Welcome Spring!!!!
Went to Schloss Hof in the countryside about 45 minutes from Wien near the border with Slovakia. A beautiful day, sunny, warm, blue skies. The Schloss was built by Prince Eugen, a successful prince, and military leader. Some say he was gay, and judging from his flamboyant hairdo it's not difficult to imagine. Anyways the Schloss is beautiful, and amazingly understated (see the simplicity of the fountain). The Schloss was restored in the early 2000's so maybe that adds to the spanking new clean overall look to the place.
A little irony. The palace garden and fountains unfolds downhill along a long formal rectangle. The view is of the flat farmlands below and in the distance the mountains along the Donau, and the city of Bratislava in the former Czechoslovakia. We visited the city before, and it does have it's sections of old charm, but the place is dominated by super ugly, huge concrete communistic mass housing. These arrogant giant concrete buildings now dominate the distant view from Schloss Hof. Certainly a weird feeling to look at all that communistic arrogance from the princely arrogance of Schloss Hof. At least the Schloss is beautiful, can't say that at all about the communist people's palace in Bratislava.
Another Bratislava connection: storks nesting atop a chimney at Schloss Hof. There is a white stork sanctuary in Bratislava.
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