The second part of our Columbus Day weekend was spent in lovely Wien. We loved visiting this city, but we learned a few things from this trip. 1st, we do not like driving in big cities, with lots of traffic, and narrow streets. 2nd we need better maps when we travel!! 3rd we need to learn to take advantage of local public transportation better ( I think we walked the kids legs off in Vienna). Funny story now that I am on the walking and public transportation subject. On our first day of Vienna, we didn't have any of the above 3 points and we were walking everywhere because driving was so scary in our big American car. Everything in Vienna is tall and white. All the building block out the view so you have no point of reference while walking. We thought we were walking back to where we had parked our car, and knew it was a ways off...but nothing looked familiar yet everything looked the same. So, we finally get to a metro stations and start referencing ourselves with the map. We found out we were walking the opposite direction for quite a ways. Never have I seen three more disheartened girls. "What, we have been walking forever for no reason!" says Hannah. Cora had said " you just like to torture us by walking and walking and not feeding us". Very disheartened! Well, we discovered how easy using the local metro system was. We hopped a subway and we were within a couple blocks of our car in a matter of minutes. That lightened everyone's mood extremely!
Hofburg Shloss
which is now just a series of museums and exhibits. Each wing of this magnificent palace is a separate museum. Of course you have to pay for each admission to each museum separately too :)
Schonbrunn Palace
And here is Hannah. I think I have mentioned before how Hannah is against pictures right now. So most of the pictures we have, Hannah is being zany!
The Judicial buildings of Vienna, Austria
A typical Vienna street.
All those tall white buildings blocking out any point of reference for directional purposes.
St. Stephen's Dom
A beautiful church!
All the architecture in Vienna and Salzburg is amazing. I loved looking at all the buildings.
In Hollywood, CA, modern day musicians have stars.
In Vienna, Austria, musicians of time gone by have stars.
One of our favorite parts of traveling, is trying all the local food.
Look at those pretzels! Yum!
More pictures of us eating.
People were stopping and taking pictures of us.
A crazy lady with 5 kids, three of which she was pushing in a stroller...
I loved this picture. This was our first introduction to European winter. It was very cold in Austria when we went. Even the horses are wearing little hats to keep their ears warm.
We visited a couple of museums while there. This one is the Schatzkammer in the Hofburg Schloss. It boasts the most important treasury in the world. Which includes this crown ( I liked that Hannah looks like she is wearing it in the picture) This crown is the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire (crafted around 962).
Another museum we visited was the Natural History museum of Austria. Mainly it was a big exhibit of taxidermy. However, look at those ceilings! You just don't see frescoes like this in America.
The highlight of the day for the girls. A hut made of mammoth bones.
It was a fun trip, but for future reference research exactly what you want to do. I had in mind several things I wanted to see...namely the Vienna boys choir, the Lipizzaner stallions at the Spanish riding school and the national art museum. All these things we either doing "shows" on days we were not there, or they were completely closed. Most things are closed on Monday's in Vienna...it is their day of rest I guess. Still a fun trip, but I do want to go back before we leave Europe!
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