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!

Austria Day 3, 4, and 5: Offer it up!

This is such a great picture!  I am half tempted to use it as my blog cover photo.  Since it is not only our family.  I'll restrain myself.  Would've made a great Christmas card though!  Thanks to the stranger that volunteered to take a picture of us all!

Day three was going to be all day in Salzburg.  We had to catch a 8am train to Salzburg and so we had to get up pretty early to get everyone fed and dressed in super warm outer layers.  I got up at 6am which is not really what you want to do on vacation, but Bobby was getting up early anyway because his bottom two molars were jut about ready to pop through.  They actually broke through that night and he, for the second time, got new teeth in Austria.  His very first tooth came through in Austria last February.

We made it to the train on time, but I walked out without my purse which had my phone and camera in it.  :(  The night before I brought my purse, but forgot the diaper backpack.  I have too many balls in the air and am forgetting stuff left and right.  Brian had run back to get the diaper bag the night before before the train came, but this time there really was no need.  Plenty of people could take pictures for me and I didn't really need anything else in it.  So I can take no credit for the pictures taken in Salzburg.

Mozart's birthplace

Outside Mozart's birthplace

This was not our first time in Salzburg.  In fact, it was our third time, at least.  We went when I was pregnant with Isaac with my parents for a short time.  Then we went last year to stop at two pilgrimage churches.  One of these we decided was definitely worth going back to and taking our friends to see the Christ Child of Loreto.  The Christ Child was not going to be out until 3pm, so we first went shopping and exploring.  We saw Mozart's birth place, got some coffee, took many bathroom breaks, and went to lunch at Gablerbrau which was a restaurant I had picked from Trip Advisor.  I had some delicious creamy tomato soup, and shared some fries with Bobby.  He's been quite the picky eater since the beginning of the first set of molars started pushing on his gums.  He ate PB&J and french fries almost every meal.  I'm sure he's deficient in all sorts of vitamins.  The veggie/fruit pouches are all that's saving him at this point.

"Love Lock" bridge is a bridge that people put a lock onto (a real key lock or combination lock) with their initials on it as a sign of their undying love.

We were looking at a dessert creation  molded like the Stille Nacht church about an hour away from Salzburg.  We didn't go see the actual church, but when we got home.  Bob was asking me to read a Christmas book and one of the pages I don't recall reading before talked about the Silent Night church in Austria where the song Silent Night wouldn't have ever been written if not for the organ breaking on Christmas Eve.  Funny how you never take note of something and then suddenly you see it twice in the same week and it makes an impression.

At three o'clock, the nun greeted us with entirely too quiet and too fast German for any of us to catch, but we know she gave us all a blessing with the Christ Child of Loreto.  I may have accidentally told her not to say a Mass for our children because I stink so much in German still.  Brian tried to fix it, and, hopefully, he did.

The rest of the day went quickly with a stop in the cathedral.

The cathedral

It was a long day, folks.

On Day four, we awoke again quite early to walk up a massive hill in the snow to get to Jesus for Mass.  It truly felt like we were making a real pilgrimage up that hill.  It took us about forty minutes to get there from our rental.  It was steep and I was sorer from this trip in my legs than on any other.  Despite the freezing temps, we were all sweating by the time we reached the top.  It is a real tribute to our five year olds that they made it because there was no one to carry them since three of the adults were wearing babies or toddlers and none of us could have carried a 45 lb child up a hill of that magnitude anyway.  I was so proud of them even if there was some complaining.  We were telling the kids to offer their sufferings up and to imagine Jesus carrying his cross up a similar hill after being beaten all night.

We made it!!!!

 

After Mass we took some photos outside the church to remember our journey.

The church was pretty and very small.  The priest spoke slowly so I got a little more of what he was saying than I usually do.  I am guessing German was his second language.  Bobby was pretty good other than dropping the hymnal a few times.  I'm hoping he's on the back side of his discontented phase at Mass.  The local people were friendly and super sweet to us.  The lady behind me helped me with my coat and Drew with his as well.  Another lady came up to us and was asking where we were from and who was hosting us here.  She also asked if my friend was my sister.  I told her we were friends.

After Mass we took some photos outside the church to remember our journey.

What a view from the top it was!

We walked down the hill which was so much easier back to the house to go sledding again.  Bobby was much better this time.  His godmama had to watch him a minute while I disciplined Drew inside the house.  When I came back he was happily sitting in the sled.  So we walked down to the chapel at the end of our farm road, pulling him behind us.  We stopped in to visit Jesus and then walked back.  There was a cat and two horses on this farm that Bobby loved.  He's a huge animal lover right now with no fear at all in that area.

The walk back

Our kitchen window had such a breathtaking view.

Unfortunately, the snow became to powdery to make a snowman that day.  They sure did try though with whatever blocks of icy snow they could find, but it just wouldn't stick.

After taking a face plant in the snow.  Angry, but not screaming, so I'm happy.

Genevieve and her buddy were building a snow fort.

And really happy to be inside and holding the favorite book of the week, My Truck is Stuck.

At the end of the day, we actually were crazy enough to walk back up the hill to the restaurant around the corner from the church.  The big kids thought it was easier, except for Isaac who got an attack of gas pains on the way up and had to be encouraged by dad the last stretch.

We had the restaurant all to ourselves, and the fourteen of us filled nearly an entire room anyway.   I shared a schnitzel with Hannah that had bacon and a mushroom cream sauce on it that was amazing.  The potatoes were so buttery they may have been the best potatoes I've ever had, no exaggeration.

And that was the end of our trip.  The next day was only a travel day.  We made it out of the icy, snowy roads and back onto the main street with a gift from God when the train came by right after we had passed the tracks.  It would have been very difficult to get started again and make it over the tracks and up the incline to the main road if we'd had to stop there.  The ride home was more trafficky, but we still made fairly good time and were home in time for me to throw something together for dinner and some baths and showers before bed.