Vienna

We started our city tour by visiting the Schoenberg Palace, which was one of the six summer homes of the Hapsburg family. As many palaces are in Europe it was modeled after Versailles. As like most buildings I personally believe each one of the "copies" I have visited are prettier than Versailles and this one did not disappoint! Bullet points from our guide whose name I didn't get as my "whisper"  (personal headset that ties to the guides microphone so we don't all have to crowd around to listen to them) wasn't working at first:

• The Hapsburgs only married their first cousins. The basically created a very sickly and ugly family. However they did this to keep the dynasty (which ruled 17 countries) in the family.
• The Hapsburgs believed they were ordained by God to spread Christianity and defeat Jews and Muslims. They had strong ties with Rome and the Catholic church.
• Empress Maria Theresa was the only female to run the empire 
• She invested all of her money in the military so that she would have good protection.
• She had 16 children two of whom she gave over to their enemy France, one of whom was Marie Antoinette...didn't end so well for that one.
• The Hapsburgs contributed to the start of WWI when Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated. 
• They did loose the war but it was a peaceful transition.
• Charles I (ruler at the time) was allowed to take around 1.4 billion in assets from Austria to Switzerland when the dynasty ended. So basically don't feel sorry for the family
• All of the buildings held by the family were turned over to the state for use.
• The palace is baroque but has some Rocco aspects brought to it by Maria Theresa.
• There are mirrored halls so that at night the mirrors would reflect the light from the candles and cause much illumination
• Thomas Edison came to the palace in the early 1900s and put electricity in
• A plane did crash into part of the palace during WWII. At the time it was the British headquarters and they paid to restore this part of the palace.

After the visit to the palace we headed to the city center by bus. First we road around a "ring road" that was built in the 1800s around the city center. Usually ring roads in Europe mean a road that surrounds the large city to allow for easier traffic movement....much like our "bypass" roads. This was is an older road though so it only goes around the center of the old city. I could give you pages and pages of history that was pointed out but I couldn't type on my phone during the tour that fast! If you ever travel to these same places I suggest you read up a little on the Hapsburgs! A few bullet points about Vienna:

• Vienna only lost about 30% of buildings during WWII
• The US paid to rebuild many parts of Vienna and fought to keep allies with Austria during the Cold War mainly due to it's strategic location as the last Western European city before the communist countries in Eastern Europe. We'll visit Slovakia tomorrow so we'll see just how close it is!
• During the 1990s lots of business moved into Vienna because it was close to the former USSR but was not in it. Many companies still didn't trust that Russia wouldn't fight to get the independent states back.
• The birth rate is declining in Vienna as it is in most of Europe. Small economics lesson -- if you have a declining birth rate that means you are not producing enough workers to support the retired ones.

Tomorrow we take a cruise down the Danube to Bratislava with is the capital of Slovakia. Exciting!