Not the music kind of metal, but something much cooler.
The day started off with a visit to the famous Schönbrunn Palace, inhabited by the royal Habsburg family for centuries, and twice occupied by Napoleon after his conquests of Vienna. It was originally a mansion built in the mid 1500’s and expanded over the centuries into an absolutely massive, spawling grand and luxurous palatial estate, boasting over 1,400 rooms, and huge parkgrounds outside. Unsurprisingly, almost all the rooms are closed/offlimits. The general tour is just over 40 rooms with an audio guide.
In the courtyard in front of the palace was a lovely Christmas Market too, with many shops and stalls. It was sooo busy, but had such a wonderful atmostphere.
After spending time at the palace, we took a walk around the city center old town, and headed to Hofberg, another palace – Vienna has many palaces! T destination: the famous Jagdhof, and Rüstugs Kammer. (Hunting Court and Armory) The museum contains a vast, vast collection of literally hundreds of medieval suits of armor, and many hundreds of weapons, from wicked swords to polearms, crossbows, and early wheel-lock rifles, from all over Europe, and some from Turkey and Japan.
During a brief personal tour from the museum head of security and personnel, strangely, he had mentioned that there is really only 1 suit of armor present (but possibly more) that was ever actually used in a real battle in a war. The rest of them are decoration, to show off wealth, status, prestige, and for use in jousting and tournaments. It was definitely one of the top highlights of any thing I’ve done on any of my trips!
Here is a limited collection of images, but I will be adding more, primarily of the palace tomorrow! (When in Imgur, you can right-click, or hold down finger to open a picture in a new tab to see it much larger.)
jonsjourneythroughgermany.com 