17 April 2011 – Vienna (Sunday)

Today is beautiful sunny weather and we are off to see the Lipizzaner Stallions performance.  We had been warned that due to the Vienna Marathon today we needed to leave the hotel early so we could manage to find out way through the maze of closed streets to the Spanish Riding School located in the Hofburg Palace.  As it turns out we had no problem getting to the Hofburg Palace or the Spanish Riding School.   As a result we arrived an hour early which gave us time to walk around the Palace grounds and stables to explore a bit more.

The world-famous Spanish Riding School uses highly trained Lipizzaner stallions in public performances that demonstrate classical dressage movements and training.   In 1572 the first Spanish Riding Hall was built, during the Austrian Empire, and is the oldest of its kind in the world.  When we finally were able to get inside the indoor arena we were amazed at the size and grandeur.  There were 3 levels of seating with the first level basically at ground level.  The décor was palatial in detail and decoration; to the point that the light fixtures over the riding ring are huge chandeliers.

The Spanish Riding School takes its name from the original Spanish heritage of its horses.  In 1729 Charles VI commissioned the building of the Winter Riding School in Vienna and in 1735, the building was completed.  It remains the home of the Spanish Riding School today.  (Since we are not permitted to take pictures of the performance I have found pictures showing the movements from the internet.)

The Lipizzan or Lipizzaner, which is a breed of horse, are trained at the Spanish Riding School to demonstrate the haute ecole or "high school" movements of classical dressage, including the highly controlled, stylized jumps and other movements known as the "airs above the ground." The Lipizzaner breed dates back to the 16th century, when it was developed with the support of the Habsburg nobility. The breed takes its name from one of the earliest stud farms established, located near the Kras village of Lipica (spelled "Lipizza" in Italian), in modern-day Slovenia.

We spent 90 minutes watching the most incredible movements I have ever seen with synchronized movements between riders, horses and music.   I have taken some riding lessons and watched these riders perform precise and accurate movements with the horses making the action looking effortless.  However, I know the amount of effort required to train (from personal experience) and get a horse to do “lead changes” or to “cross over diagonally”.  However it was are real delight to watch the horse and rider perform the “airs above the ground”.

We left the performance to step outside to beautiful warm weather that we have not seen for several days.  Our next goal today was to follow the suggestion of a friend about the Sacher Torte at the Hotel Sacher where the ‘Original Sacher Torte” is served.   Sacher torte is a chocolate cake, invented by Franz Sacher in 1832 for Klemens Wenzel von Metternich in Vienna, Austria.  It is one of the most famous Viennese culinary specialties.  The Original Sacher Torte is only made in Vienna and Salzburg, and is shipped from both locations.  We went to this high class hotel dining room to enjoy a cup of tea (Sacher Tea – speciality tea blend exclusive to the hotel) and a slice of Sacher Torte.  The cost – 20 euro ($30) and fortunately both the torte and the tea were excellent.

After leaving the hotel we decided it was time to head over to study the Summer Palace.  Schönbrunn Palace is a former imperial 1,400-room Rococo summer residence in Vienna.  One of the most important cultural monuments in the country, since the 1960s it has been one of the major tourist attractions in Vienna.  The palace and gardens illustrate the tastes, interests, and aspirations of successive Habsburg monarchs.   We took a tour of a part of the Palace (about 40 of the 1400 rooms) which has been preserved with original furniture and decorations.  Since this area of the Palace was the residences of the royal family the apartments and rooms were full of historical information and artefacts.   I had very little knowledge of the Habsburg House.

The House of Habsburg, also found as Hapsburg or Austria, was one of the most important royal houses of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1438 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empires and several other countries. Originally from Switzerland, the dynasty first reigned in Austria, which they ruled for over six centuries. A series of dynastic marriages brought Burgundy, Spain, Bohemia, Hungary, and other territories into the inheritance.   Following the downfall of the monarchy in 1918 the newly founded Austrian Republic became the owner of Schönbrunn Palace.

We followed the tour of the Palace by having a look at the extensive gardens.  It is early so there are spring flowers in bloom, but much of the flower beds are ready for planting, but nothing has been planted.  So we decided to tour the ‘maze and labyrinth’.   It was fun to walk into the maze with hedges above our heads and try to find out way to the center platform which overlooked the entire maze.  Once we got there we could study the maze and figure out route back out.  Since there are two potential staring points, we redid the maze using the second entrance. 

Then we decided to go into the other children’s maze, a labyrinth with puzzles throughout and some water features.   We ended the tour of the palace grounds by walking up a 60 meters hill, which since 1775 has been crowned by the Gloriette structure (Fischer von Erlach had initially planned to erect the main palace on the top of this hill).  Maria Theresa decided Gloriette should be designed to glorify Habsburg power.  From this point there are great views over the city and down onto the palace itself.  There are also water ponds in front and behind the Gloriette structure.   Apparently on a calm day they act as reflecting ponds but today the slight breeze we had made this not possible.

We finished our day by heading back to the hotel using the extremely effect metro system here. By the time we got back it was after 5 (and we had left around 9) so we both were ready to call it a day.