A Viennese Palace and some Pandas!

On our second day in Vienna we went to the Christmas markets at Schonbrunn Palace. Unlike the other Christmas markets, this one was a but further out of the city. The Schonbrunn market is one of the largest markets in Vienna, with over 75 exhibitors.

The setting is amazing, a lovely Christmas village in front of a huge Palace. We visited on Christmas Eve so it was pretty quiet. Viennese people, like much of Europe, celebrate their Christmas on Christmas Eve, so most of the shops and public transport stop operating in the late afternoon.

While the previous day had been super rainy, Christmas Eve was really foggy and freezing cold! The fog just made the atmosphere so much more magical, and with snow on the ground it really felt like it was properly Christmas.

The market had lots of handmade ornaments, and lots of places selling hot cider and gingerbread plus a huge Christmas tree in front of the palace where lots of people were posing for photos.

After wandering around the markets for a while, we went for a walk in the gardens of the palace. The gardens are supposed to be beautiful in Summer, but I can't imagine how they could be any lovelier. There was snow on the ground and all the trees were covered in snow and frost. The fog made it seem really spooky and mysterious, especially because we were almost the only people in the huge gardens.

Our plan for the rest of the day was to go to the Zoo. The Vienna Zoo is the oldest in the world, founded in 1752. Considering how freezing it was, it was about -3 degrees, it seemed a bit crazy to go to the zoo, but I couldn't pass up the chance to see Giant Panda's!

About to get a snowball in my face

The Zoo was located somewhere in the Palace Gardens, but we didn't have a map and no sense of what direction it was in, so just continued wandering in the hope we would come across it!

We realised after wandering a while that we were in a maze! Considering how high the hedges were, it seems like it would be hard to find your way out in Summer, but in Winter it was pretty easy!

We saw lots of little squirrels, very different to the fat grey squirrels we have in the UK. These were tiny and red or black and had very pointy little ears. They were so cute and kept running away as I tried to creep up on them.

Christmas trees!

No one around!

After almost giving up and admitting we were lost in a Winter Garden, we came across the Zoo. By the time we arrived it was already about 2.00 p.m., and the Zoo closed at 4.30 p.m., however we figured two hours would be more than enough time exploring the Zoo if we walked quickly! 

Plus speed walking around the Zoo was guaranteed to keep us warm.

Panda's everywhere

Our very first stop was the Giant Panda enclosure, the Zoo has four Panda's, two of which have been bred in captivity, the only two in Europe to have been born in a Zoo.

They were so fat and fluffy and just sat eating branch after branch of bamboo. I can see why those crazy people jump into Panda enclosures thinking they can cuddle them. They have such fat faces!

Fat Panda!

The Princess and the Frog?

The Zoo has a huge Elephant enclosure, as it was so cold outside all the Elephant's were inside. We went inside and were immediately hit with a heat cloud, it was so warm inside. There was a baby Elephant and two huge adult's,  and think we were in there for about 20 minutes just watching them eating. We really had to force ourselves to go back outside!

Our favourite part of the Zoo was coming across a Kea enclosure. It's always so exciting and unexpected to come across a NZ animal in a foreign zoo. We were the only ones visiting the Kea's and loved watching them hopping around and climbing up their cage with their beaks.

Can you spot the odd one out?

There was a big indoor aquarium with lots of different types of fish, but also jellyfish that glowed in the dark, huge spiders and even bigger snakes. There were two really big Anaconda's in an enclosure, they were so creepy crawling all over each other.

We left the Zoo in the late afternoon when it closed for the day and headed back to our hotel. We were completely frozen after spending the whole day out in the cold and needed a hot shower. Most of Vienna had shut down for Christmas so it was home to pack up our things before heading to the Czech Republic on Christmas Day.