Solo statuary was sheathed against the weather, but the garden pavilion's scultpures were on display.

The great thing about Schoenbrunn is that while you must pay to get inside the palace, the grounds function as a city park. Joggers, strollers, sightseers, pondside ponderers all linger quite happily on the spacious grounds.

The park is almost square at 1 x 1.2 kilometres and has been on the Unesco World Heritage Sites since 1996. A brief word about Unesco: What the heck? We visited a Unesco site that called into question the merits of Unesco designation. This, however, was not that site. Schoenbrunn is definitely Unesco-worthy.

As we noted with other-things-Austrian, everything was tidy and well-kept. Litter was at a scant minimum and we did not spot a single drunk lounging on the park benches.

I know this sounds very snotty to look down my nose at public drunkenness, but nothing can upset the day’s happy balance quite the way that having a drunken wretch glare menacingly at you while muttering something in German. It is even less pleasant to have a drunk stagger behind you, casting his alcoholic breath over your airspace and waving his cigarette a little too close to your coat.

Am I saying this has happened to me? Of course it has, but not in Austria.

Schoenbrunn's garden rises upward, so it gives a beautiful view of Vienna below.

An unimaginative, but informative perspective on Schoenbrunn's garden pavilion, which houses a very nice and surprisingly affordable restaurant.

When the Austrians say they want high ceilings, they mean high ceilings, dangit.