Well, today we headed off to Schonbrun Palace, one of the other palaces of the Hapsburgs. In my opinion, it was much better than the Imperial Apartments, being more focused on the rest of the Hapsburgs and less on Sissi. While it is not quite just another palace (second only to Versailles), it had a few rooms that were impressive and unique. And like most other palaces, they didn't allow photography. Oh well.

My personal highlight of the day was the excursion to the museums of Arms, Musical Instruments, and ruins from Ephesus (an ancient city that was discovered in Turkey at the beginning of the century. Parts of the ruins had been shipped to Vienna.).

As an introduction to Greek ruins and art, the museum was pretty sweet. Many of the frescoes were still quite detailed, all were impressive. But seeing these are not enough to stop me from heading of to Greece sometime later on. Maybe that will be the next trip eh?

The museum of Musical Instruments was a fun side trip. They had many old instruments, some of which I've never seen before. Lutes, guitars, pianos, harpsichords, etc. There was even an audio headset that played music performed on the instruments in each room. Some of the rooms were dedicated to particular composers (Beethoven, Mozart, etc) and the music was theirs. Pretty neat.

Then came the Armory. Maybe it's because of the testosterone, but it was a kick. The armor and weapons were very well preserved. Suits of full plate armor of various shapes and sizes. Including some suits made for some young princes who were no more than 12. Mini-armor, how cool. This place allowed pictures, and I think we got some good ones. (Alix: I have never seen or imagined such a large collection. They could have outfitted at least a hundred men. It covered many years and styles, including the armor and other regalia for horses. There were even two completely decked out knights on armored horses jousting in the entry way! Very impressive! Those horses must have really been something -- imagine carrying all that armor and side panels of cloth, a knight, and all his &*@# armor, too.)

We found a place to eat that was a change from all the schnitzel and wurst and fried meats. It was a buffet style restaurant, but unlike their counterparts in the U.S., this place charged by the size of the plate, rather that one flat fee or charging by weight. We filled up with salads and fruits and grilled meats (Alix: so there Donna!).

For dessert we got Alix her second and final calorie-laden dessert that she had wanted to try: the original Sacher-Torte.

Accept no substitutes. (Alix: Known around the world, we actually went to the original hotel that created it (by the way the recipe is a state secret kept in the vaults of the hotel!) and indulged ourselves. It was very good, again not too sweet as are all desserts here, and lest you get concerned Donna -- Bill and I split one piece while Eric (Eric: Well they should know better than to put a full slice of something like that in front of me...) pigged out on the other. While I can't say this is Death by Chocolate or anything so rich, it's appeal is more subtle, I'm glad I did not miss it.)