2013-07-14: Schoenbrunn on Bastille Day!

Vive le France!

Bastille Day - the last time we came to Europe (2009), Bastille Day was our first day back in the U.S.A.  Although we weren't in France for the big day, we're still loving our time in Austria.  We'll have to visit friends in France the next time :)

Today, we went to Schoenbrunn, which was the summer palace for the Habsburgs.  King, er, Queen among these people was Maria Theresa, a badass well before her time.  She was the daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles the VI, and upon her ascension to power, her title was as follows:

"Maria Theresa, by the Grace of God, Dowager Empress of the Romans, Queen of Hungary, of Bohemia, of Dalmatia, of Croatia, of Slavonia, of Galicia, of Lodomeria, etc.; Archduchess of Austria; Duchess of Burgundy, of Styria, of Carinthia and of Carniola; Grand Princess of Transylvania; Margravine of Moravia; Duchess of Brabant, of Limburg, of Luxemburg, of Guelders, of Württemberg, of Upper and Lower Silesia, of Milan, of Mantua, of Parma, of Piacenza, of Guastalla, of Auschwitz and of Zator; Princess of Swabia; Princely Countess of Habsburg, of Flanders, of Tyrol, of Hennegau, of Kyburg, of Gorizia and of Gradisca; Margravine of Burgau, of Upper and Lower Lusatia; Countess of Namur; Lady of the Wendish Mark and of Mechlin; Dowager Duchess of Lorraine and Bar, Dowager Grand Duchess of Tuscany."

It's *hard* growing up royalty, I guess!

This being said, she did enact some fairly important reforms around education and seems to be fairly-universally cherished by Austrians.  

And for those of you that may not think that the ruling class is a rigged game, keep in mind that she was one of the few of the Habsburgs of the time that were NOT inbred.  Read up on how well that worked out for the Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt FFI.  Part of the reason for this is that the royal families tended to marry for power/alliances, so they tended to be in the same [relatively] small gene pools over time.  Her children (one of whom was Marie Antionette, future Queen of France) went on to high positions in Europe, and if you trace all of the bloodlines, it's like a tight little club they got going on there...  She had 16 children (!), and this is before the Duggars and the silly Quiverfulls (oh more silliness here).  In fact, of all of her children, she had a favorite daughter, and this one was the ONLY one she allowed to marry for love.

There were no cameras allowed inside, which was a real bummer, because the place was amazing. 

 Maria Theresia in her larval state.

OMG GUYS!  LOOK, IT'S MOZART!!!

im in ur palaces defyn ur graviteez

owning it

Holy crap, that girl is a REBEL.

Two of the sweetest things Schoenbrunn has ever seen.

My darlings at Schoenbrunn.

Hercules helping a lion with his tonsils.

Hercules helping a monster with its tonsils.  Or something.  Hey Herc!  Nice lion skin cape you got there!

After the tour of the interior, we checked out the exterior of the palace and the grounds.  It's nice because they have a public park area, some mazes (hard ones) and a cool hike up a hill to (another) palace.  At least when confronted with "what should we do with the ungodly amount of money we have?" they built cool stuff.  Seems that largesse of this sort these days would primarily go to things like buying the Senate and/or Presidency to ensure the continuation and preservation of the wealth.  Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson, and Elon Musk, you guys officially kick ass.  Thank you for doing interesting/useful/important things with your resources/time. 

You can't see it, but she's IDENTICAL to the pose on the statue.

Life imitates art.

Yeah, so at one point I was *wishing* for a Minotaur, just to stop the monotony of me taking the same wrong turns over and over and over and over...

Top 'o' the hill, yo.

I loves me some Plane trees.

Leaving Schoenbrunn - next stop: Tichy's!

Yeah, this place pretty much kicks ass.

#OMNOMNOMNOM

Flowers right next to our bench.   They're pretty.

Such a fun day - can't wait for tomorrow (that I already wrote about - sorry!)