Travel For FOUR

It´s been a while since we´ve blogged… It´s funny because on previous trips, internet cafes were on every corner — you could´t get away from the blasted things. On this getaway, the internet cafes have been hard to find and VERY SLOW. And the internet cafe computers only have USB connections if you´re incredibly lucky. We lucked out in Vienna and our room was directly above a T-mobile store — we could pay to link into their Hot Spot and use our own machine (which is very fast) in order to call G´s sister using Skype (she received a diamond engagement ring for Christmas) and to update our blog.

We have been diligently writing posts from our jaunts and will upload them complete with tons of photos when we return to London this Friday.

For now, I love cafes of all types… we feel lucky to have found this internet cafe and we´re about to head out for our late afternoon lattes!

First, we visited home to the works of Rubens, Rembrandt, Raphael, Vermeer, Bruegal, Velázquez, Bellini, and others… at a museum that goes by my initials, KHM.

Then to lunch, to see the Blue Danube, and to sip lattes high above Vienna with a mountaintop perch ideal to view the day’s beautiful sunset. Then, we made our way back down to the Valley where we had dinner at a local vineyard, a Heuriger (literally translated to wine garden). Now, we’re off to do laundry… fun, fun.

We’ve updated the Vienna album to include today’s photos; flip to page 4 to see the new additions.

We arrived in Vienna late Tuesday and will continue to explore until early Saturday. On Tuesday, we walked about town to get our bearings and found St. Stephen’s cathedral, enjoyed a nice dinner at Café Central and then ventured out to see a the city at night. We saw many of the major sites (see photos in Vienna Album). Then today, on Wednesday, we toured the Hapsburg Palace Imperial Apartments and Treasury. A couple highlights included seeing the bejeweled crown of the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, a tooth of John the Baptist, a couple small pieces of the tablecloth from the Last Supper, a 1 ft. length of the lance believed to have pierced Jesus’ side on the cross, and a small piece of the cross that Jesus died on (a portion with a nail hole from the crucifixion). All from the Hapsburg Collection, these items were breathtaking and awe-inspiring, there were also medallions, crowns and embroidered clothing encrusted in jewels and sewn with gold thread. Quite impressive.

We’ve also tried a few of the local dishes since we arrived: Goulash (paprika flavored beef and sauce); Tafelspitz (boiled beef with potatoes and carrots — a lot like my mom’s), Kaiserschmarrn (a pancake that’s cut-up before being served with fruit compote) a Topfenstrudel (a cheese-filled strudel).

Since it’s the 250th Anniversary of Mozart’s life, much of Vienna’s sights are also focused on Mozart and his works. During our remaining time here, we plan to tour a couple more of the local palaces, perhaps see the Lizzaner stallion museum (if we’re lucky, we may be able to see them practice tomorrow, but we think they’re out of town), walk along the Danube River, visit more of the local Cafes (the Viennesse equivalent of the English Pub — only with coffee instead of beer). We also plan to see a bit of the Nutcracker tomorrow night at the local, supposed breathtaking Opera house.

See photos from Vienna…

Ideally situated in the Austrian foothills, this city felt like “home” — literally. As we took the train to and from, we realized that the surrounding landscape looks much like that of southwestern Virginia. With brightly colored houses lining a river and old castles visible in the distant hillsides, it’s a quaint, striking village.As the birthplace of Mozart, many of the sights are geared toward his life and work. While here, we visited the mountaintop fortress (not visible in most of our shots due to the fog), enjoyed a Mozart Dinner Concert on Christmas Day, browsed their local Christmas market, drank lots of hot cocoa and coffee and tried the wiener schnitzel, bratwurst (each town has its own recipe), and authentic homemade apple strudel (a favorite). We also visited the gardens at Mirabel Palace, where we believe G performed once with his high school choir.

As in Nuremberg, all was easily accessible by foot (except the mountain top Fortress) and we were able to make it about town without the need for public transport.

See photos from Salzburg…