A couple of days in Vienna and we see reasons beyond arbitrary royal commands that we want NO Kings.
Schonbunn above was the last residence of Franz Joseph I in 1916. On our tour it seemed that most of the family occupied only one floor. I imagine the cost of the palace and its maintenance must have been (and is now) quite a few $$. I’m sure some of the tab was billed to the Austrian people.
There are additional buildings & grounds.
The palace woods, park and fountains are impressive.
Luckily Vienna now has tourists to support palace upkeep. We paid $92 for two tickets.
Four hours visiting the summer palace and grounds wasn’t enough. We took the Metro downtown and did a walking tour that included Franz Joseph’s winter home. We spent a morning in this palace 18 years ago. We decided we didn’t need to do it again.
In addition to selling carriage rides Vienna seems to employ a number of friendly Courtiers selling concert tickets to tourists.
Here are some interesting things we saw in Vienna the King had built.
Driving the plague out of Vienna
Here is a building Franz Joseph wanted torn down but he didn’t get his way.
In 1910 the controversial Looshaus apartments were in and the Hapsburg emperor was soon out. No happy ending. Near the Opera is a memorial to remind us of the horrors of Fascism and War.
The memorial features the horror of Orpheus entering Hades and a starving Jew forced to clean graffiti.
The moral of the story No Kings, No Fascism, and No War. That sounds easy.
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