After arriving in Vienna, we checked into our hotel, Le Meredien Wien, and then headed over to the Naschtmarkt to find some dinner. We quickly landed on pizza (have to ensure LS eats sometimes) and had a decent salami pie, bruschetta, and tiramisu at Prego.
The next day the plan was to spend over at Schonbrunn Palace. We had timed entry tickets to the children’s museum at 11am, so we ate breakfast at Cafe Museum and then hopped on the U-Bahn.
The children’s museum was lovely. We stored our things (convinced LS to put her sea turtle stuffy in the storage locker this time) and entered the first room, which is the dress-up area. They provide historical costumes, wigs, and accessories in all sizes from toddler to adult and different areas where you can take photos.
Unfortunately, you can’t wear the costumes through the rest of the museum, so after taking a few photos, we took off our royal garb and continued to the next part of the museum. There were various rooms with informational guides about how kids from the 1700-1800s lived and acted. Some rooms had various older toys and puzzles, and one of the rooms was decorated as a bedroom (no photos were allowed here). In the final room, a dining table was set up and kids were allowed to set the table with real plates and silverware and plastic foods, so LS had a blast in here, pretending she was running a restaurant.
After that, we exited back to the dress-up area, where LS wanted to put on the same dress again. After a few more pictures, we decided it was time to find the maze.
Schonbrunn Palace has a very large backyard. We wandered around what we thought was the backyard for about half an hour looking for the maze before discovering we were only in the side yard. Finally, we found the entrance. The entrance covers both the playground and the maze area, so we went to the playground first. LS loved the funhouse mirrors here.
The maze area has three different mazes: one is a classic hedge maze, where there are dead ends and, if you chose the right path, you can make your way up to a platform that overlooks the area. The other two have set paths. We did all three, and then LS wanted to do the classic maze again, so I took a break while Mr. Strange went with her.
After the mazes, we climbed up the hill to the gloriette. We ate some cake at the cafe here and then went up to the top for the view.
When we came back down, we headed to the zoo. It is the oldest zoo still in operation, dating back to 1752. LS had some animal goals: she wanted to see the penguins and the aquarium. I wanted to see the pandas. We meandered our way through the zoo, getting slightly sidetracked by the playground, but managed to see what we wanted to see right before closing.
We headed back to our hotel to freshen up and then went to a nearby wurst stand, Bitzinger, for some hot dogs and fries. LS discovered she likes ketchup.
