Vienna, Austria

I was wanting to stay in Budapest longer at first and not do Vienna at all, but Brian really wanted to go there.  It turned out to be an exceptional day.  Well, truth be told, it wasn't even a full day.  We left our apartment in Budapest that morning to make it to Vienna for Mass at St. Stephen's.  We had looked into taking the kids to a marionette show, but it was too far out of the city center and would've taken up most of our only day in Vienna.  So we opted to try to tackle Brian's bucket list for Vienna, and we killed it.

1.  St. Stephen's Cathedral

2.  Sacher Torte

3.  Cafes

4.  Concert

5.  Wienerschnitzel

When we arrived in the city, we just parked and walked to our new apartment to get settled and then went right out to get to Mass.  It was, of course, a grand cathedral with a stunning apse.  During Mass, a large choir sang all the hymns.  It was really spectacular to have Truth and Beauty tied together on so many levels during this Heavenly feast.

The choir sat for a while after Mass, so Brian went and got a photo of them.

After Mass, we were ravenous and headed straight to the restaurant that Brian had picked out from a list of where to get the best Wienerschnitzel.  This was an excellent choice.  We sat outside and everyone of us shared giant schnitzels since we had big plans for coffee and cake all afternoon.

The true and original Sacher Torte is only served at the Sacher Cafe.  We waited for less than half an hour outside to be seated.  The experience was just so so in my opinion.  They were very busy, the service was quick, but not as warm.  On top of that, we were seated downstairs due to the size of our group and how crowded they were which wasn't as elegant as upstairs.  Then there was the torte.  It was good, but has hints of apricot in it and I usually don't like to fruitify my chocolate.  I'm okay with chocofying my fruit, but the other way just seems like a waste.  In conclusion, this was my least favorite part of the day.  Brian loved it, though he was disappointed about our seating.

My Bob, patiently awaiting his torte.

The famous Sacher Torte and my outstanding cup of coffee!

Cafe Central, one of the many famous cafes with fancy decor and accompanying piano music.  This one was towards the top of the list and we had to wait outside in a line with a "bouncer" letting people in as tables became available.  It was hot and sunny, so once we got close to the front we thoroughly enjoyed the air conditioning blowing on us as they opened the door each time.

The cafe experience was memorable.  We ordered three desserts to share and got lemonades and coffees.  Pretty sure that everyone agreed that the chocolate one was the best, and if they didn't they are crazy.

 We walked around a bit before our concert was to begin.  I love that it feels like you are in a museum as you just stroll along the streets of the city with so many statues and fountains everywhere you turn.

Concerts!  The first concert was the pianist in the crypt of St...  We all went to that one, but the audience was small and Brian was very conscious of every noise our crew made.  I thought they did fine.  The guy was amazing and our oldest three, all budding pianists, were pretty impressed and awed by his playing.  It even inspired Drew to start learning to play when we got back from our trip.  Isaac promised to give him lessons and he's been teaching him very patiently.  The pianist was a little quirky and the moment he finished the concert, he bolted out the door, and we only saw him again once when he was speed walking out of the church when we walked out a bit later.  An introvert, perhaps?

The crypt

After the concert, we went up to briefly look at the church, but they kicked us out pretty quickly.  I think a different concert was starting there and if you didn't have tickets you had to leave.  We went searching for a quick meal and found a hot dog stand.  It fed us well with super-duper long hot dogs stuffed into a hole in the baguette made by a contraption that looked like nothing more than a metal pole that they shove the baguette on. 

We took the kids to the apartment and the girls happily put the boys to bed for us and babysat while we went back out to another concert, this time a string quartet.  We accidentally got the time wrong and we were about 20 minutes late to it, but that just scored us a reduced rate.  Annakirche was my favorite of the churches in Budapest and Vienna.  That may just be because I had so much time to soak in all the details from my pew while I listened to some seriously angelic music.  I am a strings girl myself as for my classical music tastes.  A string quartet makes such a divine sound.  I am so very glad we went, and glad it was alone so I could just sit back and relish it all, the church and the music.

Getting a closer look at the statue that caught my eye the most during the concert.

On the walk home, Brian decided to surprise me with a stop at a cocktail bar where I had my first Moscow Mule, and I liked it.

We stayed up entirely too late, but it was a day and night to remember.  The next day we woke up and hit the road again, but this time to go home!