MOOD BOARD

 
It was a great weekend. I cooked a lovely dinner of grilled salmon and lobster for the mother for Mother's Day, while she enjoyed a lovely new fuchsia and rose bush for the garden I got her. It was our first of the season- cookin' on the grill, and man did it taste heavenly. A lot of the day was showing Ma, pictures from past trips, since we never seemed to have time. She loved seeing them as she is far from a traveler. Between worrying about plane travel, which she is terrified of, and the madness of the world, she says she is fine right where she is. And when I travel, especially abroad, she remains tense and worried till I'm back safety. She added, " Luckily the pandemic kept you home, and I gained two more years of life without worry." We enjoyed the pictures with a bottle of wine. She seemed enthralled with the pictures from Vienna and Buenos Aires, but for some odd reason the statues from Schonbrunn Palace she loved. They are a mood. Later today I'm returning back to the Casa du Borghese to tend to things there. It's been busy with freelance projects and a insane week at my friends floral shop.

VIENNA

Back in 2019 was one of the biggest and most opulent of trips I think I'd ever taken. To Vienna with Warbucks. It had been on the bucket list for some time, and I shared much about that trip, but it didn't even touch the tip of the iceberg. We walked from the museum district to Schonbrunn Palace, which was the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzig. The name of the palace means "beautiful spring." My history with Europe's palaces isn't stellar only having seen two in Amsterdam and one in Germany. But when in Vienna, the Hapsburg residences are unavoidable, and you should really go see at least one. We choose the Schonbrunn Palace, the most famous. Home to a very young Marie Antoinette, the style is pure Rococo, all pastels, portraits and the extravagance you'd expect. The general tour we took was a three to four hour tour inside. One can see most of the palace's rooms and take in the very informative tour. The exterior is just as spectacular. The weather gods were smiling on us that day, bright beautiful skies, as we explored the gardens, the orangery, the great Palm House and the 30 odd fountains which feature a different theme from mythological Neptune to Roman ruins. If one wants to just tour the gardens, that is free for all. And one has to walk  up to the Gloriette, for the best views of the palace grounds and surrounding Vienna. That was a hike from the palace. Certainly while downtown Vienna has plenty enough for it in terms of attractions and history, a visit to the outskirts and the Schonbrunn is a must...a whole day at a relaxing pace. Clearly it is one of the more impressive palaces around and a sheer joy to walk through, if you like architecture, gardens and sculpture.

It amazed me when we were there,  how many people took selfies, but then hardly took any pictures of the place itself. Im a huge picture whore, and took tons of picture, many just random pictures. We came back with about almost 900 pictures. I also noticed not many knew about or just bypassed  the entrance to the Imperial carriages that were on display there. I found it completely fascinating.

The Gloriette

But if you recall, the fun was getting there.... Warbucks Christmas gift to me that year was the trip, and the big surprise...the Orient Express, which you can read here. That will be one of my top memories of travel. Pure decadence. The craftmanship. Top notch culinary delights. Neat cocktails. Dressing up. This was not a sneaker, jeans, tee, or sweats affair. Chic dressing. The little cabin was more elegant then some hotel rooms I'd had. Very romantic and passionate sleeping at night.

I'll never forget it.

I WAS QUEEN

I can't lie, Warbucks did treat me like a Queens for one day!!! I really did feel like a queen.  Of the two palaces we toured, the first one Schonbrunn was by far my favorite. I can't lie, I'm a size queen!!!! Big is beautiful!

Schönbrunn Palace was the main summer residence of the Habsburg rulers, located in Hietzing, Vienna. The 1,441-room Rococo palace is one of the most important architectural, cultural, and historic monuments in the country. Since the mid-1950s it has been a major attraction. The history of the palace and its vast gardens spans over 300 years, reflecting the changing tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.It was also noted on the tour that many of the notable composers have all preformed here at some point, which seemed cool to me too. The sculpted garden space between the palace and the Neptune Fountain is called the Great Parterre. The French garden, a big part of the area, was planned by Jean Trehet, a disciple of André Le Nôtre, in 1695. It contains, among other things, a labyrinth.. The complex however includes many more attractions: Besides the Tiergarten, an orangerie was erected around 1755, a staple luxury of European palaces of its type, A palm house was erected by 1882, around ten earlier and smaller glass houses in the western part of the park are also noteworthy. Western parts of the grounds are English garden style. The area called Meidlinger to the west of the castle was turned into a play area and drill ground for the children of the Habsburgs in the 19th century. At this time it was common to use parks for the military education of young princes. Whereas the miniature bastion, which was built for this purpose, does not exist anymore, the garden pavilion that was used as shelter still does. It was turned into a café in 1927. At the outmost western edge, a botanical garden going back to an earlier arboretum was re-arranged in 1828, when the Old Palm House was built. A modern enclosure for Orangutans, was restored besides a restaurant and office rooms in 2009. The other thing I enjoy was the sculpture. Incredible sculpture...32 all around the grounds and inside.

The Roman Ruins

The Palm House was very cool, as it contained many exotic flowers and plants not a mention hundreds of butterflies fluttering about. That took over an hour along.

If you ever make it to Vienna my advice here is to do this palace definitely, but plan a whole day, as the palace is huge to tour, not to mention the gardens and grounds, the ruins and the Palm House. Another day we were off to see the Holburg Palace.

The Hofburg is the former principal imperial palace of the Habsburg dynasty rulers, and today serves as the official residence and workplace of the President of Austria. It is located in the center of Vienna and was built in the 13th century and expanded several times afterwards. It also served as the imperial winter residence, as Schönbrunn Palace was the summer residence.  Since 1279 the Hofburg area has been the documented seat of government. The Hofburg has been expanded over the centuries to include various residences, the imperial chapel, the imperial library, the treasury, the Spanish Riding School, and the imperial mews.  The palace faces the Heldenplatz (Heroes Square) ordered under the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph I, as part of what was planned to become the Kaiserforum , but which was never completed.  Numerous architects have executed work at the Hofburg as it expanded, notably the Italian architect-engineer Filiberto Luchese. 

This palace was nice to see, but only certain parts of the interior are open for viewing, so when in Vienna a nice stop, but I found the exterior more impressive than the interior...but the Spanish Riding School was cool to see and very opulent. I have never seen horses move so elegantly before. The arena was illuminated  red at the beginning of the showing with a lovely classical quartet..

Afterwards....some of the riders changed. I was loving the red riding tards much better. They sure didn't leave much to the imagination!