Entries about palace

Mom and I went out with just the two of us today, as Dad wasn't feeling well and Abby had had enough of trooping around fancy old buildings. We took the metro (oh, how I wish we had one in Victoria) to Schönbrunn Palace, where Empress Maria Theresa, the only female to succeed the Hapsburg throne, had done her ruling. She was admirably tough, fighting wars and maintaining the Habsburg Empire all while birthing sixteen children. She was described by Frederick the Great as "the only man among my opponents".

One of the more nondescript rooms of the palace was especially important to me. Awhile ago, before we went on this trip, I read a book called "Mozart's Sister". It was a historical novel told from the perspective of Nannerl Mozart, the young prodigy's older sister, who was quite the musician herself. The first chapter starts with Wolfgang and Nannerl playing for a small group of royalty. As the young Wolfgang finishes his piece, he leaps from the piano bench, runs into the arms of Maria Theresa, and kisses her on the cheek. Rather startled, the empress nevertheless gives the boy a squeeze back. To my delight, I found that I was standing in the room where this very scenario had unfolded. I had believed the embrace to be an embellishment, the author taking some creative licence and adding interest to the first few pages of her book. But here I was, listening to an audio guide telling me it was true.

There was another room that stood out to me, darkly beautiful and decorated with gold. A large portrait of Maria Theresa's husband was hanging there. When he died, she wrote the number of years, months and days that she and her husband had been married in her diary, and had then converted the total to weeks, days, and hours. She wore black and mourned every day after his death. Despite her deep love for her husband, she only let one of her many daughters marry for love (turns out she was her favourite), and had the others married off for political reasons.

After our tour, we strolled around the gardens and forested grounds, enjoying our time together. Not that we revelled in Dad and Abby's absence, but I will admit that it's nice to take a break from the family dynamic every once in awhile. We snapped some photos of the beautiful Sun Fountain, and hiked up the hill in order to get a closer look at the imposing hunting lodge overlooking the palace. It was blazing hot, and we made our way back into the shade of the trees as soon as we could.

Leaving Schönbrunn Palace behind, we started walking through Vienna, looking for a place to have lunch or a cool drink. Eventually we ended up at a little gelato place and had ice cream instead, mine chocolate and Mom's raspberry. Then we headed home, ready to tell Abby and Dad all about our day at the palace. Upon our return, I promptly beat Dad in a game of crib, and got my first 28 point hand. Yes, this is important enough to immortalise in writing.

Later that evening, we all went out to the Prater to take on a few more rides. Dad and I went on one called the Black Mamba, which you can see here, that spun us around, backwards and forwards, all while our seats turned over and over again. It was equally disorienting and exhilarating. Not surprisingly, Abby and Mom chose to watch from below. We rode a couple more, both of which Abby joined me for and regretted moments later, and then decided we weren't willing to spend any more money on the pricey rides and headed home.

Today we visited the Palace of Gödöllö, the largest baroque palace in Hungary. It is over 250 years old, and its most famous resident was Elisabeth, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary. She was and still is venerated today. She was married to Franz Joseph I, whose 68-year long reign is the third longest in Europe. Known for her beauty, she had elaborate routines that she went through to maintain it, and spent two or three hours a day having her floor-length hair cared for and styled. She used this time to study languages, and became fluent in English and French. After the age of 32, she would not allow any more portraits or photos of herself to be captured, in order to keep up the idea of her perpetual beauty. She was murdered by an Italian anarchist at the age of 60. Her story is very interesting, and I recommend reading more about her here.

The rooms were grand and impressive, filled with various antiques of the age. There was a gorgeous blue and silver gown worn by many of the castle's female residents, numerous swords, guns, and battle axes, and even what was said to be a piece of the holy cross, complete with certification. Many portraits lined the walls, mostly of Elisabeth and Franz Joseph. Unlike Versailles, where red and gold are the predominant colours, these rooms were cooler shades of blue and purple, which I preferred. The silk wallpaper and velvet drapery were very tempting to touch. Luckily, their appeal had been noticed by the curators, and some samples of the cloth were given in order to pacify people like my mom, who feel the compulsion to act on such temptations.

The final room was a small exhibit documenting the renovation and restoration of the palace, and we found out that nearly all the decor was much newer than we had thought. Everything looked very authentic, but I thought that they had made the right choice putting that information at the end of the tour, as it might've taken away from the effect.

We took a short walk around the grounds, which were pretty and well kept, and had a picnic lunch in a park near the castle. We then drove to Szentendre, a little tourist trap of a town comprised almost solely of souvenir shops. The draw of the town was the microminiature museum, a collection of miniscule works of art by Ukrainian artist Mykola Syadristy. All of the pieces needed to be looked at through a microscope in order to appreciate their intricacy. Among the tiny masterpieces was a twelve page book of poems by Taras Shevchenko, another Ukrainian, which had pages made of petals that were bound together with spider silk. There was also a delightful piece composed of a pyramid, a palm tree, and a procession of camels all set in the eye of a needle. This was my dad's favourite, partially because of the exquisiteness and precision and partially because of the play on the Bible verse. Another impressive set of statuettes was a pitcher and two wine glasses made of solid gold balanced on a sugar granule. Each could hold an infinitesimal amount of liquid.

The gallery was mind bending and beautiful. I know I've said this before, but I'm still amazed that even after eight months on the road, we're continuing to see things unlike anything we've seen before. Just like the microscopic works of art, the amount of substance there is in this world in nearly impossible to wrap your head around.

Unfortunately, the awe that these places inspired was deemed impossible for any mere tourist's camera to handle, and we were not permitted to take pictures. You'll just have to go see them for yourselves. In the meantime, I hope that you will enjoy this illustration of my impressions.