I had flown through Vienna on a couple of occasions but never had time to visit the city.  But this time was different. I somehow wrangled a return flight from Malaga for a week, for €59 with priority boarding!

It’s a very easy city to move around on foot and that I did. Museumsplatz was a short walk away. A massive complex that houses several art installations as well as outdoor restaurants and bars, plus a really good ice cream parlour! The Opera House was a short walk away from Museumsaplatz, but I chose not to visit it.

Instead, I made my way down to Schönbrunn Place. The place was amazingly huge, like, HUGE! It took me 5 minutes to walk from one end to the other along the outer wall of the building. My one regret was not doing a guided tour of the inside of the palace.

I must have walked for hours around the grounds and probably didn’t see half of it. It had everything, curated flowerbeds, wooded areas, massive fountains, a zoo, walking and running trails. Name it, it’s probably there.

I stumbled upon Palmenhaus and Wüstenhaus, two greenhouses (one’s tropical while the other is a desert-themed) that sit within the grounds of Schönbrunn Palace. These were pretty cool; each had its own micro-climate. I was even lucky enough to see a pair of tortoises do the dirty. I never knew tortoises grunted during sex!