The Orangery in the Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna

The Orangery in the Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna

 

To get to the summer palace we had to change a few times on the metro as line 4 was closed for work.

This was a long weekend in Vienna.

Holiday for Whit Sunday. All the shops were shut so everybody was out and about.

The train system here is so efficient it wasn’t an issue. Trains come every 4 minutes. So for us it was the U2 to U1 to U3 to U6 to get there.

I wanted to see the Orangery Garden here. We had seen the one in Potsdam, Germany,  but couldn’t go inside. I had read about this one so it was on the agenda. What I hadn’t realised was that this was a special weekend.

All things citrus. So, we were lucky.

The Orangery buildings have the most glorious structures. And are kept warm by fires heating through the floor. Not hydro but a dry heating of the floor.

We had a chat with a volunteer with the organisation running the event. She was selling crepes. She had made marmalade using the Seville oranges that are grown in the Orangery.

When she found out we were Australian she wanted to talk about the finger limes. Always fun to do that!

We even found some for sale!

The crepes, served with lemon marmalade, were delicious and we happily bought some marmalade to take with us to Prague to enjoy.

We were surprised at how few visitors there were in the Orangery but I am guessing that this wasn’t the usual tourist stop. There were hundreds lined up to buy tickets to the tours of the palace although once in the gardens they all dispersed.

There were all the usual suspects in an event like this. It reminded me so much of home.

The Bee keepers, the worm farm, the pruning demonstrations along with the sellers of the different varieties of citrus, the volunteers serving afternoon tea. Even the special displays of citrus.

Good grass root stuff.

Out into the garden and the formal section where the plants (all in pots) are swapped around to be out in the open in summer and then back in for winter.

We found a small coffee shop near here which was hosted by the marionette theatre. The woman who served us has been working with the puppets for 40 years so was really enthusiastic to share her joy, information as well as cake!

It takes up to 6 months for a puppeteer to proficiently ‘walk’ the puppets, then there is the next stage of performing without tangling up with the co-actors.

You have to admire the patience to perform.

A wander through the more ‘wild’ areas and manicured hedging around natural grasses and shrubs with the odd statue popping up. A beautiful day for a wander and in and out of the green houses.  It still amazes me that we can be amongst what feels like millions of people and then alone in these spaces. I just love the way that these huge cities can carry so many people around. Sam likened it to the footy crowd leaving. But every half hour????

For us it was back to the subway ending a pleasant last day in Vienna.

We loved her!