I think I'm becoming too efficient of a traveller! I covered so much today before 3:00pm, that I didn't know that to do with myself!

I had a big day planned, so I woke up early and hit the road by about 9:00am. The weather was very beautiful today, which was nice because I planned to be outside for most of the day.

I started at Schonbrunn palace. This palace was the summer palace of the Habsburgs (The royal family who lived in the Hofburg, which I visited yesterday). The palace was so huge and grand; it was hard to believe it was only a summer home that was empty for the remainder of the year. The palace itself is so big; it rivals the size of Versailles! While the gardens are not as vast as those of Versailles, they were equally as beautiful. Mom had mentioned that there were beautiful statues in Vienna; this palace must have been where she was talking about. There were many statues and a beautiful fountain in the gardens.

On the palace grounds, there is also a zoo! It's considered the oldest zoo in the world. It was a very large zoo with lots of animals, including lions and tigers and bears... oh my!!

After visiting the zoo, I left the palace gardens and headed downtown to St. Charles cathedral. This is a very popular attraction in Vienna that is on most of the postcards. It was such a beautiful building, inside and out! I marvelled at it for a while. The inside was beautifully decorated with marble and gold. It had a lift that brought you up to the top of the huge dome, which was very beautifully painted.

After the church, I headed to the Naschmarkt. It is a huge open air market that sells produce, fish, spices and flowers. There are also lots of restaurants and a large flea market. It was a really cool place.

Yes... I finished all of that before 3:00 this afternoon!! It was a great day, and it was nice to have the rest of the day to unwind and reflect on such a nice day.