Queen for a day

So today was my palace day. A-Maze-Ing. I know I´ve told most of you that I was born in the wrong era and really should have lived in the age where I could get married out of high school and stay home, cook, clean, and have someone take care of me? Well this is 10 times better! I should have been born when people lived in these fabulous "apartments" and had different ones for the summer and winter!

I started out at Hofburg Palace, their residence in Vienna. You begin with rooms of their silver/plates/table settings...the average "set" of plates centers around the number 96....96 plates, 120 soup bowls, etc. And they have about 20 sets for different occasions in gold, porcelin, cermaic, and silver. They have sets to travel, sets for wedding ceremonies, state dinners, etc. etc. I have 8 plates, 8 bowls, and numerous glasses - I guess I need to stock up. After that you attend the "Sisi" museum. Sisi is the nickname of the Empress Elisabeth and is highly romanticized and idolized here. Frankly, if I were Empress, I think I would not be called "Sisi"...sounds too much like a 4 year old. Anyway, she married her cousin who was emperor and deeply in love with her, had 4 children - 2 of whom died and then was murdered with a file while on one of her many reclusive trips abroad. They love her here. After seeing all her clothes, her workout room, her poetry, and clips from the 172 films about her you actually get to enter the apartments....amazing. Jon´s going to have to start making a lot more money to keep me in the style I would like to become accostomed to.

After my trip there it was time to head to Shonbrun, their "summer palace" which is the vastest piece of land EVER! The rooms are covered in silk, porcelin, laquer, wood, each room is more fabulous than the next and it goes on forever! Then the gardens in the back....it´s large enough where you could probably live there without anyone ever finding you....which I am thinking about. There are pools and gardens and statuary. Mazes, greenhouses, and even a zoo. There´s a huge monument at the end of the garden called the Glorrietta. To get there you have to climb a huge hill past 2 ponds, but once you reach the top you can see all of Vienna. I could definitely get used to that. Basically what I´m saying is I expect to come home to something similar so Mom and Dad you better get working on that thing YOU call a backyard ;-)