Vienna day 5

Today, we got an early start and walked the km to the summer palace of the Habsburgs. It is a massive garden compex with a zoo and the necessary massive building full of opulent rooms. Alex and I opted to just do the gardens, while Angela and Adam did the inside as well.

We toured the gardens for a few hours. We first got some great overall pictures from the back of the palace. Then we explored the hedgemaze, which was surprisingly well designed, making it a lot of fun. We then took pictures of the massive Neptune fountain, both from the front and through the waterfall from the back. We then trekked up to the top of the hill to see a giant monument to the Habsburg's glory. I opted to go to go to the top, while Alex decided to chill at the bottom (good for pictures!). We then headed back down the hill to a few more monuments (one was an obelisk with heiroglyphs made before they had deciphered what they meant, though that didn't stop them from claiming it told the story of the habsburgs). We then visited a couple of over hyped fountains before heading back towards the hostel.

After a quick bathroom break (free toilet at hostel), we got some more ice cream and walked to the metro stop. We then rode out to the Nashtmarkt for some last minute shopping. Alex got a bag and I got a new soccer jersey. The guy who sold me the jersey didn't have it, but he told us to wait while he checked with his dad. Turns out that his dad had a stall a couple down. So his dad came over and they told us about the grandfather who was an American Jew from Detroit making the father get the nickname "American guy" despite his lack of English speaking. We then headed back to the hostel for a couple games of Settlers before heading out for one last unsuccessful souvenir hunt. We met up with Angela and Adam before grabbing some Turkish for our last dinner in Europe! ;(