Day 2 of Vienna trip

I hope you enjoyed my post yesterday as I have loads more to show and tell.  So having had a relaxing evening the night before we were all up and ready on Thursday at 9am prompt ready for the bus to take us to our group activity which was a trip to the Schonbrunn Palace.

Stampin'Up! had kindly arranged for a wheelchair to be available for me in order that I could take place in this activity.  Whilst it was a nice gesture I felt out of things as everyone was chatting away whilst I got whizzed around the grounds..lol.   On arrival we were told that we could take pictures outside but not inside the Palace.  There were two tour options, one was to go off by yourself with headsets to listen to the tour and the other was with a guide.  With being in the wheelchair I obviously had to go on the guide tour who was Elizabeth and very knowledgeable.  My companion for the day with the chair was Christina.  One of the downfalls about the trip is that there were a lot of cobbled and gravelled areas which didn't do my back any good at all, as I was to experience later.

Anyway, on entering this fabulous courtyard you had the stunning view of the palace and building on the hill.
You could also take a tour around the grounds in a horse drawn carriage.

Having taken the tour we then went outside and started to walk down one of the many tree lined avenues where a surprise was in store for us.  We finally ended up at another lovely building with a white courtyard.  On entering the building we discovered a room set out with tables and on these were mini rolling pins, hats, aprons, some dough and apples...... yes we were in for a spate of baking traditional Apple Strudel.   

 Here we see the table as it was set out on entering the room and also some "students" obviously concentrating on the matter in hand.

Now the knack to making a apple strudel is how thin you get the pastry and you have to roll it out fairly thinly and then pick it up and turn it on the back of your hands and arms to make it virtually paper thin.   Here is a picture of Vic doing just that..... Unfortunately shortly after this shot everything went to pot with her pasty and I'm sad to say I didn't get a picture of it.  However the chef decided to take pity on her and came to give a hand and as you can see team work does help!!!!!


 Now some of you eagle eyed folk would have noticed a big blob of something in the background of the completed strudel.  Well that my friends is the poor and disastrous attempt that Vic made and the front one is the chef aided one...lol


  I asked Christina if all visitors to the palace had the chance to make the strudel as we had just done and she said no.  Usually the chef puts on a 45minute demo for visitors who then go back to the teashop to eat a slice but did not get the chance to bake themselves, that had purely been allowed for us.


Following the fun of the strudel making we made our way back towards the main palace and a lot of the demo's walked through the beautiful gardens.  We still had the carriage part of the tour to see and time was running out.  Again we couldn't take any pictures inside the display area but could of the gardens.   They were just spectacular.   After the carriage tour we then went back to the tea shop to be given the strudels we had made along with our certificates,

Earlier on you saw how neat the strudels looked before they were baked.  Image our disappointment when, on receiving them,, they looked as though they had been run over by a car due to having to cut them to get them in the box.  Never mind it was an experience I certainly won't forget 

We arrived back at out hotel about 2ish and went to the hospitality suite for a drink and the demo's to spin the wheel.  The rest of the day was free for us to do what we wanted.  All the English demo's went out for a meal.  Unfortunately I was unable to join them due to the pain I was in having gone over so many cobbles and gravel so I stayed in whilst Vic joined the group.  She did bring me half a lager up on her return to the hotel about 11ish so that was good.

I'll be back later with day 3 of the trip so stay tuned !!!!

Hugs
Tracy -x-