Here I am again, for the second part of my trip to beautiful Vienna, in Austria!
I hope you like this trip report type of posts because, to be honest, they are one of my favorites to write.
Looking back in time, to trips and experiences, is always a good thing to do, in my opinion. Luckily, Vienna provided me enough of those, so here I am again. Before we continue with this post, here is part 1 of the visit to Vienna in case you missed: Vienna – part 1.
Let’s go visit Vienna – part 2
Saturday afternoon, and we were getting hungry.
Sun was out and we were very close to City Park, so we had this amazing idea of grabbing something from the supermarket and eat it at the park.
A little lunch break, picnic style!
I love it!!
Stadspark (City Park)
With our bellies full and rested legs, we decided to continue our journey. First, a stroll through the city park, which was full of people enjoying the lovely Saturday early afternoon. Kids playing and running around, and many groups of friends just sitting in circles enjoying their time together.
I like to see how people enjoy their time in the cities where they live.
Many people enjoying the lovely weather at Stadspark
From the city park, we decided to start heading towards the Schloss Belvedere area. It seemed a relatively short walk from the City Park, maybe 10 minutes or so, but of course, knowing myself a bit, I had to stop a few times here and there to snap some pictures.
Vienna’s architecture is just so beautiful, that I had a really hard time not acting as a Japanese tourist (no offense!). haha
Right at Schwarzenbergplaz, there is a huge fountain, the Hochstrahlbrunnen fountain, which was built to celebrate the construction of the first water pipes that connected the Styrian Alpes to Vienna, at the end of the 19th century.
The winds were strong and it blew some water towards us; didn’t complain, as it felt really nice some refreshing at this point!
Hochstrahlbrunnen
Just a short walk away from the Schwarzenbergplaz, and we finally got to the Schloss Belvedere.
The Belvedere is one of the most beautiful palaces I have ever seen, and I only saw it from the outside and its gardens.
It was built to be a summer residence for Prince Eugene of Savoy, which grew up around the court of Louis XIV, and he wanted to have a palace to rival Versailles.
I have never been to Versailles, but if Belvedere is this beautiful, I can’t even imagine how Versailles is…
Gardens of Schloss Belvedere
We took the “back entrance” of Belvedere, meaning that we walked all the way through the gardens until reaching the upper palace itself.
The gardens are free admittance, but to visit the palace you need to buy tickets, and it’s advised to do so online and in advance in order to save time and money. Sounds good to me, but next time…
Gardens of Schloss Belvedere
The gardens link the upper and lower palaces, and they were laid down around 1700 in a French style, as mentioned above, which is still very present and well preserved. I’d say the gardens are divided into three sections each of them giving fantastic views of Vienna.
Hence the name of this area; Belvedere means beautiful view.
Gardens of Schloss Belvedere
Of course, there were many tourists taking “Instagram worthy” photos, which was a bit annoying, I must confess, but other than that, it was all great!
Finally at the upper palace! What a gorgeous building.
The views of the city were nothing I could expect… beautiful!!!
Upper Palace at Belvedere
As I mentioned before, we did not visit the palace itself, unfortunately, so instead, we just appreciated it from the outside and made our way to its main entrance. Little we knew what was waiting for us…
The entrance of Belvedere and its garden
Look at this amazing front garden and gate!!!
I mean, this whole area is soooo beautiful and I am super glad we went there.
A must-see, if I may say so.
The gates to Belvedere Palace and gardens
So, there will be on more post: part 3, and final, I promise!! Well, and that’s it for part 2.
Now, let me be honest with you: I thought two posts would be sufficient to share all the good things we saw while in Vienna, but guess what? It isn’t.
Don’t forget to follow me on my socials so you will know first hand when the very last post about Vienna is up!!
I hope you liked this one and in case you missed part 1, here you are: Vienna – part 1
