Day 10 - Mazes, Schnitzel, and St. Stephens Cathedral...

... and so much more! Vienna is such a nice surprise to me! It has everything that's so overrated about Paris and Rome, I.e., art, history, music, great food, and character, without the big fanfare.  And it has even more: the Torture Museum and the Collection of Anatomical Pathology!  No time for those though...

We started the day with a to-die-for breakfast (yes, pastries!), then got a Vienna card and started the adventure.  Kids up to 14 years travel free on the metro, buses and trams, and the card also gives discounts to several museums, stores and restaurants.  

We visited the Schönbrunn Palace Gardens for half of a sizzling day, including the maze, which was so well done we couldn't get to the tree at the end. We chilled at a kiosk that had the biggest pretzels 

and then read about labyrinths.

These are actually finger labyrinths and they were much easier than the life sized one. 

We hopped back on the metro and spent the rest of the day around Stefansplatz, in the most popular, touristically dense area of Vienna from St Stephen's Cathedral 

to the famous opera we all love to see every January 1!  I didn't get to admire the interior of it, but for 0.70€ I did visit the Opera Toilet.

Here is a brief list of favorites: wandering around streets in Innere Stadt,

And the boutiques (wishing for this little LV trunk!),

eating finger food sandwiches at Trzesniewski, a perfect schnitzel with cucumber salad at Figlmüller and a Chocolate of Austria ice cream (or coffee) at Zanoni & Zanoni, 

admiring the Swarovski crystals at home, and of course enjoying the Starbucks wifi in a location of unique beauty (check out the wall paper pattern behind me!)

Time to go to bed now!

We're happily exhausted, caring for our blisters and preparing for more of everything tomorrow! I love Vienna!