2022 Austria Day 2: Spanish Riding School, Michaelerplatz, Sisi Museum

9 Sep 2022: Day 2

We wanted to visit Palace of Justice in the morning, but we were rejected to enter as we were not wearing FFP2 face masks. The Palace is home to the Supreme Court, the Procurator General’s Office, the Vienna Higher Regional Court of Appeal and the Senior Public Prosecutor’s Office for Vienna and the Vienna Regional Court for Civil Matters.

Hence, we headed straight to our second stop, Spanish Riding School. We passed by Heldenplatz to take a few photos of two famous statues and military monument 

The ticket into Spanish Riding School was 9,50 euro. The Spanish Riding School in Vienna is the only institution in the world which has practiced for more than 450 years and continues to cultivate classical equitation in the Renaissance tradition of the Haute Ecole - which can also be found on UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity. The performances of the horses trained by this famous equestrian school amazed audiences from all over the world.

I found the show to be dull and uninteresting. I do not think it was a training session but just one hour of horses “walking” around the arena. They did not practice any exercises or perform any tricks. It was literally one hour trotting around and around! 10 minutes into the show we wanted to leave. We stayed the entire hour expecting for some interesting stuff that never happened.

You will not miss Michaelerplatz if you are around Spanish Riding School. Standing on square, any modern visitor would clearly see that Michaelerplatz reflects the entire history of the city. It is home to the Loos House, roman excavations, the Michaelertrakt, St. Michael’s church, and more. Numerous horse-drawn carriages enhance the timeless feeling

We looked for vegetarian lunch from a restaurant which serves antipasti, salad and pasta. My dad ordered his all time favourite aglio-olio. 

After that, we headed to BILLA supermarket to buy salad and ham for my mom and my lunch. It was our second day in Austria. We were still very much captivated by various types of salad and antipasti. Here were what we bought.  

The Sisi Museum in Vienna takes an authentic look at the life of the famous Austro-Hungarian monarch away from the usual clichés, in the original living environment of Empress Elisabeth, known as "Sisi". The show focuses on Elisabeth's private life, her rebellion against the court ceremonial, her flight into beauty, sporting excellence, travel and rapturous poetry. From the carefree time as a young girl in Bavaria to the surprising engagement with the Austrian emperor to her 1898 assassination in Geneva, the museum shows the restless life of the legendary empress.

Among the 300 objects on display in the museum are parasols, fans and gloves, items of clothing, beauty preparations, her milk glass with its travelling case, her travelling medicine chest and even the original death certificate.

After walking for more than half a day, we really wanted to sit down and relax. We picked Mozart Cafe because we liked its open seating area, and its online reviews seem quite promising. 

Vienna is famous for apple strudel. I was told not to leave Vienna without trying apple strudel. We had the Apple strudel with vanilla, despite my mom and I both do not really like cinnamon, which is one of main ingredients in apple strudel.