Vienna, part 2

Sunday morning- we got up and headed into town once again.  We hoped on the metro that took us to the Parliament Building (around the corner) which is where we wanted to begin our tour of the city... We had a lot of things we wanted to see but priorities... Butterfly house for the kids of course. We got off the metro and made out way back to the Palace but first walked through parks, around buildings, and took pictures.  

Rathaus (City Hall)- right off the metro:

Österreichisches Parliament (Austrian Parliament)

Volksgarten:

A fantastic park we walked through to get to the Hofburg Palace that dates back to 1820.

Hofburg (Imperial Palace Vienna)

The grounds are huge- home of the Habsburg dynasty… complete with their own church, park, and museums.

We then walked around the grounds, made our way to the street and back to the grounds to the butterfly garden.. 

Stopped to take Pinocchio pictures: Aydin 

Liam

and back at the back entrance of the Hofburg Palace:

And finally into the butterfly house- called the Schmetterlinghaus!! 
The kids loved it- and were trying everything possible to get one to land on them:  

Hofburg:

Once we finished, we went into the Hofburg gardens and sat by the pond.  Mike and Rokzanne met up with us and we hung out for a bit...

The kids tried so hard to feed the ducks.... they didn't want any of our food though.  

Morgan and Mackenzie- laying out and enjoying the sun: 

By this time, we were getting hungry so we decided to look for somewhere to eat.  Although it was a long shot- we walked back to the market to try to eat... no such luck. Everything was closed!

We walked by the Museum Quarter

Kunsthistorisches Museum- Museum of Art History: 

Burgtheater (Court Theater)

Rokzanne and Mike mentioned a festival happening in the park next to the Parlament building (the same park we walked through a few hours prior to) and we thought it would be perfect… so once again- we started walking that way. 
What a great idea… it was perfect!!
The market was in the Rathus (City Hall) grounds and was amazing!! 

We all got the food we wanted… with venders selling any type of food you could ask for.

After lunch, we parted ways for a bit- they wanted to drive by the Schönbrunn
Palace and we wanted to look for a store for Steve (a Swiss store that sells outerwear only sold in stores around here).  Of course, we got off the metro, walked to the street and found nothing but pouring rain. So much for walking to the store...

We decided to head back to the apartment, grabbed the car, and tried finding the store.  Of course, both stores were closed so we made one last stop on our list of things to see: Hundertwasserhaus.  This is a house with funky walls, textures, and paint.  It stopped raining just in time for us to walk around and get a few pictures... 

and have some ice cream: 

We had just enough time to meet the Dosier's at Prater Park- home of the ferris wheel... so we were going to have some fun before we got on the road again tomorrow. With the weather being a bit funky… and the ferris wheel being more of carnival with expensive rides and crappy games instead of just the wheel- we decided to just head back to the apartment, grab take out, and watch Mexico play in the World Cup (and lose in the last minute). 

Today was great!!  Vienna is beautiful!  Kids were happy!  Food was awesome. Overall success (minus the rain and apartment location). 

Vienna- a beautiful place but one I do not need to come back to before the long list of other places gets checked off first.