DANCING WITH BUTTERFLIES

The Schönbrunn Palace is another favourite attraction for visitors. Your ticket will indicate the precise time that you may enter. Since this will involve a wait of a few hours, you can visit the palace gardens in the meantime. If it's spring, you will be treated to a festival of flowers.

These gardens also contain the Schönbrunn Zoo, the world's oldest, and a tropical botanical garden enclosed under glass. But the most fascinating section is the Butterfly House. Imagine hundreds of red, yellow, blue, green and purple butterflies fluttering and dancing all around you and alighting on your hands. Schönbrunn Palace , the summer residence of the imperial family, takes its name from a fountain in the garden. A hunting lodge stood here until Empress Maria Theresa had the palace built in the mid-18th century.