April 14th

After an early breakfast in the Hilton's dining room, we hopped on the bus for our Viennese tour. Our local guide was Willie.

Before long, we came to Schoenbrunn Palace. The palace was very large but according to Willie, it was actually meant to much larger than it turned out. Hard to imagine. We took a tour inside the palace (no pictures) before exiting and having time to explore the vast garden area at the back of the palace.

The map I've placed on this page will let you see just how large the extensive gardens were. Although I would have liked to stroll down to a lovely fountain and monument in the distance, I didn't feel I'd have enough time to do so and still get back to the bus on time so I climbed stairs at the back of the palace to get a better view to those areas.

We again managed to hit the best time to see spring flowers in full bloom. The garden must be even more beautiful when the summer beds come alive.

Just before returning to the bus, I quickly visited an Easter market on site. The vendors were just opening up. I found a really interesting artisan who made jewelry by decorating deer antlers with Swarovski crystals.

More of April 14th