Michelle gets all federal holidays, and we plan to take advantage of that with a long travel weekend with her over each holiday (this works out amazing well for a trip each month except for the drought of holidays in March, April, May ... but by then, she'll be counting the days until Craig returns -- and hoarding her vacation days for the big plans they have).
The range of travel options is amazing! Should we go to Prague, Amsterdam, Paris, Venice????? It's hard to get used to the number of awesome places we can visit with a 4-5 hr car drive! As the weather here in Freihung has been cool and cloudy for several days, we decided to let the weather map make our decision, so Vienna won out with it's predicted sunshine and 70deg.
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| Our hotel - Pension Neuer Markt. Right in city center! |
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| View from our room |
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| View from our room |
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| Our hotel in the background |
Saturday: As promised, the weather was gorgeous, warm enough for shorts! We started the day with a 2-hr walking tour of Vienna courtesy of Rick Steve's pod cast. Walking the ring road gave us a good orientation to city center, and it served to tire Molly out so we could leave her in the hotel when we visited the churches and museums.
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| flowers flowers everywhere |
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| Churches churches everywhere! St. Stephens Cathedral |
Amazing architecture from the 14th century
St Peter's Church (below) was my personal favorite
Smaller than St Stephens, St Peter's church (17c) and very open and bright with amazing fresco paintings on every surface.
Dan returned in the evening for an organ concert.
Vienna has several pedestrian-only boulevards. And in such nice weather, they were full of open air cafes. Gotta have some refreshment while church walking! Dan wasn't impressed with the beer, compared to what he's taken a liking too in Germany, but Michelle and I have a favorite drink: Hugo.
Pronounced "Ugo" its a blend of prosecco, mineral water, mint and lime. SOOO refreshing.
We spent the afternoon touring all the outdoor sights, taking full advantage of this beautiful weather.
We toured the Imperial Palace, the city home of the Hofburgs until they were exiled after WWI.
After Hitler occupied Vienna, he addressed the troops here.
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The Peoples Garden |
Sunday:
We spent the morning at the Kunsthistorisches Museum --the Museum of Fine Arts. This place was AMAZING and we could have easily spent two days touring all the exhibits. This is one of the few structures that was actually built to be a fine arts museum (vs a home of royalty).
The afternoon was spent at Schonbrunn Palace (the Hofburg's summer home!). The tour included 22 of the 40 rooms in the home. Plus the carriage house ...
We hiked from the main house up to the "patio". Good thing there was a café waiting when we arrived!
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| View from top of the main house. |
ahh, dinner time!
Monday, September 2nd
While in the Vienna, we got the news that Dan's mom had died. She lived such a full and joyful life for 88 years that it is hard not to be happy that her passing came gently while she slept. She had a major stroke and died after one day in the hospital. She was a classy lady and will be missed.
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| Jeann Quinlan Knowland |
Return trip to home via Melk:
On our drive to Vienna on Friday, Dan spotted something off the autobahn that looked like a castle. Further research showed that it was a Benedictine monastery, one of the oldest and most famous abbeys.
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It's truly amazing how much history and culture we owe to the Church and Royalty.
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