Day 6: More Vienna

One addition to yesterday... We went to the Hobsbergs church that was
attached to their palace where most were married. It was smaller than
st stephens but it has a cool history. So when one of the kings or
important family members died they had a funeral in st stephens and
then their bodies were taken to this chuch to be mumified. The ranking
family member would knock on the door of the church and a monk would
ask who goes there they would respond with the full title of the dead
(which is long cause they ruled 17 kingdoms) the monk would say I
don't know him. They would do this all again and the monk would
respond again then they would say this is a poor sinner and they monk
would let them in to symbolize that even a king and his title do not
matter once they are dead. Anyways... Then the monks mummified the
body and sent it off to the family crypt but the hearts were also
preserved and kept in the church so there is a room just off the
church with dozens of preserved Hobsberg hearts. It is not open to the
public though.

Now today was action packed. We started the morning with an excursion
to the Hobsbergs summer palace called Schonburn Palace. It was very
beautiful and was in nearly perfect condition. The gardens were not as
nice as the summer palace of the family in Munich but is was still
impressive. Napolean also housed here for a while (he latter married a
Hobsberg, Marie Antionette was also a Hobsberg)

We then went to the Spanish riding school performance. These are white
stallions that have been bread for over 350 years. This riding school
which is attached to the palace has been continuous active since the
18th century. It was an amazing performance. The have trained these
horses to trot like the are dancing and they are able to rear up on
their hind legs and pose it was very cool.

We ate some pizza for lunch. Then we went to St Peters church and
listened to the orchestra practice. It was an amazing church with lots
of red marble. We then went to the national treasury to see the crown
jewels and priceless church relics.

We walked around the rest of the palace, which took hours and took
many more pictures of other 17 and 18 century buildings that are now
mostly museums.

For dinner we went to another famous Viennese restaurant where I had
some wienersnitsel which is just fried pork not like a sausage like I
was thinking.

That was it. Does not sound like much as I write it but it was a very
busy day. Tomorrow we go to Salzburg Austria.