way!)

It was a little reminiscent of Versailles without the crowds, particularly the Hall of Mirrors. Somehow though its use of gold was a lot less, at least in the rooms we visited.

We were allowed, though, to take as many outdoor shots as we wanted in the time allotted.

After driving around the old part of the city, we came upon the Vienna Opera House. Although it is closed during the summer months we were told that no production is allowed to be presented two nights in a row. So even though they may do just 60 operas a season, they have to take down the stage set every night and replace it with another opera’s set for the next night. Also operas are presented every night. 

Obviously no private business could operate in this manner—the opera house is run by the state government.

We had a short stop at the Hundertwasser House as you will read from Wikipedia:

Friedensreich Hundertwasser started out as a painter. Since the early 1950s, however, he increasingly became focused on architecture, writing and reading in public .’ advocating natural forms of decay.

In other words he advocated architecture in harmony with nature.

To some in our group the expressionist style of architecture was reminiscent of the Spanish Antoni Gaudi, whose La Sagrada Familia I visited last summer.

Even so I could have stayed a lot longer visiting the shopping stalls here and only came away with buying a magnet!