City Sights and the Zoo

Sorry again for the long gap! I get so lazy. But, we have seen some great sights since I last posted! We spent one delightful afternoon touring the Wien Tiergarten (Vienna Zoo), and the Schönnbrunn Castle. The inside was amazing. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed, but it was quite a sight! Andy and I were both impressed that the last emperor was a very responsible monarch. His quarters and office were all very plain, and he worked himself all day every day. But, there were other rooms that were just plain cool. One of the rooms had walls with fantastic Chinese carvings in super fancy rare wood. Amazing. But difficult to explain. hmm.

It was a beautiful fall day (I know, look how far behind I am), and we got some very nice pictures of the park:


After that, we explored the Tiergarten. Apparently, it is the world's oldest zoo. There were some amazing displays. The rainforest exhibit featured a room that was completely dark except for a little light, and they kept sugar water out, and there were bats zooming all over the place, in the same room as you. We were certainly not expecting that, and my body went completely rigid once I understood that there was no barrier keeping a bat from flying into my hair and attacking me...not that that happened, but it could have....

Also, the fire ant display was very cool. They had tubes running all through two or three rooms from the main colony, leading to a variety of trees that they harvest their leaves from. You could see them all marching one by one, through all the tubes. Super cool.

Also, they had very nice displays for the big animals:
The tiger above was crazy! Him and another tiger were fighting, and got up on their hind legs and were biting and bating at each other. Of course, we missed that shot, but it was startling. A very good reminder about how powerful these animals are.

Flamingos!
Zebras!
A nice overlook at the zoo. Such a nice day!:


I also go out occasionally with the camera. I found some nice composer statues and monuments.

Here is a nice photo of one of spires of the Stephansdome:
I also found Johann Struass, and a nice Beethoven statue:


Well, that's all for now. I have a few more posts in the works, with pictures from our Wein Wandertag, and some Christmas Markets! I'll post soon!